As we saw in "The map of the map is not the map", change is just learning. This whole "I know I'm safe, it's just amygdala doesn't respond to rational evidence" — or whatever your preferred rationalization — is bullshit. It's not true. "Resolution of irrational fear" is the process of learning "I'm safe, actually", that's it. The idea that "I know I'm safe, I just have a fear" doesn't work, while laughing at people who believe it as you poke holes in the idea does (solving irrational fear as deciding: a worked example).

This has some interesting implications for how CBT actually works, and what the hidden requirements are. Let's work this out one step at a time.

1) Learning "I am safe" is the thing that resolves fear.

2) So long as you're certain you know the answer, you can't become curious what the answer might be. Because you already know.

3) So if you're convinced that you know you're safe and it's just a stupid irrational fear, you can't ask "Am I safe?", can't learn, can't become not afraid.

So far so good. This is why people get stuck with [the perception of] irrational fears.

So now, how does CBT work? How does it get around this?

CBT therapists will tell you it works through exposure, and this gives "your brain" a chance to learn. But again, you can't actually learn so long as you're attending to a model that says there's nothing to learn!

4) CBT works by getting you to not attend to your model that says you have nothing to learn.

How?

5) The frame is "I have Evidence Based Techniques. When I do them on you, you will no longer feel fear. You know this will work, because I'm a credentialed professional, and because Science. Trust The Science".

It's not "Look bro. You can see for yourself". It's "You know because other people have looked. Very carefully and rigorously. And they presented their findings for peers to review and scrutinize. You can trust this consensus". And it's mostly not wrong!

6) When adopted, this frame shifts the client's attention from "I already know, so why the heck would I look?" to "Okay, I should look even though I know the answer, because people I trust say that this will work for reasons I don't understand". It no longer matters that there's no reason to look in your view, because the scientists say there is, and you trust them.

7) The client doesn't actually know they're safe, so when they trust the science and try the technique, there is something to learn. They learn, the fear goes away, CBT works!

CBT works. Not all the time, but it does work.

CBT works by refocusing people away from their false meta beliefs that shield their object level beliefs.

It justifies this by the claim that it is Evidence Based Medicine. The claim to be evidence based, true as it may be, is the active ingredient. Lose that, get a client thinking "Nah, this is BS, I already know I'm safe, there's nothing to learn!", and it won't work. Get someone thinking "CBT isn't working for me!", and it won't work. Like how it didn't work for my friend, who I had to tease back to reality.

When it works, it works because people trust the science and credentialed practitioners, to the point that they set aside their own objections and ask the question without caring about the fact [in their view] that they already know the answer.

CBT is literally faith healing claiming to be evidence based medicine.

And there is evidence.

But the mechanism is faith.

The whole "It doesn't matter that you know, because amygdala1" thing — the Chewbacca defense of the client's worldview — is the second wrong that counteracts the first one. You already know. And it doesn't matter that you already know because amygdala, so you should look. In this case, two wrongs do make a right.