About Dreamwork | About Dreamwork NYC | About Ken Barnett
There is more room for you in your work than you think. Dreamwork teaches you how.
About Dreamwork
Dreamwork gives us tools to source our creative work from deep within. When we ask the ego to soften and to release the compulsion to be good/right/perfect, we are able to listen to the source of our imagination: the unconscious. By diving into the deeply personal mystery of our dream material, we are able to access rich and potent wisdom from the seat of our souls. To give the dream material expression in any form is a healing, spiritual act; to bring it to your creative work is transformative for you and your audience.
In our practice, we work with breath, voice, and gesture to give expression to the unconscious material coming up from deep inside us. Through guided exploration, we embody the figures from our dreams in order to give them voice and to discover unexplored parts of ourselves. By coming to know these dream figures, we learn what might be limiting us in our creative expression, and we move towards a fuller experience of our own artistry.
For Actors
For actors, dreamwork teaches you how to make your work as personal as possible. It helps identify what is going on within you that is longing to be expressed through your acting and gives you tools to express your truth through whatever character you are playing.
Dreamwork also refines the actor’s ability to respond truthfully to impulse, to find true freedom in the voice and body. Learn to bypass the busy thinking ego-mind and drop into the wild and enlivening truth of the body.
Do you feel like you are pushing for a result? Or muscling through in order to do what you think you’re supposed to do? Learn to release the pushing, and instead, let the truth of you shine through.
For Writers
For writers, dreamwork is an incredibly fertile tool. Blast through writer’s block by tapping into your deepest inner material as revealed by the dream. Feeling cut off and trapped at your computer? Learn to involve your body and breath in your creative process. Work with images and symbols from the unconscious, and let them do the writing for you.
In addition to actors and writers, Dreamwork is practiced by visual artists, musicians, dancers, and creators of any kind. All are welcome.
There is a world of possibility unknown to you; dreams will show you the way.
About Dreamwork NYC
After assisting and studying with his mentor, Kim Gillingham, for several years in Los Angeles, Ken founded Dreamwork NYC in order to make this work available to his community here in New York City. Classes and private coaching are offered both in person and over Zoom.
Check out this new article featuring Ken & Dreamwork NYC:
Is Creative Dream Work the New Frontier of Wellness?
(Laura Pitcher, Riise, August 2023)
“…Although there is “no right or wrong way to do this”, I follow Barnett’s advice to put a journal near my bed and write a letter to my inner self before sleep. The letter includes where I am in life right now, the struggles I’m going through, anything that is repeating or standing in my way, what feels out of balance, and what I long for.…”
About Ken Barnett
Ken is an actor, director, acting coach, and teacher of Dreamwork for Artists. He studied and trained extensively under his mentor, Kim Gillingham, in Los Angeles, and he has furthered his study of Dreamwork with the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association of New York, the C.G. Jung Foundation, and Pacifica Graduate Institute. Ken has been coaching privately and teaching workshops in New York and LA for over a decade. He has worked with actors, writers, and artists of various disciplines who are interested in exploring the unconscious. Ken has been honored to lead workshops at training programs and retreat centers such as The Actors Center Workshop Company, The National Alliance of Acting Teachers, New York Stage & Film’s Powerhouse Summer Training Program, and Space on Ryder Farm.
As an actor, Ken has worked professionally in NYC and LA for over twenty-five years, performing on and off Broadway and in TV & film. He has originated roles at the Public, Playwrights Horizons, the Rattlestick, the Vineyard, HERE, and the Geffen Playhouse, among others. Favorite TV/film work includes the award-winning short film, Lavendar, and roles on Mad Men, Mozart in the Jungle, House of Cards, & High Maintenance.
For more on Ken’s acting work, please visit www.kenbarnett.net.