I think sometimes it helps, sometimes it makes things worse and sometimes it just doesn't do anything!

I think a year was certainly plenty of time to see results especially for behahiour modification type therapy. In fact I would expect to start seeing some changes within a few sessions.

Old time talk therapy is more difficult to evaluate as to whether it is helping or not I think because the goals are not as well defined. And sometimes the help is not as much from the formal therapy as just the passage of time and a reliable listener. But it does help some people. My experience is that it is not always easy to tell whether it is helping or not .