Dreams have long fascinated humanity as windows into the unconscious, revealing emotional truths, spiritual insight, creativity, and pathways toward healing. At Notre Dame de Namur University’s School of Psychology, these deeper dimensions of the human experience are not viewed as separate from clinical practice—they are recognized as essential to understanding the psyche, relationships, and transformative healing.
This spirit of inquiry and collaboration is beautifully reflected in two deeply connected scholarly works: The Emotional Truth of Dreams: Learning from Dream Dialogues in Psychotherapeutic and Spiritual Practice by Dr. Willow Pearson Trimbach and Eva Tuschman Leonard, and The Spiritual Psyche: Mysticism, Intersubjectivity, and Psychoanalysis, co-edited by NDNU Dean of the School of Psychology, Dr. Helen Marlo, alongside Dr. Willow Pearson Trimbach.
Together, these books explore the profound intersections of dreams, psychotherapy, mysticism, spirituality, emotional truth, and relational healing—offering readers an invitation into a richer understanding of human consciousness and transformation.
Dreams as Emotional Truth
In The Emotional Truth of Dreams, psychotherapists, artists, and collaborators Willow Pearson Trimbach and Eva Tuschman Leonard challenge one of the most enduring misconceptions about dreams: the belief that they are somehow unreal or disconnected from everyday life. Instead, the authors reveal dreams as deeply authentic expressions of emotional truth and spiritual meaning.
With a foreword written by Helen Marlo, NDNU’s Dean of the School of Psychology, this book explores collaborative dream dialogues, contemplative reflections, and explorations of more than a dozen dreams, the authors demonstrate how both waking and nocturnal dreams can illuminate psychotherapeutic practice, spiritual awareness, and personal growth. The book invites readers to cultivate deeper attentiveness to the psyche’s symbolic language and to develop greater receptivity to the emotional wisdom held within dreams.
The authors suggest that dreaming is not simply something we experience passively, but rather an apprenticeship to grace—one that encourages us to awaken not only from dreams, but also through them.
The Ongoing Heart of Collaboration
The foundation for this work can be traced to The Spiritual Psyche: Mysticism, Intersubjectivity, and Psychoanalysis, a groundbreaking collection co-edited by Dr. Helen Marlo and Dr. Willow Pearson Trimbach. Published in 2021, the book emerged from the collaborative relationship between the two scholar-clinicians and examines the dynamic relationships among mysticism, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and human connection.
In many ways, The Emotional Truth of Dreams continues a lineage of scholarship and creative collaboration seeded through Dr. Marlo and Dr. Pearson Trimbach’s collaborative work at NDNU. The connections between the two texts are not merely chronological; they are deeply intertwined thematically and philosophically. Dr. Marlo’s foreword to The Emotional Truth of Dreams highlights ideas such as nested dreams, retrocognitive and precognitive dream experiences, and the ways dreams themselves exist within larger networks of relational and spiritual meaning.
As described in the materials accompanying the publication, “Collaboration is the heart of psychotherapy,” and both books embody that principle through their emphasis on relationship, dialogue, creativity, and shared inquiry.
Scholarship Rooted in the Human Experience
These works reflect the broader mission and philosophy of NDNU’s School of Psychology, where students are encouraged to engage psychology not only as a scientific and clinical discipline, but also as a deeply human one.
At NDNU, the School of Psychology emphasizes:
- Whole-person education
- Integrative, relational and depth-oriented approaches to healing
- Depth psychology
- Community engagement and human connection
- Clinical rigor grounded in compassion and reflection
- Exploration of consciousness, spirituality, creativity, and the unconscious
Students are challenged to thoughtfully navigate the complexities of the human experience while developing the clinical knowledge, ethical foundation, and relational skills needed to support others in meaningful and transformative ways.
Under the leadership of Dr. Helen Marlo, NDNU’s School of Psychology continues to foster scholarship and dialogue that bridges psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, spirituality, mysticism, and contemporary clinical practice. Through programs rooted in both academic excellence and profound human inquiry, the school prepares future clinicians, scholars, and leaders to approach psychology with curiosity, depth, empathy, and purpose.
About the Authors & Editors
Willow Pearson Trimbach, PsyD, LMFT, MT-BC
Willow Pearson Trimbach is Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Clinical Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is also a psychologist, psychotherapist, music therapist, author, singer, and songwriter whose work explores dreams, psychotherapy, creativity, and spiritual practice.
Eva Tuschman Leonard, LMFT
Eva Tuschman Leonard is a psychotherapist, writer, and visual artist based in Northern California. Her work explores illness, grief, emotional healing, desire, and the human condition through both writing and visual art.
Helen Marlo, Ph.D.
Helen Marlo is Dean and Professor of NDNU’s School of Psychology and is a scholar-clinician. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. An author and the Reviews Editor of Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, her work examines the intersections of mysticism, spirituality, psychoanalysis, consciousness, synchronicities, dreams, and the human psyche. Her scholarship continues to shape conversations around relational healing, depth psychology, and transformative clinical practice.
Learn More
To learn more about NDNU’s School of Psychology and its commitment to transformative, depth-oriented, and human-centered education, visit:
Notre Dame de Namur University School of Psychology