The world is changing. 'Pull' replaced 'push' a generation ago; now 'help' is replacing 'pull', if you see what I mean. Instead of 'stick or carrot' there are now far more positive & sophisticated options available to modern communicators, coaches, teachers, managers, & leaders, for motivating, helping, & developing people. The enlightened & the enlighteners now concentrate on helping people achieve choice & growth by enabling better understanding, awareness, & education. Clean Language methodology is potentially a very relevant tool in the overall process of working towards positive change.

1. Clean Language – a guide to David Grove’s methods
with examples, & sample questions
Clean Language is a communications methodology, developed by David J Grove, a
New Zealand 'Counselling Psychologist', during the 1980’s & 1990’s.
While initially used in clinical therapy, Clean Language offers helpful techniques to all
professional communicators, especially those working closely with others.
Clean Language techniques are aligned closely with modern 'enabling' principles of
empathy, & understanding, as opposed to traditional 'manipulative' (conscious or
unconscious) methods of influence & persuasion, & the projection of self-interest.
Clean Language helps people to convey their own meaning, free of emotional or
other distracting interpretation from others.
As such Clean Language promotes better clarity of communications, neutrality, &
objectivity (absence of emotional 'spin', bias & prejudice), ease of understanding, &
cooperative productive relationships.
These Clean Language materials are written exclusively for Businessballs by Judy
Rees, a UK-based Clean Language expert & author. The text draws extensively on
Judy's co-authored book, Clean Language, Revealing Metaphors & Opening Minds.
The contribution of these Clean Language learning materials is gratefully
acknowledged.
Clean Language - overview
Clean Language is a questioning & discussion technique used especially for
discovering, exploring & working with people's own personal metaphors.
The word 'metaphor' here refers to thinking or expressing something in terms of a
different concept or image. For example, if someone says, "It's like..." or "It's as if…"
then the next thing you'll hear is probably a metaphor.
Expressions such as sick as a dog, over the moon, & ready for battle, are all
metaphors. The person isn't really sick as a dog, or over the moon, or ready for
battle. The expressions are images, partly for dramatic effect, & partly because a
metaphor is often the most natural & easy way to convey a meaning.
A metaphor is the use of imagery, to represent thoughts & feelings. Spoken & written
language is full of metaphors.
Metaphors & imagery are potentially very useful in communications because they
make abstract ideas more tangible & can wrap large amounts of subtle & complex
information, including emotional information, into a relatively small package. (That's
an example of a metaphor...)
Aside from clinical therapy, Clean Language is most commonly used in Executive
Coaching. Its relative simplicity, & its unusual approach to metaphor make it useful in
a wide range of other contexts, working with individuals & with groups.
For example, Clean Language is now being used in:

2. • recruitment interviews
• team development & motivation
• gathering requirements for projects, like IT development
• market research
• business strategy development
• counselling
• & Conflict Resolution.
Metaphor & Clean Language
We use metaphor easily & naturally to communicate complex ideas, & to understand
other people's ideas.
For example, great speeches & written work tend to contain powerful & memorable
metaphors.
Shakespeare's metaphor 'All the world's a stage' is a particularly notable example.
Advertisers too have discovered that metaphors move us in a way that goes straight
to the heart - or to the wallet - because metaphors are such a powerful vehicle for
conveying meanings.
Metaphors are also extremely common in our everyday speech.
Research (Gibbs, Raymond W Jr., 'Categorization & metaphor understanding',
Psychological Review 99[3]) has shown that we use up to six metaphors per minute
in English, mostly unconsciously & unnoticed. This is because metaphors underpin
our thinking, & bubble to the surface in the words we use. Metaphors are a natural
language of the mind, particularly the unconscious mind.
Clean Language uses the casual metaphors that occur naturally in speech to
reveal the hidden depths of our thought processes.
Clean Language brings thoughts we have not been conscious of into our
awareness, where they can be shared & enjoyed – & understood.
Metaphors are doors to deeper understanding - of self & others. Clean Language
provides the key for unlocking the metaphors.
Clean Language techniques help to translate unconscious feelings into conscious
awareness (for oneself & / or between people).
This significant feature of Clean Language has many practical applications, for
example:
1. Have you ever had a hunch or instinct about something important, but been
unable to explain it or convince people around you? Using Clean Language
questions can develop that 'message from your subconscious' into more detailed
thoughts, so turning your 'gut feeling' into something really useful.
2. Clean Language can greatly enhance communication within groups. While
metaphors may often seem to be shared (e.g., 'We're a winning team') the details of

3. each person's metaphors are unique. Scratch the surface using Clean Language &
you'll discover the surprises behind a person's words - for example, is the
metaphorical team a football team, a Formula 1 team, or a quiz team? A 'team' - with
all that the word implies - means different things to different people. When everyone
in a group is enabled to share their metaphors, a new level of joint understanding &
focus can emerge.
3. Clean Language can be used to discover people's motivations at quite a profound
level. People's metaphors reveal their values & drive their behaviour. If a person
works at their best when they are like a striker in a football team, their focus may well
be on 'scoring goals' in any way possible, perhaps by bending the rules. Another
person may think of themselves as a member of the pit crew in Formula 1 & pay
more attention to combining speed & precision in their work. A third may feel more
like a quiz team member, placing a high value on knowing the facts. In this respect
Clean Language can help us to deal with different personality types, without
requiring great knowledge of personality theory itself.
4. Using Clean Language to explore a person's own metaphors creates a bridge
between the conscious & unconscious minds, enhancing self-awareness & self-
understanding. This is a powerful aid towards helping people achieve a desired
change, for example during the coaching process. Becoming aware of the
metaphors around a difficulty encourages a different kind of thinking, which can lead
to transformation.
Clean Language - history & origins
Clean Language was devised by a New Zealand-born psychotherapist, David Grove
(1950-2008), while working with trauma cases such as sexual abuse survivors & war
veterans during the 1980’s & 1990’s.
Grove later extended the fundamental Clean Language method to a number of
related concepts, notably Clean Space, Clean Worlds, & Emergent Knowledge. The
full extent of Grove's work will perhaps take a little while to be interpreted due to his
early death at the age of 57.
The term Clean Language represents a distinct 'Clean' questioning method, & also
Grove's the over-arching methodology.
In developing Clean Language, David Grove devised a set of 'Clean' questions.
'Clean' in this context meant that the questions introduced as few of Grove's own
assumptions & metaphors as possible, giving the client (or patient) maximum
freedom for their own thinking.
Grove discovered that the 'Cleaner' the questions were, then the more effectively the
patient's metaphors could be developed into powerful resources (awareness, facts,
understanding, etc) for healing & change.
While David Grove did not publish widely (Grove's only book was Resolving
Traumatic Memories, co-authored with B I Panzer; Irvington, 1989) his methods
achieved outstanding results, which attracted worldwide attention in the therapeutic
community.

4. During the 1990’s Penny Tompkins & James Lawley (leading figures in the Clean
Language community) codified & developed David Grove's work. They wrote about it
in their book Metaphors in Mind (2000). Tompkins & Lawley used the term 'Symbolic
Modelling' for their blend of Clean Language, metaphor & modelling.
The model is likely to continue to evolve & be adapted & adopted in work, learning,
personal development, & no doubt beyond, because it is a powerful, appropriate &
useful concept.
Clean Language principles
The way that we think has profound implications & powerful effects - on ourselves as
people, & also on our actions, & consequentially the effects of our actions on our
environment & people around us.
Clean Language attempts to enable our thinking (or more particularly the other
person's thinking if viewed from the questioner's viewpoint) to be as pure & clear as
possible so that clarity of awareness, understanding, decision-making & human
relations is optimised.
The fundamental principles of Clean Language are quite simple:
• Listen attentively
• Keep your opinions & advice to yourself as far as possible
• Ask Clean Language questions to explore a person's metaphors (or
everyday statements)
• Listen to the answers & then ask more Clean Language questions about
what the other person has said
There are twelve basic Clean Language questions.
Supplementary specialised questions are used less frequently.
The questions are combined with words from the other person (patient, client,
whatever) - & theoretically no additional words from the questioner. Inevitably there
is sometimes opportunity or need to insert additional questions or words, especially if
using the methodology outside of a clinical environment, in which case the principle
remains that questions must be free of bias or other influencing input from the
questioner.
Very attentive listening is essential to the process - to ensure that the person's words
are accurately repeated in the question.
While at first sight this might seem constraining, once the questions are familiar, they
become a flexible, multi-purpose toolkit. Like the notes of the musical scale, they can
be used to create anything - from a nursery rhyme to an orchestral symphony.
(That's another metaphor incidentally...)
If a person is seeking to change, then change may happen naturally as part of the
exploration process.

5. Clean Language is not a method for forcing people to change. The aim is to help &
enable.
A Clean Language facilitator may repeat back some or all of what the person says in
order to direct the person's attention to some aspect of their metaphor before asking
their next question.
In common with many positively oriented modern behavioural & Coaching
methodologies, Clean Language works best when you 'go for the good stuff'.
This means:
Ask the questions about the positive aspects of a person's experience.
Ask about the things that the person wants (more of).
Beginners may find that the most obvious metaphors are metaphors for problems but
exploring these is likely to be uncomfortable & less effective.
Focus on the positives.
The basic Clean Language questions (established by David Grove)
In these questions, X & Y represent the person's words (or non-verbals)
Developing Questions
"(&) what kind of X (is that X)?"
"(&) is there anything else about X?"
"(&) where is X? or (&) whereabouts is X?"
"(&) that's X like what?"
"(&) is there a relationship between X & Y?"
"(&) when X, what happens to Y?"
Sequence & Source Questions
"(&) then what happens? or (&) what happens next?"
" (&) what happens just before X?"
"(&) where could X come from?"
Intention Questions
"(&) what would X like to have happen?"
"(&) what needs to happen for X?"
"(&) can X (happen)?"
The first two questions: "What kind of X (is that X)?" & "Is there anything else about
X?" are the most commonly used.

6. As a general guide, these two questions account for around 50% of the questions
asked in a typical Clean Language session.
Using Clean Language in work & business
The Clean Language concept is extremely flexible.
It can be used for all sorts of situations where 'Clean' communications &
understanding are helpful.
The structure below helps to consider different ways of using Clean Language
methods in work & personal development situations:
1. Applications focusing on the Clean Language questions.
2. Applications combining Clean Language & metaphors.
3. Applications using 'Clean' principles, but not necessarily using the Clean
Language questions or using metaphor.
Applications focusing on the Clean Language questions
An example of this type of application is the 'Motivation in a Moment' process, which
was devised by UK-based practitioners Marian Way, Phil Swallow, & Wendy
Sullivan, & taught to 1600 leaders of weight management clubs.
Members had just a few minutes of the leader's personal attention each week, so the
organisation wanted the fastest, most effective way to make a real difference.
The process uses just a few of the Clean Language questions to help people to
focus on what they want to have happen, & what steps they need to take to achieve
it.
1. What would you like to have happen? (Establishing a desired outcome.)
2. & what needs to happen (for that desired outcome)? (Checking the conditions that
need to be in place.)
3. & can (what needs to happen, happen)? (Checking that they have confidence that
it can be achieved.)
4. & will (you do what needs to happen)? (Checking motivation - note that this is not
a Clean Language question.)
Many research & requirements-gathering applications of Clean Language also take
this approach, capitalising on the ability of the Clean Language questions to reduce
bias in the results.
Applications combining Clean Language & metaphor
An example of this kind of application is the use of Clean Language to help people
increase their experience of desirable states of mind (creativity, confidence etc., or
the state they regard as optimal for a particular task).

7. So, if an Executive Coach wanted to experience more of their optimal Coaching
state, a Clean Language facilitator might ask:
"When you're Coaching at your best, that's like... what?" (Encouraging the client to
offer a metaphor for the optimal state.)
The facilitator would then help the person to explore the resulting metaphor, using
the Clean Language questions, in any order, but most frequently using the first two
questions, 'What kind of X (is that X)? & 'Is there anything else about X?'
Other applications in this category include team alignment workshops in which
participants first explore their individual metaphors for working at their best, & then
combine their metaphors to form a team vision. This application was devised by UK-
based practitioner Caitlin Walker of the UK-based Training Attention company under
the name Metaphors@Work.
Applications using Clean Principles...
(... but not necessarily using the clean language questions or using metaphor)
A number of applications exist which are labelled as 'Clean' but which use neither
metaphor, not the Clean Language questions. These include the 'Clean Feedback
Model' (again devised by the Training Attention company) which offers a structure for
separating what has been observed from the interpretation of the observer.
Clean Language - further learning & information
It is possible to use Clean Language based only on the principles in this article.
However, fuller training in the approach will enable you to use it in a more directed
fashion, & to work with more complex situations.
You can learn more about Clean Language at:
www.xraylistening.com - (Judy Rees)
www.cleanchange.co.uk - (Wendy Sullivan)
www.cleanlanguage.co.uk - (Penny Tompkins & James Lawley)
These websites, run by leading figures in the Clean Language community, have
further articles about Clean Language & its applications & training.
www.trainingattention.co.uk - (details of Caitlin Walker's work)
Read the book Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds by
Wendy Sullivan & Judy Rees (introductory) or Metaphors in Mind by James Lawley &
Penny Tompkins (more advanced).
Clean Language glossary
Bind - refers to a 'catch-22' situation, i.e., where two interdependent factors lock
together to impede progress

8. Developing Question - a Clean Language question intended to uncover more
information about whatever the person is currently paying attention to.
Metaphor - a reference to one kind of thing in terms of another. If you can sensibly
add the words "it's like…" ahead of a statement, then it's probably a metaphor.
Metaphor Landscape - Clean Language questioning typically reveals a network of
linked metaphors within a person's thinking, referred to as a metaphor landscape.
Relationships - the connections between elements in the metaphor landscape.
Symbol - the individual elements within a metaphor landscape.
Judy Rees - biography
Author, trainer & consultant Judy Rees is an expert in the questioning & listening
technique Clean Language, & the co-author (with Wendy Sullivan) of Clean
Language: Revealing Metaphors & Opening Minds, a best-selling book on the
subject. A former journalist & media executive, Judy has been working with Clean
Language since 2005, & has trained people from all over the world in its use. She
has developed several business applications & taught these to people in fields
ranging from factory floor to boardroom, education to engineering, sales to
complementary medicine. Reported outcomes have included greater clarity
(reducing misunderstandings & waste), improved rapport (leading to stronger
working relationships), & deep insights into what customers & others really want
(increasing satisfaction & boosting sales). Judy Rees & her company X-Ray
Listening are based in Brentford, West London, UK.
Judy's contribution of these Clean Language learning materials to this website is
greatly appreciated.
In summary
The world is changing. 'Pull' replaced 'push' a generation ago; now 'help' is replacing
'pull', if you see what I mean.
Instead of 'stick or carrot' there are now far more positive & sophisticated options
available to modern communicators, coaches, teachers, managers, & leaders, for
motivating, helping, & developing people.
The enlightened & the enlighteners now concentrate on helping people achieve
choice & growth by enabling better understanding, awareness, & education.
Clean Language methodology is potentially a very relevant tool in the overall process
of working towards positive change.
Like NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), Clean Language theory came originally
from the world of psychotherapy but is increasingly being used in business
situations.
In philosophical terms Clean Language is similar to communications concepts such
as Transactional Analysis.

9. The mutual awareness aspects of Clean Language relate strongly to the Johari
Window theory.
If you use & enjoy working with concepts like NLP, Transactional Analysis, Johari
Window, then you will probably enjoy working with the Clean Language concept.
Clean Language is a very modern methodology. Its aims are rooted in helping
people - not exploiting or manipulating people.
Clean Language is therefore naturally connected to the open & progressive
approaches we see increasingly being used by today's enlightened teachers &
leaders.