Clean Language

This book will teach you a new way to communicate which gets to the heart of things! By asking Clean Language questions to explore the metaphors which underpin a person's thinking, you can help people to change their lives in a way that intrinsically respects diversity and supports empowerment. Both you and they will gain profound new insights into what makes them tick. The approach was originally used to help clients to resolve deep trauma. It is now being used to get to the truth and to solve complex problems by some of the sharpest and most innovative people in the world - coaches, business people, educators, health professionals and many others.

Written by a real teacher, who puts her ideas to practice in a real classroom, with real children; this book provides a comprehensive selection of step-by-step instructions, case studies, clean questions for SEN and examples of how to effectively introduce Clean Language practice within the classroom. It aims to improve communication and inclusion to develop a productive learning environment for students and teachers alike. It encourages children, teachers and parents to respect the others and their needs. This innovative new book gives teachers the tools on how to include effective clean questions in their lesson planning based on a mini-research project undertaken by Julie in her own classroom with her pupils to discover the benefits of using clean language in the classroom.

Most coaches today see their role as mainly non-directive, helping to uncover their coachee’s own wisdom. However, coaches may unwittingly and unconsciously constrain what their coachees talk and think about, getting in the way of unique, self-generated solutions. Clean Coaching provides a different, simple yet highly effective approach to one-to-one facilitation. It is a style, strategy and set of techniques that help coachees gain insight and make changes through discovering more about their own ‘insider’ perspective: of themselves and the world around them. Through the use of specifically-phrased, structured coaching questions, the coach’s own biased perspectives are stripped from their language, ensuring the coachee’s unique personal experience is honoured. In Clean Coaching, Angela Dunbar explains how this approach works in practical terms, with descriptions of how to structure a Clean Coaching session and the steps to take within such a session. The book gives detailed descriptions of the kinds of questions to ask and provides a wealth of analogues, examples and case studies to bring the descriptions alive, offering a clear blueprint for action. In addition, the book explains where Clean Coaching has come from, describing the development of Clean Language and other "Clean" approaches by the psychologist and psychotherapist David Grove. It also tracks how "Clean" approaches have been adopted and adapted by other practitioners. Dunbar draws on current research in the fields of developmental, neurological, cognitive and social psychology to demonstrate why Clean Coaching works so successfully. Exploring Clean Coaching in detail, and informed by both research and practice, this book will be a valuable resource for coaches at all levels, including executive coaches and those in training, as well as managers and executives acting in a coaching capacity.

Describing how to give individuals an opportunity to discover how their symbolic perceptions are organized, what needs to happen for these to change, and how they can develop as a result, this text includes three client transcripts.

In the 1980s David Grove devised a technique called Clean Language for healing patients with traumatic memories, such as child abuse or wartime trauma. The process enabled patients to resolve the effects of their experiences through visualisation and metaphor. He converted the work into a spatial technique called Emergent Knowledge and his techniques have attracted practitioners from all over the world including the UK, Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand. Performance Coaching pioneer Carol Wilson worked with David until his death in 2008, developing courses to train coaches and business psychologists to use his methods in the workplace, in order to relieve mental blocks and limiting behavioural patterns such as fear of public speaking, bullying and thwarted personal potential. This book is the most comprehensive work so far published about David Grove and contains a record not only of his work with Carol, but with leading practitioners across the world, including detailed descriptions of techniques, case histories and biographical details of David’s life. Performance Coaches and Leadership Practitioners will be able to enhance their existing techniques by incorporating ideas, methods and principles from this book. It will help experienced and potential practitioners to gain an overview and a history of David Grove, and to know where to go for further research and learning.

"Superb. Substantial. Entertaining. Informative." An essential read for anyone who finds themself counseling or working with others. Aimed mainly at psychotherapy and coaching, but readily translates into lessons for business, education, and everyday use. 'Trust Me, I'm The Patient' takes you step by step through a process that lends itself to the most profound therapeutic transformation and yet can be used informally at home, at work, or in the queue for the bus. Science, psychology, philosophy, and a vibrating peach are all part of the story in this far-reaching but readily accessible guide to the practice of Clean Language questioning, a knowledge of which will enable you to enter another person's world almost unnoticed and once there to tread very, very lightly. And what will happen as a result is that the person you facilitate will get to know - and change, and heal - themself. "Philip Harland takes us on a clear and compelling journey into the nuances of words, questions, and sentence structure, and explains why small changes make such a big difference to both listener and speaker. He guides us through the minefields of unclean practice and shows us how seductive and wasteful our projections and assumptions can be. If you have ever wanted an easier ride with clients and colleagues, family and friends, this book tells you how to let go the reins and facilitate them to take up their own. A fabulous addition to Clean resources and one that most closely matches the way the creator of Clean Language, the late David Grove, would explain himself. I defy anyone to read this book and not clean up their language." Caitlin Walker, educationalist, author of Clean Language and Systemic Modelling

Combining academic rigour with real application examples, a global range of contributors analyse the use of Clean Language Interviewing in multiple settings including business, education, and healthcare.