Things Katie won't tell you

1. The Work, when used to deal with personal trauma, is in essence the NLP method called "Change Personal History". Katie uses the methods of Ericksonian Hypnosis and Large Group Awareness Training to effect "the Work". These methods include the use of hypnosis and patterned language to override the objections of your conscious mind.
   
   Further documentation of these methods can be found in the book Cults in Our Midst by Dr. Margaret Singer.
   
   
2. When you arrive at the School, you will receive a curiously spacey, somewhat high welcome from the staff. This might feel somewhat creepy and offputting and is in fact part of a concerted plan. See the Wikipedia entry on Love Bombing.
   
   
3. Also, on arrival at the School, after you have paid the nonrefundable course fee, the staff will ask that you sign a legal disclaimer absolving Byron Katie, the staff and BKI of any responsibility for the consequences of the activities there.
   
   
4. Part of the protocol at the School is that any complaints, objections or issues you have with any of the "exercises" or directives will be reframed as your personal psychological difficulty. Katie will, at times, invite criticism from the participants, and appear to "take it in" calmly. This is in fact a setup for a demonstration of the Work: the critical person will be asked to "turn it around" in front of the group.
   
   
5. One of Katie's hypnotic reference phrases is "The Work is new in the world". This is ironic in light of the fact that the School uses several tried-and-tested mechanisms of social control common to LGATs and religious institutions. This "generic" account of a Large Group Awareness Training is shockingly similar in both generalities and particulars to the School for the Work.
   
   These methods include "meditation, neurolinguistic programming, biofeedback, self-hypnosis, bizarre relaxation techniques, mind control, body touching, yoga, trance inductions, visualization, and in some cases, intense confrontational sessions akin to the "attack" therapy methods that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s." [Wikipedia]
   
   The objection that Katie/BKI simply happened on effective interpersonal methods is somewhat hard to swallow given that all of these methods (and more) are used in the School for the Work. This suggests instead that the School is a very carefully engineered LGAT.
   
   
6. "The Work" may have radical effects on your relationships, your ability to test reality and your mind and your body. Several participants have separated from their spouses or partners upon leaving the School. BKI disclaims any responsibility for these consequences and will, in fact, tell you that "the universe is friendly" and suggest that any consequences of the School or the Work are ultimately for your benefit.
   
   
7. Neither Katie nor the staff have licenses to practice psychotherapy or hypnosis. (A note: some staff members are in fact psychotherapists, but when they are not in their official work roles, they don't operate under the constraints or responsibilities of their licenses.) The staff are unpaid (in fact, they too, pay a "tuition fee" to attend the School).
   
   Why is this important? There is a tendency among New Age radicals to dismiss Western psychotherapy as hopelessly backward and ineffective. The difference is that licensed therapists are accountable to both the state and their clients under formal rules and responsibilities. Katie and BKI make every effort to insulate themselves from legal liability (although the contracts that participants sign are probably illegal and unenforceable).
   
   If in fact the Work is an effective method (and by now, I very much doubt that it confers long-term benefit), a responsible way to offer it would be within the protective structure of licensed therapy.
   
   The School for the Work is blatantly advertised towards those with psychological difficulties (in particular, depression, stress and anger) and plainly makes psychotherapeutic claims. But neither Katie nor BKI are willing to be responsible for the effects of the Work or the methods used at the School.
   
   
8. When you arrive at the School, you will be asked to surrender your cell phone and accept strict limits on the amount of contact with the outside world. This is presented as "voluntary" or "an invitation".
   
   
9. The staff and Katie take the stance that the lack of disclosure and nonrefundable fee are for the participants' own benefit. Any complaints along these lines will be folded back into the Work.