Talking as a secure base: Towards the resolution of the Dodo verdict?

Although much is written about the "talking therapies", talking itself seems to be assumed to be only the medium through which therapies, language based or physical (for example in the giving of a prescription), are delivered. However, it has been suggested that talking can function as a secure base (Bowlby, 1988. In this paper the hypothesis is elaborated that talking itself, when functioning as a secure base, is therapeutic and produces change. I will develop this suggestion, describing what a secure base is and how a conversation between two people might function as a secure base. Finally I will propose that this conceptualization of talking might suggest a resolution of the controversy of the Dodo verdict-whether or not different psychotherapies are equally effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]