The Work of Byron Katie and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: a Brief Comparison

by Jane Bunker, Ph.D. with Carol L. Skolnick, M.A.

As a growing number of therapists, counselors and coaches incorporate the self-inquiry process
called The Work of Byron Katie into their practices, the question often arises, "How does The
Work compare to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?" There are notable similarities in that
The Work, like CBT, is a cognitive restructuring technique. However, unlike CBT, The Work
does not seek to replace one thought with another, less stressful thought; it is an experiential
modality in which stressful thoughts are identified, expressed and questioned, resulting in an
awareness of projective identification.

Here are some fundamental differences between the two approaches.

1. If there is a goal in The Work, it is to discover what is true for the client. The underlying
assumption of The Work is that all suffering comes from arguing with reality. The secondary
assumption is that reality is good. With CBT, the goal is to achieve a specific, client and therapist
devised end result (i.e., to be happier, to have a better marriage, to like one's job more, etc.).
CBT assumes that reality can be manipulated in order to achieve a particular, more desirable
outcome....the secondary assumption here being that reality is flawed.

2. CBT necessitates a therapist; The Work, which is self-directed, does not require a therapist or
even a facilitator. Even if facilitated by a therapist or performed in a group setting, the simple
structure of The Work's four basic self-inquiry questions and its reversal technique, the
"turnaround," entrusts the process to the client. Administered cleanly, there will be no imposition
of therapist's opinion or values in the course of a session.

3. Both CBT and The Work are clear about the powerful role that thoughts play in human
suffering. CBT, however, attempts to get the client to drop these thoughts and replace them with
new, more productive, positive ones. In The Work, one part of the mind examines the other.
There is no room for the normally defensive,
proof-seeking part of the mind to hold on to the identity-defining thoughts that have been
contributing to the client's suffering. With the resulting clarity that comes of mind meeting mind,
the stressful thoughts serve no further purpose and dissolve on their own.

Also, by directing the client's pain outward on paper, The Work provides an initial vehicle for
releasing rather than adding stress, the latter being a phenomenon which may occur in CBT when
judgments are aimed at
the self.

4. Both CBT and The Work address question 1 of The Work -- Is it true? -- to expose the lie of
the mind. However, The Work goes significantly further with question 2 -- Can you absolutely
know that it's true? -- by attempting to eliminate even a 1% probability for the "I-know mind" to
attach to and thus short-circuit the rest of the process. With questions 3 and 4 -- How do you
react when you think this thought? Who would you be without this thought? -- The Work offers
the opportunity to hold thought up to the light, examine it openly, see the damage it has evoked
and what life might be like without it. The subsequent turnaround -- a reversal technique in
which the client considers ways in which the opposite of the belief might be just as true or truer
-- offers a perfectly timed glimpse of one's own innocent, but complete, responsibilty for one's
own happiness, while providing an expanded awareness of what "truth" encompasses. As in
advaita vedanta, the Indian school of nondual philosophy, there is a gradual recognition that all
experience is projected, and when the "projector" is adjusted, the projection changes.

5. Embedded in the turnaround is the concept of nonduality. All that was directed at the other
appears to be true of the self as well. All that was apparently not absolutely true of the other
might not be absolutely true of the self either. With The Work's loving, incisive probing, thoughts
are eventually relieved of their charge. The safety and comfort of truth discovered replaces the
client's need for attachment to identity-defining thoughts, and those thoughts are released in their
obsolescence.

©2005 by Jane Bunker, Ph.D. and Carol L. Skolnick, M.A.

_____
Jane Bunker, Ph.D., is an artist and a retired psychologist from Santa Fe, New Mexico and Boise,
Idaho, whose practice incorporated CBT and other modalities. Carol L. Skolnick, M.A., is a New
York City-based writer, educator, and facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie. Both Jane and
Carol are graduates of Byron Katie's School for The Work and have served on the staff of the
school.