Just as you can learn to look for a dream reporter's agenda in their framing of the problem, you can learn to look for a dreamer's level of avoidance in the structure of the dream. Avoidance is psychological distancing -- it makes the meaning less immediate. Rather than sex, swimming is represented; rather than the dreamer, the dreamer's best friend is represented. Perhaps the dreamer sees himself as if from a great height; perhaps the dream is in black and white.

The greater the degree of avoidance, the more work you will need to do to make the dream meaning acceptable to the dream reporter.

A useful principle of dream interpretation is that the dreamer is always right. This does not mean that the interpretation the dream reporter accepts is necessarily the correct one. Rather it is like the maxim, "the customer is always right." To argue with the dream reporter will not be fruitful, because win or lose, the message has gotten lost.

Therefore on no account tell someone he is avoiding the message. Simply say, "It's your dream, and therefore you get the last say in what it means. It's just my job to say how it looks to me."

If you see in someone a strong need for avoidance, respect that it is there for a good reason. Do not attack their avoidance, and do not rob them of posession of their dream.

(If a dream reporter reads this passage and challenges you that you don't actually believe their own interpretation of their dream, say, "Well, I think that's a very clever rule. Because it acknowledges that it's your dream and respects that you're going to do what you want to with it, while also respecting that I have my own thoughts and I have a right to think them.")