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> Different methods of therapy appear to be equally effective despite having theoretical foundations which are conflicting with each other. The common aspect between different therapies seems to be "having someone to talk to", so I'm inclined to believe that really is what's behind the success.
Just because talking is the common trait, doesn't mean that that's evidence that that is all it is. Paying someone to help you with the problem is also a common trait (and ironically, that is, no doubt, a contributory factor), but that isn't all that therapy is.
Let's say that there are three ways to solve a problem, and depending on context that we're not terribly good at determining, one of those ways will work quite often, one will work some of the time, and the other will be a disaster... but there's an equal probability that each of those ways are equally likely to fall in to each of those categories. Statistically, one could claim that how you solve the problem is not behind the success. In a sense, that would be correct, because the real determinant of success would be being lucky with the solution you chose to employ. While one could imply though that really it's nothing more than being lucky at choosing the solution, in reality without all of what's involved in that choice, the problem will remain.