Sitting in the Fire: Maria Makukha on Dreams, Attention, and the Art of Moving Toward What Calls Us

In this conversation, Maria Makukha — a counseling psychologist, Gestalt therapist, and Processwork practitioner from Ukraine — speaks about inner work in a way that feels unusually grounded, embodied, and real.

Inside the full article, you will find:

• Why a “forbidden” Castaneda book at sixteen became one of the starting points of her path into psychology.
• Why the theme of death as an ally has stayed with her for years — not as drama, but as a source of clarity, honesty, and orientation.
• What it actually means to sit in the fire instead of trying to quickly get rid of anxiety, fear, or inner disturbance.
• A striking real-life example of how Maria worked with a sleepless, panic-like state — not by calming herself down intellectually, but by following the rhythm, pressure, and movement of the experience until it changed.
• Why she believes that attention is the real beginning of inner work — and why interpretation often comes too early.
• What the victim role has to do with being overwhelmed — and why the very thing that haunts you may contain an energy you need.
• How Gestalt’s idea of the contact boundary helps us understand not only relationships with people, but also contact with dreams, symptoms, fear, work, and life situations.
• Why Maria does not treat dreams as texts to decode, but as living material that can be entered, embodied, and explored through direct experience.
• The simple but powerful question she often begins with:
  What aftertaste did the dream leave in you?
• Why the strangest part of a dream is often the most important one.
• Why this question matters far beyond one dream — and how it can suddenly connect dream imagery, real relationships, and parts of yourself that are still unrecognized.

If you are interested in dreams, Gestalt, Processwork, embodiment, or the real mechanics of inner work, the full piece is worth reading.

Read the full article on Substack