I designed this nightmare fantasy to give children an experience of their ability to overcome their nightmares. I have done the fantasy with hundreds of children (and adults) in schools, churches and conferences. In most of these situations I was not able to do any follow-up with the children, but clearly it would be possible to work within the framework of the fantasy one to one to help the child overcome whatever fear the fantasy represents.
The fantasy is very simple and can be modified for your own work. I always explain ahead of time to the children exactly what we're going to do. This helps relieve any anxieties and allows me to give minimal instructions within the visualization itself. I never do a long relaxation for this or any other visualization work I do. I find it isn't necessary and I like to impress people with the idea that this symbolic information is easy to get and is right near the surface.
"You're walking on a path through the woods. You're by yourself but you're feeling good and enjoying the scenery. Gradually the woods get thicker and a little darker. You think you hear a sound off in the woods. You begin to feel a little more nervous. Then you hear more sounds in the woods and something seems to be coming your way. You begin to become a little frightened.
"The sounds get closer and closer and you begin to walk a little faster. All of a sudden you hear the sound on the path behind you. You turn around and see your nightmare monster coming after you. (The children create their own nightmare figure. It's far more meaningful that way.) You begin running and he chases you. You're frightened and run as fast as you can, but the monster is faster and is catching up.
"The monster is just about to catch you when you decide to stop running away and turn around and face your monster. Face your monster now and fight him until you overcome him. (This part is tricky. I'm fundamentally against violence and the use of weapons. Trying to kill the monster is difficult to deal with. Weapons turn out to be an excellent indicator of the child's sense of power or powerlessness, but it may be best to just instruct the children to fight and overcome or "beat" the monster.)
"Once you've overcome your monster, ask the monster for a gift. When you get your gift, open your eyes and remember your experience."
When the children do kill the monster, the monster always comes back to life to give them their gift. Sometimes the monster is transformed into something or someone else. You can see that you could do some valuable work within this fantasy framework if you have the time to work one on one with the child.
The fantasy is an excellent diagnostic tool for determining just how powerful or fearful a child is feeling at the time. If you know that a child is particularly fearful or feels powerless, you can use the fantasy to deal with the fears.
You can tell the level of powerlessness by the size or type of weapon used if the child uses weapons. You can also get an indication by seeing how easily the child overcomes the monster and whether the child is hurt in the encounter. Two bullies in the same second grade class were actually killed by their monster. Parents and teachers often don't recognize that these "problem" children are actually trying to compensate for fears and feelings of powerlessness.
The gifts the children get are always interesting and could be worked with in a one on one situation. Children are wonderfully literal and often come back with wrapped packages. When I ask what their gift is, they say that they don't know yet because they haven't opened it. Whereas young children frequently come up with obvious things like money, pets, toys and other things of value to them, older children sometimes get quite symbolic gifts which can be "opened up" using dreamwork techniques.
If you find the nightmare fantasy helpful, I would love to hear about your experiences. If you have problems or questions I would like to hear those, too.
