**3.3. Providing clinical information for the therapist**

The therapist needs information about the patient to plan the therapeutic process and interventions adequately. The first phase of CBT includes individual case formulation and clinical diagnosis. In CBT, several ways of obtaining information about the patient are possible, for instance, clinical interview, and self-observational methods [28]. An additional way of gaining information about the patient is to ask him/her about his/her dream content [26].

The approach of finding relationships between dreaming and waking experiences, which is typical of the therapeutic setting, starts with a dream and goes into its connections with the waking-life issues of the patient. Studies on dreams in psychodynamic therapy have shown that they provide information about, among others, patient's patterns of interpersonal functioning, his/her personality structure, and images of self and others. Dreams can also reveal information the patient is not aware of, for instance, his/her attitude toward the therapist [26, 33]. Important information for the therapist in CBT that may be provided by dreams concerns the patient's cognitive patterns [9], core beliefs [2], schemas [24], cognitive distortions [2], patterns of behaviors [15], patterns of affective responses [23], and resources [2].

Often dreams quickly and efficiently reveal information that is unique to the patient, especially information that the patient is not aware of or just does not want to share with the therapist. When the specialist recognizes this information, he/she can help the patient perceive it and subsequently change maladaptive cognitive and behavioral patterns. Dreams can also contain crucial information about a patient's emotions [26].

Dreams can reveal much important information about the patient to the therapist. Working with dreams in therapy may facilitate the speed at which some personal material is introduced to collaborative therapeutic discussion, helps the patient recognize and express emotions and thoughts, and may even shorten therapy [26]. However, there is no research on this use of dreams related to providing clinical information to the therapist in CBT.
