What Does Holding Hands in a Dream Mean?

Holding hands with someone can be an important step in the development of a new relationship. It has different meanings in different types of relationships, and the same is true of holding hands in a dream.

Holding Hands Dream Symbolism

Romance

Holding hands can refer to a romantic connection, as in the famous Beatles song “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Other factors in the dream will likely support this interpretation if it’s relevant to your dream.

Does a dream of holding hands with your crush mean that your crush likes you back? Maybe. Sometimes your dreams pick up on signals that the people around you are putting out before your conscious mind catches up. However, your dreams can also simply be the fulfillment of your wishes, so be cautious before you take action based on a dream like this.

What if your dream of holding hands feels romantic, but you’re holding hands with someone you don’t have romantic feelings toward in waking life? Your dream certainly doesn’t obligate you to get together with that person in waking life if you don’t want to. It may encourage you to take a second look at them.

However, if that’s not a realistic possibility, the dream could show that you need to connect with some quality in yourself that the other person represents for you. For example, if you dream of holding hands in a romantic way with your brother who is really confident, maybe it’s necessary for you to get in touch with your own capacity for confidence.

Companionship

Holding hands can also represent an innocent kind of companionship that’s not romantic. In this sense, dreaming of holding hands may show that you’re looking for connection and togetherness. It might be in a friendship or family relationship with a specific person, or it might be more like a sense of universal brotherhood.

Guidance

It’s common for parents to hold the hands of young children when they’re crossing the street together. Dreaming of holding hands can therefore symbolize that you’re giving or receiving this type of protective guidance. You might be a student admiring a brilliant teacher, or you could be a boss whose new employee seems to require a lot of hand-holding.

If your dream of holding hands feels uncomfortable, it could symbolize that someone is being overbearing toward you and giving you unwanted guidance. You may feel like they are treating you as less competent than you are. On the other side of the equation, you might be frustrated that someone else seems to be overly dependent on you to solve all their problems.

Trust

Holding hands can be a symbol of trust. A dream of holding hands with someone in your life could symbolize that you are building trust in your relationship with them, no matter what kind of relationship it is.

However, if holding hands in your dream feels uncomfortable, this may symbolize that you don’t feel entirely able to relax around the other person. This could be due to your own anxieties that aren’t necessarily about the other person, but it might also show that the other person has given you cause to keep your guard up.

Exchange

Holding hands can be a way of subtly exchanging things. You may want to pass a small item to someone else without being noticed, and you can do that while holding hands. Holding hands might also be a way that germs causing contagious diseases are spread.

On an energetic level, psychiatrist Judith Orloff points out that you can tell a lot about a person by how you feel while shaking hands with them. You might be able to perceive qualities like confidence or anxiety.

In this sense, a dream of holding hands may symbolize that it’s important for you to receive something that someone else has. You can’t do everything by yourself, so don’t be ashamed to ask for help if you need it!

However, a dream of holding hands that feels uncomfortable could show that you need to trust your own intuition about the people you engage with. Some people you connect with may not have your best interests at heart, even if they claim that they want to help you.

Prayer

At some churches, it’s a common practice for people to hold hands with each other when they pray. If this is something you’re used to at your church, your dream of holding hands could reflect how supported you feel in your spiritual journey at the moment. See also church dream symbolism.

Common Dreams of Holding Hands

Dream of holding hands with your partner

A dream of holding hands with your partner likely symbolizes that there is a foundation of trust and companionship in your relationship — and perhaps a spark of romance too! A dream like this could be especially reassuring if you’ve been through a rough patch in your relationship recently. Reconnecting with the strengths that brought you together can help you get back on track.

Dream of holding hands with a stranger

Dreaming about holding hands with a stranger can symbolize that you’re becoming ready to open up to others, especially if you have been more closed off in the recent past.

Any specific qualities you recall about the stranger, such as gender or profession, could be indicative of the type of person you might benefit from meeting in your waking life. Alternately, those qualities might show what parts of yourself you need to get in touch with. See more dream scenarios in people dream symbolism and dream symbolism of making love with a stranger.

Dream of holding hands with your ex

Sometimes a dream about your ex is really about your ex. Dreaming of holding hands with your ex may reflect that you’re remembering the good times you had together or even yearning to reunite. You might need to carefully determine whether your dream is picking up on signals your ex is putting out or if it’s just the fulfillment of your own wishes.

Alternately, a dream of holding hands with your ex might symbolize that you and your ex are letting go of each other on some level so that you can pursue a new relationship. It’s common to dream about your ex in the vulnerable early phases of starting a new relationship, because you may remember going through some of those steps with your ex. You could also be warning yourself not to repeat any mistakes you made with your ex in your new relationship.

Dream of holding hands with a child

If you’re caring for a child in your waking life, you might hold hands with them often. In this context, dreaming of holding hands with a child could be processing routine events of your life. It may also emphasize the responsibility you feel for the child’s well-being.

If you don’t interact with children often, a dream of holding hands with a child could symbolize that you feel responsible for protecting others in some way. You might believe that society needs to do more to take care of vulnerable people, even if the issue is somewhat abstract for you personally.

A dream of holding hands with a child can also symbolize that you need to become more open to what children have to show you. After all, holding hands is an exchange that goes two ways! While the adult holding hands with the child provides protection and guidance for the child, the child can also direct the adult’s attention to interesting things the adult wouldn’t otherwise notice.

Dream of sweaty hands

Dreaming of holding hands with someone to the point that your hands become sweaty could symbolize that you feel suffocated by too much togetherness. This can easily happen early in a new relationship. While everyone involved may have good intentions, you may need to make more space for your own freedom within the relationship.

Conclusion

Holding hands is a way of connecting that can tell you a lot about another person and your relationship with them. The potentially difficult part of interpreting a dream about holding hands is learning to tell where your biases end and your intuition about what’s truly going on with the other person begins. However, your dream of holding hands with someone may at least help you clarify your own feelings about the other person.