Sleep Guiding Sessions

A common conception about sleeping is that we are simply unconscious when we lie down for bed—
nothing could be further from the truth.

Although our consciousness shifts while we are sleeping, we do not simply “turn off” once the sun goes down. Learning about how our nighttime consciousness shifts and interacts with our daytime consciousness is an exceptional invitation to exploring individual and collective health.

As we find our own patterns and adaptive strategies around sleep, rest, and dreams we also find our unique way of interacting with self, environment, and others.

The process of rest is always changing and evolving with our lives I’m excited to explore this journey alongside you.

It is my deepest intention to support you in discovering and listening to your body’s own wisdom around rest.

Working together we will co-create a ‘restful roadmap.’

I will provide you with in-depth, evidence-based sleep science, somatic and art processing exercises to promote rest, and consistent accountability and trauma-informed inquiry throughout your journey.

Your role in our exploration together is to show up to our time together as your whole, authentic self. A sense of adventure and curiosity always helps, but is not necessary to get our work together started.

For the time being I only offer my sleep guiding services in packages of 4, 6, or 8 sessions or in one-time consultations. Pricing is listed below.

If we choose to do work together in longer-term container (anything over 8 sessions), there is an option to co-create a payment plan and specific sleep regimen* to meet your daily life wants, needs, and intentions.

All sleep guiding services are available virtually or in person depending on your location.

*Reasons for wanting a specific sleep regimen will look different for everyone. Long-term sleep tracking/reflection may align with intentionally tracking your sleep for a year as a point of self-reflection and inquiry, honing in on your competitive edge around specific athletic goals and races, or observing if your work and creative pursuits overlap with different patterns of sleep. I’m open and excited to collaborate on all long-term sleep projects.

---

The process took a deep look into one of my dreams and I was able to discover some feelings and thoughts that were hiding in the back of my mind.  Dagny is a good listener who is capable of handling the weight of therapeutic conversations while providing important insight.  Overall it was a process of self discovery in a safe and secure way and atmosphere.  

– Tom M.

---

I recently went through a brief period of experiencing nightmares. Instead of being afraid of these dreams, I had a feeling that my subconscious was figuratively trying to “wake me up.” So I sought out Dagny to help me discover what these dreams might have to teach me. In her gentle and clearcut way, she walked me through several techniques for slowing down and re-experiencing the dreams more thoroughly during my waking life. Rather than trying to interpret or analyze a particular nightmare, I became more curious about it and began journaling about what I was thinking or feeling during various points in the dream. The results were immediate. After a week or so of using Dagny’s techniques, the nightmares stopped, and I became more aware of an issue in my day-to-day life that was tugging at my subconscious. Thanks to Dagny, I have a new set of tools for understanding how dreams (even nightmares!) can become some of our best allies.

 –Ava

---

Logistics

Your Guide – Dagny Deutchman

As someone who has had their own journey with sleep, restfulness and dreams—I’m not leading you anywhere into the depths of the night that I haven’t been. I come with a satchel full of useful tools and a humble curiosity about what it means to rest well and try again.

At Montana State University I worked in the Sleep and Development Lab—a lab dedicated to looking at the social and emotional aspects of sleep. I was involved in researching topics such as how sleep relates to overall stress and health, sleep as it relates to PTSD and complex trauma, sleep and suicidality, sleep and mindfulness and self-compassion, sleep and gratitude, sleep and environmental trauma caused by climate crisis, sleep and social media use. Our lab worked with biomedical markers such as polysomnography, EEG, actigraphy, salivatory cortisol samples, ambulatory blood pressure, stool samples, etc. In short, I’m a very science-y science nerd and I love the problem-solving side of this work and use it as a guiding tool.

In addition to loving the nitty-gritty of what happens when our eyelids close, I also have the belief that science is limited in our understanding of what sleep health means. I have always been an extraordinarily vivid dreamer and place equal weight on building relationships with the images that are gifted to us while we sleep. I have also found profound gratitude, meaning, and purpose in sharing those dreams in community settings and believe that whether or not science ever catches up to these elements, they are important pieces of the puzzle.

In my particular style of sleep guiding, I use a healthy combination of evidence-based science as well as encouragement of your body’s own intuitive wisdom through art, movement, and dream exploration. I’m not here telling you anything about yourself that your body doesn’t already know—I’m just helping hold up a mirror, ask some reflective questions, give some suggestions on what has worked well for others, and am glad to hold some space while you explore yourself—and your sleep—a little more deeply. More than anything I’m a ‘translator’ to help guide you through nuanced conversations between you and your body to help you more fully engage with your world.