Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the final one. Please cite this article as doi: 10.4081/ripppo.2018.327 Relational variables in short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy: a preliminary report of an effectiveness study Annalisa Tanzilli, 1 Michele Majorana, 2 Laura Fonzi, 2 Mauro Pallagrosi, 2 Angelo Picardi, 3 Maria Antonietta Coccanari de’ Fornari, 2 Massimo Biondi, 2 Vittorio Lingiardi 1 1 Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome; 2 Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome; 3 Centre of Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Italian National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy Correspondence: Annalisa Tanzilli, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via degli Apuli 1, 00185, Rome, Italy. Tel.: +39.06.49917674. E-mail: annalisa.tanzilli@uniroma1.it Acknowledgments: the authors would like to thank all the clinicians who contributed their data to this research: D. Biondi, G. M. Carluccio, A. Corrado, A. De Felice, E. De Sanctis, F. Della Rocca, C. D’Onofrio, E. Fabi, M. Fojanesi, E. Galasso, M. Gallo, S. Inguscio, F. Macrì, F. Missi, V. Monaco, A. Riccardi, L. Todini, L. Vergnani, L. Vescera, R. Zani. Key words: short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, therapeutic alliance, outcome, countertransference, subjective experience. Contributions: the authors contributed equally. Conflict of interest: the authors declare no potential conflict of interest. Funding: none. Accepted paper