To the best of my knowledge... What therapy comes out as the most 'empirically validated' is highly dependent on what diagnosis you are trying to treat...

I do agree, however, that therapists have a tendancy to get all excited and to thus have higher degrees of faith in their patients ability to get better in virtue of the latests studies.

Linehan mentiones this point. In her handbook for the treatment of BPD she explicitly states that it is unclear what parts of the treatment program are the parts that is responsible for its success. She also allows that what might be responsible for the success of DBT is that it is a new therapy that has envigorated therapists. She allows that its success in the empirical studies could be more a function of therapists belief in the clients rather than in anything magical about the therapy...

I would agree with her. Therapists need something to invogorate them every now and then. DBT has done exactly that. Now there is success with mentalisation (based on attachment) approaches to treating BPD.

Don't get me wrong, CBT attempted to empirically validate the efficacy of treatment. That set something of a gold bar for other varieties of therapy. Other varieties of therapy have been coming to the party, however. That drives future reserach... So it is all good...

But more helpful still to appreciate somethign of the pattern...