Sure. The main goal of the program we're in is to teach the child how to fall asleep by themselves. You start by helping the child fall asleep in their bed with patting and soothing voices. Then you gradually push them toward independence until you can put them in their bed, say good night, leave the room, and have them simply go to sleep.
One important observation is that children who depend on external aids for falling asleep -- like cradling, or falling asleep while drinking from a bottle -- can become resistant to these aids after some time. When this happens it suddenly becomes much harder to get them to sleep, because they never had proper sleep habits to begin with. When a child can go to sleep on their own, they can also go back to sleep by themselves when they wake up in the middle of the night (we're actually seeing this happening). And this independence also has other benefits, like boosting self-confidence.
Then there are a lot of little rules about how to actually accomplish this goal. For example, if the child falls asleep but wakes up just 10-20 minutes later, you must insist that they go back to sleep, because otherwise they didn't really fall asleep properly. And the parent who does this must be the same parent who put them in bed in the first place -- you can't switch. Then there are instructions on how to deal with crying (basically never let a child cry without addressing them, but also don't give up on going to sleep), etc.
As I said there are a lot of details, and it's also quite different for every child. And of course this is all specific to the program we're in; I'm sure there are other good programs out there. My main point is that there are methods that work and have a proven track record -- you just have to find them.