Dr. Naiman offers consultation and training as well as public and private workshops for community groups in sleep and dream health. Private workshops are designed to meet the specific needs of organizations, health systems, businesses, or groups of individuals interested in sleep and dream issues.
Most health care professionals are ill prepared to address the current epidemic of sleep issues. There is a pressing need for mental health care professionals, in particular, to obtain training in sleep and dream issues and assume more proactive roles in addressing sleep problems. (Please see American Psychological Association Monitor article Sleep Psychologists in Demand, Volume 32, No. 9 October 2001.)
Psychotherapists, in particular, have an exceptional opportunity as well as professional responsibility to step into the sleep health arena. They are uniquely positioned to understand and intervene in meaningful ways that physicians typically cannot. Dr. Naiman encourages private psychotherapy practitioners to develop a sleep health subspecialty in their work.
Dr. Naiman's trainings are designed to provide participants with basic knowledge and skills needed to screen, assess, and treat the most common sleep problems encountered in outpatient and residential treatment settings.
Dr. Naiman has a special interest in the role of sleep and dreams in addictions and recovery work. Acute and chronic sleep problems are common among people with addictions, frequently exacerbating symptoms and further complicating treatment. Unfortunately, addiction recovery programs are not well-informed about effective sleep interventions. Sleep and dream disorders should to be approached as comorbid states in the treatment of all addiction. Dr. Naiman's approach is recovery and 12-step friendly.
“We are at least as dream deprived as we are sleep deprived.”
—Dr. Rubin Naiman