Return to Center - The Work

Imagine turning around life's upsets into peace or even laughter, and in the process realizing great insights into who you really are. Imagine being different naturally, without effort, free from the stressful reactions that follow from negative thinking, free to respond rather than react, to step out of assumptions and work with the facts, feeling centered and present, and using each situation as a gift for self-discovery.

The Work is a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches you to identify and question the stressful thoughts that cause all the suffering in the world. It's a way to understand what's hurting you, a way to end all your stress and suffering.

The technique is a series of simple, specific questions that help a person experience what's really going on and find out what is really true. The power lies in the willingness to go within and answer each question honestly. People check with their inner truth and bring forth clarity and lasting insight.

Then there is the turnaround, a simple way to see how a specific situation is really a mirror of themselves in a way they have not seen.

First we identify the beliefs and perceptions associated with the stressful situation.

Then the questions are applied to one belief at a time, exploring assumptions, projections and interpretations.

An unraveling of misperceptions causes self-discovery and Truth to surface.

The Work is unique because often a difficult situation can be resolved into total peace and clarity after only one session. Other times a few sessions can reveal deeper layers of beliefs that hold the stress in place. As each layer dissolves, other areas of life also begin to shift. The insights are lasting and effortless.

In doing The Work, each person finds their own truth. The facilitator is skilled in asking the questions so that the client can make their own discoveries from their inner wisdom.

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What is the philosophy behind The Work?

All stress and suffering are caused by our reaction to a situation, not by the situation itself. When we look within to address our beliefs and perceptions, freedom from suffering emerges. The external situation resolves when we resolve the internal confusion.

There are only 3 kinds of business: mine, someone else's and God's (or the reality of life). When we are not in our own business, we suffer. We pretend we can know what someone else is thinking, what is best and what should happen, and we lose contact with our own inner voice.

Life is our mirror. Every upset is showing us something about ourselves to look at. We can turn the situation around for self-discovery.

By answering these questions for ourselves we can experience reality without our projections and interpretations. It's not the questions that make The Work so powerful. It's the answers that we discover that bring us insight and freedom. Reality is always kinder than our thoughts.

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Irene's approach to The Work

In 2000, I had a profound life-changing personal experience using The Work, which gave me a tool to achieve peace of mind, body and spirit. Since then I've been using it in groups and private sessions with amazing results.

I understand that criticism, petty judgments and negative beliefs occur inside us all. That is the nature of the mind. Every story I've heard has struck some familiar chord in my own life. Realizing it's something we all do can make it feel safe to name the judgments about oneself and the world. Naming them is the first step to being free of them. And when people realize that the judgments, criticism and negative beliefs they hold about themselves and the world are something we all have in common, it becomes easier to relax and allow the process to penetrate. Putting it into words in a safe environment is the beginning of relief. These judgments and stressful thoughts become guides that lead the way to personal growth and healing.

I have not met a problem yet that inquiry did not help resolve. Each time I do The Work with someone, I'm still amazed and moved to see how easily and quickly a painful situation can turn into peace, ease and freedom. It's exciting to realize that now, with The Work, we know what to do to find freedom in any painful situation that might arise.

I completed the School for The Work with Byron Katie in Europe, and have attend numerous other retreats with Katie in the US.

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A typical Work session

I offer The Work in workshops and private sessions in person and via phone.

First we identify the specific situation the client would like to resolve. Through an interview we reveal the beliefs, perceptions and judgments that are being held.

I ask the client the simple questions to help prompt discovery and allow insight to surface from their own inner wisdom. I have not met a problem yet that inquiry did not help resolve. Sometimes it only takes one session to unravel the whole issue, while other times a few sessions can go to deeper and deeper layers of what is holding the stress in place. And as each layer dissolves, the insights cause peace to expand and include other areas of life beyond the original situation.

I mentor each person to become their own facilitator at home by giving handouts, assignments and support which empowers the skill and habit of self inquiry.

Each time I do The Work with someone I'm still amazed and moved to see how easily and quickly a painful situation can turn into peace, ease and freedom.

Contact Irene for a free phone consultation to discuss your needs and to see if this work is right for you.

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What issues does The Work address?

• Anger, sadness, fear, jealousy, anxiety, depression
• Obsessive thinking
• Unresolved past events
• Physical or emotional trauma
• Physical illness
• Negative beliefs & judgments about one's self,
other people or the world
• Self-criticism & criticism/judgment from others

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People who do The Work faithfully report life-changing results :

• Eliminate stress: Live without anxiety or fear
• Improve relationships: Have a new sense of connection and
     intimacy with your husband or wife, your parents, your
     children, and with yourself
• Reduce anger: Get angry less often and less intensely,
     and eventually not at all
• Eliminate depression: See perfection in situations that were
     once debilitating
• Clarity: Act more intelligently, constructively and effectively
• Energy: Experience a new sense of vigor and well-being
• Peace: Learn how to love what is, and find lasting
     inner peace
• Reduce drama: Recognize and diffuse your reactions before
     they escalate the situation
• Gain self-discovery, insight & freedom

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Suggested reading:

• Loving What Is by Byron Katie
• A Thousand Names for Joy by Byron Katie
• Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell

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"I've been chewing on one thought from our session for the last month. It has had ripple effects in a lot of situations in my life. If one session had that much impact, there's just so much more to work on.
It was very powerful really. This didn't leave me wiped out energetically as other kinds of work have done in the past. It left me with a sense of relief and I felt unburdened."
Terry Minard
High School Teacher

"For 10 years I was progressively getting more angry and disheartened in my marriage. I was tortured by obsessive thinking and felt hopeless about the situation. Through The Work I found a new way to see things which made sense to me. My deep wounds are finally healing. I'm rebuilding my relationship and feeling happy and alive again."
Nancy King
drug abuse counselor

"As we went through this process I could feel more and more layers of peace. I started to feel a major release in my sciatica pain as we did the Work. I felt a lot of release in my body as I let go of how I thought it [the topic of discussion]
should be."
Gregg Biehler, Hawaii
Bodyworker

"Things have been pretty positive for me. I really took and got a lot out of your session and I thank you so much for your help. I see/handle things in my life a different way now. I'm the one in control of me right!"
L. B.
Special Needs Teacher