What is The Work?
The Work is a process of self-inquiry that consists of four questions and the turnaround, which is a way of experiencing the opposite of what you believe. It is a method of inquiry born directly out of Byron Katie’s experience and is applied to stressful thoughts to examine their validity and impact. The practitioner identifies a belief causing distress—typically about another person, themselves, or their circumstances—and systematically questions it using the four questions: (1) Is it true? (2) Can you absolutely know that it’s true? (3) How do you react when you believe that thought? (4) Who would you be without the thought? After exploring these questions, practitioners find “turnarounds”—opposite or alternate versions of the original thought—and look for specific examples of how these might be equally or more true.
Origins & lineage
Byron Kathleen Mitchell (born December 6, 1942), better known as Byron Katie, is an American speaker and author who teaches the method. In 1986, when she was 43 with three children and unhappily married to her second husband, she reportedly suffered from depression, agoraphobia, and overeating, and self-medicated with codeine and alcohol. In February 1986, while in a halfway house for women with eating disorders, she experienced a life-changing realization. She realized that when she believed her stressful thoughts, she suffered, but that when she questioned them, she didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being.
She began holding informal meetings to discuss her philosophy in the early 1990s and started holding formalized workshops. The workshops eventually led to the formation of Byron Katie International. In 2003, Byron Katie first introduced the world to The Work with the publication of Loving What Is. She is the founder of Byron Katie International, an organization that includes the School for the Work and Turnaround House in Ojai, California.
Sources have questioned whether The Work emerged spontaneously from Katie’s 1986 experience. Former staff member Janaki points to different sources: the work of Ken Keyes, Ramana Maharshi, A Course In Miracles and other spiritual new age books.
How it’s practiced
Practitioners begin by writing down judgmental or stressful thoughts on a worksheet, often the “Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet.” Capture your stressful thoughts on a Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet using short, simple sentences. Staying anchored in the situation, at a specific moment in time, write down your responses to the questions on the Worksheet, using short, simple sentences. Write without censoring yourself. Allow yourself to be as judgmental, childish, and petty as you were in that moment.
The four questions are then applied to each thought. The answer to the first two questions is just one syllable: either yes or no. For question three, practitioners examine their emotional and behavioral reactions when believing the thought. For question four, they imagine who they would be without it.
The next step in The Work is known as “the turnarounds,” which involves considering the opposite of the thought being examined. For instance, the thought “My husband should listen to me” can be turned around to “I should listen to my husband,” “I should listen to myself,” and “My husband shouldn’t listen to me.” Then, the individual finds specific examples of how each “turnaround” might be “just as true” as the original distressing thought.
This Work is a meditation practice. It’s like diving into yourself. Contemplate the questions, one at a time. Drop into the depths of yourself, listen, and wait. The answer will meet your question.
The Work today
The Work is taught through multiple channels. Byron Katie has been bringing The Work to millions of people for more than thirty years. She offers sessions at At Home with BK on Zoom every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 9-10 a.m. Pacific Time. She has shared The Work with millions of people at public events, in prisons, hospitals, churches, V.A. treatment centers, corporations, universities, and schools. Participants at her weekend workshops, the nine-day School for The Work, and the twenty-eight-day residential Turnaround House report profound experiences and lasting transformations.
The official website, TheWork.com, is a treasure trove of free resources. You can download various worksheets, including the “Judge-Your-Neighbor” worksheet, which is designed to help you capture your stressful thoughts on paper so you can question them effectively. Worksheets are available in dozens of languages. The method has been adapted by coaches, therapists, and individuals for self-guided practice.
A clinical trial documented ‘significant positive changes’ in happiness levels, perceived quality of life, depression, anxiety and anger expression in people practicing the Work of Byron Katie. Improvements in well-being, life satisfaction, and self-esteem were positively demonstrated in another clinical trial.
Common misconceptions
The Work is not therapy. Byron Katie is not a licensed therapist, and The Work was not developed within a clinical framework. Byron Katie is not a therapist, and many unlicensed, unregulated coaches, like those trained in The Work in Martha Beck’s coach training program and many people in the addiction recovery space, take this way of questioning thoughts to an abusive and dangerous extreme.
The Work is not affiliated with any spiritual tradition. The Work has been compared to the Socratic method and to Zen meditation, but Katie is not aligned with any religion or tradition. While Katie uses spiritual language and the method addresses existential questions, it does not originate from or require adherence to any particular religious framework.
The Work does not deny external reality. A significant criticism holds that The Work can minimize genuine harm, abuse, or injustice by locating all suffering in thought rather than circumstances. One of the most significant criticisms leveled against The Work is that it can feel like a form of victim-blaming. Because the process encourages you to take full responsibility for your thoughts and reactions, some argue it can inadvertently downplay the impact of external factors like systemic injustice or abuse. Karla Helbert is a psychotherapist familiar with Katie’s method and believes it is harmful. She shared her views online about the efficacy of The Work to warn students who may be misled: “As a psychotherapist who works with people who’ve had severe trauma, my opinion is that Byron Katie is dangerous.”
The Work is not a substitute for action. While the method addresses mental suffering, critics note that Katie’s philosophy of “loving what is” can be interpreted as passive acceptance rather than a call to address injustice or change circumstances.
How to begin
The most accessible entry point is Byron Katie’s book Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002), co-written with Stephen Mitchell, which provides detailed instructions and transcripts of facilitated sessions. Free downloadable worksheets are available at thework.com in multiple languages.
Beginners can also watch video demonstrations of Katie facilitating The Work with participants, which illustrate the questioning process in action. For those seeking community, the website offers a free helpline and information about live online sessions. The method is designed to be self-directed, though some practitioners seek certified facilitators for guidance.