My understanding before reading your article is that CBT had consistently outperformed other types of talk therapy for at least some problems. And indeed, wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo_bird_verdict ) confirms there is evidence for this (although as usual everyone disputes everything). I think you are selling yourself short if you give in to the comforting simplicity of "oh, the only thing that matters is having someone to talk to". It's probably correct to first order, though.