I do believe that for many years, late 80's, 90' and beginning of 2000, CBT was all the rage. Insurance companies really like it because it professed to need less time to bring about change in clients.

But things have began to change again and attachment/relational therapy has come into its own. But Motivational Therapy and Short Term Psychotherapy have also made gains in popularity (both focused on smaller goals/smaller gains/short term limited sessions) I'm glad all forms of therapy are out there because if I've learned anything it's truly that no one size fits all.

I've "tried" CBT and found it irritating and overly simplified (to me!). I needed something deeper and more challenging. You mention that independence and personal empowerment were your stated goals. I found CBT didn't do any of that for me. I found it frustrating because I felt as though they were telling me things I already knew (cognitive distortions etc.) and what I needed was to work through those things in a relationship that helped me look at how I connect/don't connect to another person<---simplified explanation So for me, CBT was definitely not my cup of tea. It truly is "to each her own"!

PS. When I said, "I needed something deeper and more challenging", I didn't mean that CBT wasn't challenging to other people who connect with that form of therapy. I mean that for ME, CBT wasn't the challenge I was looking for in a therapy experience.