From the article:

"But Dr David Clancy, from Lancaster University, said testing a sham version of the therapy on a control group would have made the results more robust.

"The people who took part were sat in a quiet, temperature-controlled room, and were reclined semi-supine on a couch for the duration of each experiment - I suspect many of us may have found our relaxation and wellbeing improved under such conditions," he said.

Yes, the lack of a control group makes the entire exercise somewhat pointless.