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'{{infobox person|name = Byron Kathleen Mitchell |image = Byron_Katie_2.jpg| |caption = (Byron Katie: 2006) |birth_name = Byron Kathleen Reid |birth_place = |death_date = |death_place = |other_names = Byron Katie |known_for = "The Work (of Byron Katie)"<br/> A method for self-inquiry |occupation = Author, speaker |nationality = American}} '''Byron Kathleen Mitchell''' (née '''Reid'''), better known as '''Byron Katie''', born December 6, 1942,<ref name=matousek>{{cite journal | last=Matousek | first=Mark | title=Quit Your Pain | journal=AARP Magazine | date=May/June 2006 |url=http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/quit_your_pain.html }}</ref> is an American speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as "The Work of Byron Katie" or simply as "The Work." ==Biography== Byron Kathleen Reid (or "Katie" as she is often called) became severely [[clinical depression|depressed]] in her early thirties. She was a businesswoman and mother who lived in a small town in the high desert of southern California. According to Katie, for nearly a decade she spiraled down into [[paranoia]], rage, self-loathing, and constant thoughts of [[suicide]]; for the last two years she was often unable to leave her bedroom. Then, one morning in February 1986, while in a halfway house for women with eating disorders,<ref>Massad, Sunny (2001). [http://www.realization.org/page/doc1/doc107a.htm An Interview with Byron Katie]</ref> she experienced a life-changing realization. She called it “waking up to reality.” In that moment of enlightenment, she says, "I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment." According to journalist Allison Adato, soon afterward people started seeking Katie out and asking how they could find the freedom that they saw in her.<ref name=Adato>Adato, Allison. [http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/general853.html How a Self-Help Guru Is Born] in ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]'', Nov. 24, 2002</ref> People from her town and eventually from elsewhere came to meet her, and some to even live with her. Katie is not aligned with any particular [[religion]] or tradition. She is married to the writer and translator [[Stephen Mitchell (translator)|Stephen Mitchell]], who co-wrote her first book, ''Loving What Is'' and her third book, ''A Thousand Names for Joy.'' Katie calls her method of self-inquiry "The Work". She describes it as an embodiment, in words, of the wordless questioning that had woken up in her on that February morning. Adato further writes that as reports spread about the transformations people felt they were experiencing through The Work, Katie was invited to present it publicly elsewhere in California, then throughout the United States, and eventually in Europe and across the world.<ref name=Adato/> She has taught her method to people at free public events, in prisons, hospitals, churches, corporations, shelters for survivors of [[domestic violence]], universities and schools, at weekend intensives, and at her nine-day "School for The Work." ==Criticism== The Work has been alternately criticized as simplistic and lacking in empathy. Psychotherapist Ron Alexander has stated, "To assume that simply by asking four questions and turning a thought around you can address the complexity and seriousness of traumatic issues—such as rape or incest, for example—misses the mark." <ref name=matousek/> ==Bibliography== * ''Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life'', with Stephen Mitchell, Harmony Books, 2002, ISBN 0-609-60874-6 (HC) * ''I Need Your Love - Is That True? How to Stop Seeking Love, Appreciation, and Approval and Start Finding Them Instead'', with Michael Katz, Harmony Books, 2005, ISBN 1-4000-5107-X (HC) * ''A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are'', with Stephen Mitchell, Harmony Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0-307-33923-2 (HC) * ''Question Your Thinking, Change the World: Quotations from Byron Katie'', edited by Stephen Mitchell, Hay House, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4019-1730-2 (PB) * ''Who Would You Be Without Your Story?: Dialogues with Byron Katie'', edited by Carol Williams, Hay House (October 15, 2008), ISBN 978-1-4019-2179-8 (PB) ==References== {{reflist}} ==Literature== * Jeon, Arthur (2004) ''City Dharma: Keeping Your Cool in the Chaos'' ISBN 1-40004-908-3 ==External links== * [http://www.thework.com/ The Official Website for The Work of Byron Katie] * [http://www.byronkatie.com/ The Official Blog for The Work of Byron Katie] * [http://www.byronkatie.com/videos/ Videos for The Work of Byron Katie] * [http://www.byronkatie.com/richardlcohen.pdf The School for The Work: An Account by Richard Lawrence Cohen] {{wikiquote}} * [http://www.stephenmitchellbooks.com/nonFiction/lovingWhatIsExcerpt.html Excerpts from ''Loving What Is''] * [http://www.stephenmitchellbooks.com/nonFiction/a_thousand_1.html Excerpts from ''A Thousand Names for Joy''] <br> * [http://www.time.com/time/innovators/spirituality/profile_katie.html Time Magazine 12/04/2000 : Innovators - Byron Katie. Four Questions to Inner Peace] "TIME predicts the most innovative people of the 21st Century." * [http://www.realization.org/page/doc1/doc107a.htm The Noumenon Journal, Summer 2000/2001: An Interview with Byron Katie] {{DEFAULTSORT:Katie, Byron}} [[Category:1942 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American spiritual teachers]] [[Category:American spiritual writers]] [[Category:American self-help writers]] [[de:Byron Katie]] [[es:Byron Katie]] [[fr:Byron Katie]] [[no:Byron Katie]] [[ru:Байрон Кейти]] [[fi:Byron Katie]]'