"Well, if you don't, I think it's within your power to make sure that you could make it less so. It's possible he is dealing with very dark dreams as well. It's not as if these seem to often come in the flowery rainbows and sunshine variety."
Except those damn Ponies.
"And I think that the most important thing you could do is be up front with any discomfort, but deliberately take a step back from confrontation. That's in your power more than his, since the researcher is going to have to take the wheel, so to speak."