What's you goal? Do you want to help a specific person or do you want to gather general knowledge.
A clinical trial can tell you whether a treatment works for the average person. It however can't tell you whether it works for a specific person.
When it comes to helping a specific person with a serious issue the correct solution is often about trying multiple approaches. If you try 9 things and one works you win.
When it comes to therapist, it's important to have good chemistry with the therapist. If you don't fell comfortable with a certain therapist they probably won't be able to help you even if the practice a technique with has studies to back it up.
Thank you for the advice - these all seem like good ideas. Multiple approaches is what I was thinking - I was going to find out what's out there, and start with the ones that seem the most likely to work and don't conflict with each other or add up to be too costly (for example, you can only do so many time-consuming things concurrently).
I have a specific person in mind, and am intentionally being vague about whether it's me or someone else and who. I know it's not very polite to ask for help with a problem without saying what the problem is, and I'm sorry...
This is a thread where people can ask questions that they would ordinarily feel embarrassed for not knowing the answer to. The previous "stupid" questions thread is at almost 500 questions in about a month, so I think it's time for a new one.
Also, I have a new "stupid" question.