ABSTRACT
Two people bring to their encounter their own inner experience as this is embedded in their history and in their present context `in a continual ¯ow of reciprocal mutual in¯uence' (Stolorow and Atwood, 1992: 18). In such a model of human relationships it is assumed that personal reality is always co-determined by the relationship and by the unique meanings that each person brings to the encounter and then by mutually constructed meanings between participants. This will be true in all relationships, including the psychotherapy relationship.
