I was wondering when thumbing through Hale Dwoskin’s Sedona Method and Byron Katie’s Loving What Is if there is any more to these treatments than just re-packaged Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Such recycling is not uncommon by American marketing gurus turned Life coaches (for me Journey Therapy was not much more than a re-invention of hypnosis). For sure some people, and not just Americans (!), have seen the massive financial benefits at targeting miracle cures for anxiety disorders, depression, agoraphobia, insomnia, OCD etc etc.
Firstly we should remember that there is nothing wrong with miracle cures accept for when they don’t work at all. That is why I am increasingly suspicious of some programmes, for sale online for vast sums, which can not be externally verified at all. The grandiose claims they make are not repeated across the net. The thing is that many people who get over mental health issues get on with their lives and don’t stop to visit their old chat rooms and tell others how they recovered. But some do. And as I said the lack of independent verification is to say the least worrying.
I chose Byron Katie and the Sedona Method today because they are two that I do believe in. On the face of it their techniques have much to do with CBT, questioning the negative thought processes that lead to anxiety and depression. But in fact they go much deeper. Firstly their questionative processes are more long winded and more thorough than those that tend to be used in CBT, and secondly they go more into the core of ourselves, instead of being purely symptomatic treatments. Being something of a cross between psychotherapy and cognitive therapy and dealing with the underlying issues that I believe are important for many. They are worth a look.
hi, nice blog .
I have also used the sedona method and byron katie’s work. I think they are very good and go really deep . Much deeper than issues of anxiety and anger. I have also used them. Mostly the releasing technique. I am also maintaining a blog on the same topics and have written about these in my blog. the releasing technique has actually changed the way i feel about things and I no longer have a craving for things that I wanted to manifest. okay, i am rambling now. bye.
I’m not well versed in Sedona Method, but as a practitioner of The Work of Byron Katie I can safely say that, while it is a cognitive process, it is not like CBT. Therapies aim to “cure.” The Work presupposes no “illness.” It is simply a way of developing present-moment awareness, who we are prior to all stories. Katie calls that awareness “loving what is,” which is the title of her first book. As Shakespeare said (I paraphrase), “There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.” And before him, the Stoic philosopher Epictetus noted, “We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens.”