ABSTRACT
The Reception phase is the first of three stages in the empathic processing of interactional communications. It consists of three hierarchically arranged subphases through which the therapist must advance in order to receive and experience the particular sense of self aroused by the patient’s projective identification. Disruptions in any of the three subphases of Reception may result in an empathic arrest such that the therapist is unable to move ahead into Internal Processing. This arrest is accompanied by a verbal or nonverbal communication to the patient that conveys the specific breakdown in the empathic process. Furthermore, problems that may subsequently arise in either the Internal Processing or the Communication phases can result in a regressive unravelling of the previously intact achievements of the Reception phase in any or all of its three subphases. Thus, we reiterate the critical point that although the Reception phase is the starting point of the processing sequence, its therapeutic tasks remain ongoing throughout the entire process. At any point a therapist may falter in his or her interactional receptivity for reasons that our schema will help to illuminate.
