Want to read about metaphors instead of watching a video about them? Check out this brief summary below.

Every person, place & thing in the dream is a SYMBOL/METAPHOR for something else. Dreams "speak" the language of metaphors to tell us about ourselves & the world around us. When we understand what the metaphor stands for then we can understand what the dream is telling us about ourselves & our lives. 
A good example of a metaphor (which shows up in my dreams often) is a forest. Trees in real life have a lot of strength and they have the ability to grow to great heights over long periods of time. So when there is a tree in a dream it is a message to the dreamer to have the ability to do a lot of growing, in a slow, steady way, over a long period of time. Water is about being fluid, flexible, accommodating in relationships - water is about relationships & life. Rocks & stones are about being solid, unbreakable, etc. We might dream of rocks when we need to be very confident in our beliefs, for example. 
So the steps go like this: 1) We have a dream with a metaphor of a tree   2) We think about what QUALITIES trees have 3) We consider if we tend to have a lot of those qualities or do we struggle with those qualities? 4) If those qualities come easy to us already then we can ask ourselves