Lol. Think I'm getting my answer to the question of how much therapy you do. Of course Sx reduction is what the patient wants and obviously that's always 'part' of the goal. I would never tell them they are wrong for wanting that?!

Multiple meta-analysis have been done that suggest the working alliance, the therapeutic relationship is what counts and the rest is important but accounts for much less of the variance re: a successful outcome. I'm not doing a lit review for you, but you can start with Wampold's "The Great Psychotherapy Debate." And I would never say "cures" I said "curative."

No... I'm saying I can help the client build off of whatever tools or self help stuff they're already doing or can do on their own between visits.

You sounds like a great researcher, maybe not a great clinician?