By Michael GsovskiContributing Writer

Eight people sit in a large circle around a small rectangular table.

As casual as they seem, they might as well be talking about the weather. Instead, they’re talking about their dreams.

This is the dream circle, a group that convenes for two hours regularly at the C.G. Jung Center, 1567 Maple Ave., to make sense of the seemingly random images that emerge in sleep.

One recent evening the discussion was contemplative and respectful, covering a range of topics from mathematics to orthopedics.

Dream circle co-leader and Jungian analyst Kate Rondenet said the dream circles are an effective way to understand oneself through the insight of others.

“It sort of emphasizes the fact that there is a level of consciousness we all share,” she said. “It makes us more than just our own individual life experience.”

The dream circles are just one of the services offered at the center, which adheres to the psychological practices developed by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist who stressed the importance of the unconscious in determining behavior.

Founded in 2004, the center provides an alternative to contemporary counseling methods, said Tom Corey, a psychotherapist who volunteers at the center.

“Most counseling today is focused towards short-term counseling,” he said. “A Jungian therapist would explore the client’s unconscious processes, whereas a lot of (other) therapeutic models just look at a client’s conscious part of their psyche. That’s a huge difference.”

Executive Director Ann Shine Duck said the center’s speciality is to help visitors “find meaning, self discovery and community,” rather than focusing exclusively on an individual’s day-to-day troubles.

In addition to the dream circles, the center offers group discussions, guest lectures on subjects such as personality typing and reading IQ, and a sand table room – a room filled with plastic figures that visitors arrange in sand boxes to make unique physical pictures.

The images created “reflect an inner picture of the psyche at a level that we’re not consciously aware of,” Duck said.

Although the methods are different, what brings people to the Jung Center is typically the same as what brings people to any sort of therapy: “Relationship issues, maybe depression, anxiety,” Duck said.

“We also get people who come in (who) want to just get more direction in their life.”

Corey said therapy at the Jung Center is a “tremendous opportunity” – even for college students – “when people are considering their purpose in their life.”

“To be able to delve into those issues, as opposed to waiting for a mid-life crisis, is really time well spent,” he said.

Reach Michael Gsovski at [email protected].