Dreams hold a power we often overlook—a unique lens into our subconscious and a tool for shaping our waking lives. Ahead of her upcoming workshop, Dream Your Way into 2025, we sat down with Sansan Fibri, founder of Wakefully, to dive into her transformative approach to dream analysis. Combining her background in storytelling and Jungian dream work, Sansan helps participants decode dream symbols, craft intention-setting practices like dream incubation, and unlock the creative potential within their nightly narratives. Taking place on December 27th at Sage + Sound, this workshop promises to turn dreams into actionable insights for the year ahead. Read on to learn more about Sansan’s fascinating work and sign up for the workshop here.
What inspired you to create this workshop, and how does it tie into your work as the founder of Wakefully?
As a former Film & TV screenwriter and producer, I was driven by my passion for story and how it can transform minds. When I studied Jungian dream analysis, I realized our dreams are the most important stories we’ll ever tell. They are messages from us, about us, and for us. These narratives are designed to help us process and navigate life’s experiences and circumstances.
When I founded Wakefully, my goal was to offer tools that empower anyone who dreams (we all do, every night) to engage with these deeply personal stories. Dreams reveal the narratives we tell ourselves about who we are—and by understanding them, we can connect more authentically with our needs. Before we can change, we need to recognize what is already operating within us that is not working for us. Dreams help us shine the light on the subconscious mind, uncovering thought patterns that may not be serving our goals or the person we wish to become.
There’s an art to changing one’s thoughts, and engaging with our dreams in a safe and playful way gives us the chance to go beyond mere awareness to actively reshaping these limiting subconscious narratives. This workshop embodies that philosophy, and aligns with Wakefully’s mission to empower people to harness the power of their (night) dreams to manifest their (life) dreams.
Can you explain the concept of dream incubation and how it helps align subconscious dreams with conscious life goals?
Dream incubation is a practice that involves planting a "seed"—a specific question or intention related to a challenge, goal, or even just inspiration—into your conscious mind before going to sleep. This allows your dreaming brain, which is far more capable of making creative connections than your waking mind, to process and "incubate" potential answers through your dreams. Clinical studies show that, if practiced consistently for a few nights, you have a 90% chance of dreaming about the topic you choose, and a 64% chance of uncovering a resolution that wouldn’t have occurred to you in your conscious, rational mindset.
During the chaotic early days of the pandemic—one of the most uncertain periods of my life– I turned to this practice. Feeling lost, I posed this question to my dreams: “What do I do now? Will I and my startup make it?” That night, I had a dream of standing on the edge of a cliff alongside two other versions of myself. As we jumped into the abyss, Fear-based Me asked, “Are we falling?” But Higher-Wisdom Me replied, “No, we’re flying.” That dream gave me the insight and courage to trust myself and the unknown we were all facing—to take the leap and believe I could fly.
Dream incubation works because it taps into our subconscious's creative and emotional logic. Unlike lucid dreaming, which focuses on controlling the dream itself, dream incubation is about inviting your dreams to meet you halfway, shining a light on the path forward. This workshop will teach participants how to craft their own dream incubation phrases, turning sleep into a nightly practice of alignment with conscious intentions. When our dreams and waking goals work in harmony, they create a powerful synergy—one that offers a unique roadmap to transformation.
How do dream symbols serve as metaphors for our waking life, and how can decoding them guide us toward success in 2025?
Dream symbols serve as deeply personal metaphors, mirroring the emotions, challenges, worries, and desires that shape our waking lives. Just as a metaphor in language helps us grasp abstract ideas by connecting them to something tangible, dream symbols offer a bridge between our subconscious and conscious minds. They take the raw material of our emotions, memories, and experiences and dramatize them into wild narratives.
Dreams don’t speak in the literal language of logic. Instead, they communicate in an "emotional logic”, and decoding dream symbols is like creating a map legend. Each symbol—be it a person, an object, or a setting—represents something specific to your internal world.
In this way, dreaming of a car spinning out of control might not mean you’re worried about driving—it’s more likely a reflection of feeling overwhelmed or directionless in some area of your life. A broken bridge might symbolize a disconnection in a relationship or a fear of moving forward. These symbols aren’t random; they’re deeply contextual to your personal experiences and emotional state. Studies in cognitive linguistics and psychoanalysis confirm that our subconscious uses metaphors to organize and process emotional concerns into coherent narratives. Dreams are basically your mind's way of saying, "This matters—let's work on it!"
What can participants expect to take away from this workshop, both in terms of tangible tools and shifts in mindset?
Participants can expect to walk away with both practical techniques and a profound shift in how they view their dreams—and themselves. On a tangible level, they’ll learn how to decode the metaphors and symbols within their dreams using techniques like conceptual metaphor theory and word association. They’ll also create personalized dream incubation phrases—powerful tools that turn sleep into a nightly practice of aligning the subconscious with waking goals. These tools are simple yet transformative and participants will be able to use them well beyond the workshop to continue manifesting their intentions for 2025.
One of the most transformative elements of the workshop is the guided practice of dream rescripting, where participants actively reimagine the narratives of their dreams to reflect empowerment, healing, or clarity. This process isn’t just about changing a dream’s storyline—it’s about reshaping the subconscious narratives that may be limiting their potential in waking life. So a dream of being chased by an unknown figure might be rescripted into standing still and creating an ally out of your perceived enemy. This practice mirrors the process of rewriting the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we’re capable of, creating space for shifting mindsets.
Dreams will no longer feel like random, puzzling fragments of the night. Instead, they’ll be seen as deeply personal messages crafted by the subconscious, offering guidance, clarity, and even solutions. By engaging with their dreams in this way, participants will begin to see themselves as active creators of their reality, writers of their own stories, capable of manifesting their dream life.
How do you personally incorporate dream work into your own life, and what’s a dream manifestation success story you’ve experienced?
Dream work is an integral part of my morning routine. Each day, I wake up and immediately record my dreams. This is crucial because 95% of our dreams are forgotten if not captured within the first five minutes of waking. Moreover, the brain is in a unique and fleeting hypnopompic state during this time, primed for mindfulness and nonjudgmental self-reflection.
After recording my dream, I run it through the Wakefully app, which guides me through personalized questions designed to decode the dream’s symbols and emotional logic. This reflective process is more than just analysis—it’s a mindful practice that helps me connect to the deeper messages my subconscious is trying to convey. The insights I gain from this process flow directly into my meditation practice, where I ground those revelations into conscious intentions. For example, if a recurring dream symbol points to fear or hesitation, I use my meditation to shift that energy into clarity, confidence, or empowerment.
One of the most profound impacts of dream work in my life has been its ability to inspire action and trust in the unknown. The falling/flying dream detailed previously, helped me shift from fear to empowerment, reminding me to leap boldly into uncertainty. Inspired by that dream, I took decisive action, and shortly afterward, I closed my lead investors. This experience reinforced what I believe to be true about dreams: they are not just passive reflections of our inner world; they are active guides, offering clarity, courage, and creative solutions when we engage with them intentionally.
My practice is a daily reminder that our greatest insights often lie within us—we just need to listen, reflect, and integrate them into our waking lives.