Byron Katie

Byron Kathleen Reid was born December 6, 1942, in Breckenridge, Texas. In the 1970s–1980s she experienced a prolonged period of depression and addiction followed by a transformative insight in February 1986 that she describes as realizing that believing her stressful thoughts caused her suffering, and not believing them freed her — an insight that became the foundation of The Work. After her personal turnaround, Byron Katie began meeting informally with people and then running workshops to teach the self-inquiry method she calls The Work, which centers on four questions and a turnaround process for testing stressful thoughts. Her work expanded through public talks, books, and retreats; she incorporated her teaching activities under Byron Katie International and established educational programs including a School for The Work. She authored several books explaining and applying The Work, most notably Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life, and has co-authored works with others in the self-help and translation/poetry communities; her teachings have been translated and disseminated internationally through books, recorded events, and certified facilitators. Byron Katie’s organization offers workshops, teacher trainings, and programs (including a retreat center called Turnaround House in Ojai, California) and has trained facilitators worldwide; mainstream outlets and commentators have described her as a prominent contemporary spiritual innovator in the self-help field.