[hctaw]

In my experience this can be an extremely harmful approach to talk therapy (and talking about therapy).

The main benefit is having someone trained to listen for specific symptoms based on what you talk about and to develop treatment strategies based on what you discuss and symptoms you experience.

I wouldn't reduce it to "having someone who cares about your problems for 45 minutes." It's more like "talking about your problems for 45 minutes to someone who can recognize which ones are rational, which ones aren't, and can discuss with you how to mitigate the negative effects of your own irrational thoughts."

[anotherman554]

You are basically summarizing the idea of cognitive behavioral therapy, but I don't believe it's been established it works better than ordinary talk therapy.

The cognitive behavioral therapist has to assume the human mind works a certain way, suffering is caused by "irrational" thoughts, and therapist is somehow more "rational" than their clients, so can help their clients be more "rational" like the therapist. These are some big assumptions.