On the Healing Wisdom of Dreams

When we understand and engage with our dreams we can tap into a special, deeper kind of healing. The process of healing is not about putting the same pieces back together, rather it is about reclaiming what is already within us that could not be broken—the essence of who we are as individuals and as interconnected parts of a greater whole.  

Health and wellness practitioner Kathleen Webster O'Malley believes in the practice of using our dreams to heal unwanted patterns and live more authentically. In this conversation, drawing upon her work and her latest book, The Healing Wisdom of Dreams, Kathleen shares how engaging with our dream world can give us a sense of direction and help us to heal current and past hurts, including pre-birth trauma. 

Kathleen discusses dream practices including enhancing dream recall, dream journaling, dream incubation—how to ask our dream a question and receive and interpret an answer—lucid dreaming, and Tibetan dream yoga practices. Nightmares are inevitable when we start to dive deeper into our vulnerabilities and traumas, and Kathleen shares how to re-vision them as urgent messages that serve to deliver profound realizations. She also dives into the more mystical side of dreaming: visions from ancestors and spirit guides, animal guides, and archetypes that appear in our dreams.  

Join Kathleen and program innovation, mindfulness, trauma and racial healing leader Jenée Johnson for a conversation gently inviting you to explore and trust in the wisdom of your nightly visions.  


Kathleen Webster O’Malley serves as a health and wellness practitioner, combining more than 20 years of chiropractic with other healing modalities that emphasize alignment to the body’s inherent wisdom. A dream enthusiast since childhood, she encourages her patients and wellness clients to look to their dreams as a source of guidance, inspiration, and healing. She is a 2020 recipient of the Visioneers Personal Achievement Award for her contributions to community well-being. The Visioneers is a global community of change-makers. Kathleen’s mission is to inspire greater compassion and encourage others to align with their innermost wisdom to live with greater integrity, intention, and purpose. Kathleen grew up in the Caribbean, among three island nations, and currently makes her home in central Massachusetts. To learn more, visit Kathleen’s website.  


Jenée Johnson, Program Innovation Leader, Mindfulness, Trauma and Racial Healing, pioneered and leads the unique effort to bring mindfulness into public health practices and programs though the Trauma Informed Systems of Care Initiative in the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Her goal is to improve the organization’s ability to manage change, stay resilient, inspire growth, and become a mindful culture that leads and serves with compassion.  

At her core Jenée is a champion and accelerator of human flourishing. Her work has been featured in various publications, including Mindful Magazine-where she is a regular contributor and where she has been recognized as a leader and agent of change in the mindfulness movement.  

Jenée is the Founder and Curator of The Right Within Experience, a mindfulness immersion program that reclaims humanity, joy, and wellbeing for people of African ancestry through mindfulness practices. These are the human rights and exalted emotions that are eroded in Black lives through the consistent exposure to the trauma of racism. The Right Within Experience expands the scope of mindful practice to acknowledge its ancient African lineage and increase access and relevance to people of African ancestry. The program promotes healing and sovereignty for Black people and is curated for those on human missions of all kinds including community service, social justice, and entrepreneurship. 

For 15 years, she served as the Director of the San Francisco Black Infant Health Program, a program which provides direct service to Black pregnant women and new mothers to address the health disparities in infant and maternal mortality.  

Jenée Johnson is a professional co-active coach and certified trainer and practitioner in mindfulness and emotional intelligence based on the latest neuroscience. She is a HeartMath certified trainer, Emotional Emancipation Circles Facilitator (Association of Black Psychologists) and certified to teach Femme! A meditative movement and wellness modality for women. She is a keynote speaker, workshop curator, coach, and consultant with Sankofa Holistic Counseling Services in Oakland, and on the advisory board of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute.  

Jenée is a native New Yorker with Caribbean and Southern roots. She resides in Oakland with her husband and young adult son. Learn more about Jenée at her website.

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Marcus Books is the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore celebrating its 60th year. Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere. Learn more about Marcus Books.