Relational variables in short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy: an effectiveness study

Submitted: July 30, 2018
Accepted: August 16, 2018
Published: December 18, 2018
Abstract Views: 1422
PDF: 975
HTML: 72
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

This study examined associations between specific elements of therapeutic relationships and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) outcomes. Notably, we focused on therapists’ subjective experiences during their first clinical interaction with patients, countertransference patterns and therapeutic alliance evaluated early in treatment, in relation to patient symptom changes at the end of STPP. Twenty clinicians completed the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale to evaluate patients’ (N=32) symptom severity at the beginning and end of STPP. They also completed the Assessment of Clinicians’ Subjective Experience (ACSE) to assess their subjective experiences of their patients at the first clinical interview and the Therapist Response Questionnaire (TRQ) and Working Alliance Inventory to evaluate their countertransference reactions and therapeutic alliance at the sixth therapy session. The findings showed that the TRQ and ACSE scales correlated in a coherent way, with the exception of the TRQ helpless/inadequate pattern and ACSE impotence. Strong and more negative TRQ countertransference patterns and ACSE dimensions were significantly associated with lower quality of the therapeutic alliance. Finally, better STPP outcomes were positively associated with a good therapeutic alliance and negatively correlated with greater difficulty in attunement at the beginning of clinical assessment and therapists’ stronger responses of helplessness, frustration, and disengagement during therapy. These results confirm the precious value of the clinical relationship, which represents a useful source of information for therapists when planning therapeutic interventions.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Tanzilli, A., Majorana, M., Fonzi, L., Pallagrosi, M., Picardi, A., Coccanari de’ Fornari, M. A., Biondi, M., & Lingiardi, V. (2018). Relational variables in short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy: an effectiveness study. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, 21(3). https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2018.327

List of Cited By :

Crossref logo