Clean language is a wonderful book categorised by Crown House Publishing (2008) in the popular psychology genre, that is part story book, part text book, and is totally practical in its approach to the fascinating subject of Metaphors and their place in our lives.
This book is based entirely around twelve questions, asking about, and developing metaphors for the thoughts and words we use in every waking moment. And what kind of clean is that clean? Clean language is about respecting the other person’s choice of words in description, and using only their supplied words to phrase any of the twelve questions. These questions by design contain as few of the questioners assumptions and contamination of metaphor as possible, allowing people to explore their own experience through their own metaphors.
These clean questions were developed by a part Maori New Zealander, David Grove, who developed Grovian Metaphor Therapies as he worked with trauma victims beginning in the 1980’s. James Lawley and Penny Tomkins have studied and extended David’s work, co-authoring ‘Metaphors in Mind: Transformation through symbolic modelling’ in 2000, one of the first books of its type on the subject.
The authors of this book, Clean Language, Wendy Sullivan and Judy Rees, own the Clean Change Company in West London in the U.K, and have employed their practical experience of using Clean in their work, as developed by David Grove, James Lawley and Penny Tomkins, to create a clear, straightforward, and relatively simple volume to communicate a complex subject matter to the readers.
It is designed as an introduction to the subject of Clean Language, intended for use by almost anyone with an interest in better understanding themselves, while improving communication with other people, and generally leans towards providing a reference for facilitators of Clean Language sessions to help others make changes they would like.
This book is genuinely worth its £16.99 price tag, plus the inevitable Amazon shipping charge, and in this short review, I hope I can bring you a flavour of the content, and perhaps outline some of the benefits that the clean application of this information can bring to many aspects of your life.
The more astute readers among you will already have identified ‘A flavour of the content’, in the previous paragraph, as a metaphor, and you comprehend this perfectly, although very readers will actually have eaten, or even licked a review to gain the flavor of its content.
Metaphor is recognising or experiencing one thing in terms of another. And the word Metaphor comes from the Greek ‘amphora’, a storage container used for transporting valuable goods. Interestingly, the authors point out that as we use metaphor as a means to transport meaning from one kind of thing to another, the word metaphor itself is a metaphor.
Metaphor is essential to language and thought, embedded from our first moments, and has only recently been recognised as being at the heart of how we perceive and experience the world around us.
Clean Language, the book, informs us that Clean Language is a system of exploring Metaphors, very specifically individual’s metaphors, to enhance communication, to gain deeper understanding, and to effect change.
(I will refer from this point on to the book as ‘Clean Language’, and the subject as ‘Clean’ for clarity on part of the reader).
Clean Language delivers its information to us in three initial sections, Acknowledgements, Foreword, and Introduction, before (Metaphor approaching!) getting to the meat in the next sixteen chapters. Two appendices, (that usefully list the core twelve questions in the first, and list a further 19 advanced questions in the second), references, and an index close out this publication.
The Foreword and Introduction are essential reading for clean virgins, and although I had experienced a two day Clean workshop delivered by Sue White, (who by the way is mentioned in the acknowledgements list), I found that I needed to refer to the introduction to refresh my understanding of the principles underlying the process.
As the reader progresses through the book, a developing understanding of the subject is gained, particularly in the cleverly titled chapter #3, ‘The Magic of Metaphor’, which explores how we relate to concepts and feelings by using metaphors.
‘We are in Love’: ‘We are at a crossroads’: ‘Things are looking up’. These are all common metaphors that describe more vividly the emotion and meaning of the person saying them.
A strong example of the importance attached to metaphors is demonstrated by an exercise in this chapter using coins to represent family members, and then asking you to remove a coin from the arrangement. This proves a surprisingly difficult process, clearly showing the understanding we have of the meaning, and the attachment we hold for the metaphors (Coins) that represent our loved ones. This exercise is also used to demonstrate that we use space, the locations of the coins representing our relationships with the family members that we had chosen to represent. We are then reminded that space is the ultimate metaphor, and after this exercise, we have a visceral understanding of this complex concept.
Attending exquisitely is a further chapter title, which is an exquisite way of asking us to listen carefully, and expand on that to attend to all the information that is presented to us. Noticing for example, different realities of the client that are patently untrue, but both true and real to the client, and respecting that the client genuinely holds that belief to be true.
There are also twelve tips to improve listening, and notes on managing our attention during a session, and once again the exact repetition of client’s words is empasised by the alteration of the word ‘Paraphrase’ to the sound-alike, ‘Parrot-Phrase’. This is a particularly useful means of reinforcing a core principle of the book’s content.
Only after all this preparation are the twelve questions that are the process revealed to us, and the next part of the book is devoted to explaining the uses of the questions. This is done clearly (again), and is reinforced with diagrams representing uses of the symbols that represent the people or things that a client refers to during a session.
Any further details given by the client on these symbols are known as ‘Attributes’ in Clean jargon, and as these symbols are revealed, they are arranged in a ‘metaphor landscape’.
The twelve questions can also be used to ask about real life experiences with powerful results.
The basic Clean Language Questions of David Grove
The questions are categorised into three sections,
X and Y represent the person’s words or non-verbal signals.
Developing Questions,
Sequence and source questions,
Intention questions
Developing Questions
(And) what kind of X is that X?
(And) is there anything else about X?
(And) where is X? or (And) whereabouts is X?
(And) that’s X like what?
(And) is there a relationship between X and Y?
(And) when X, what happens to Y?
Sequence and Source Questions
(And) then what happens? Or (And) what happens next?
(And) what happens just before X?
(And) where could X come from?
Intention Questions
(And) what would X like to have happen?
(And) what needs to happen for X?
(And) can X happen?
One of the most useful parts of this book are the sample transcripts of real life Clean sessions at the end of each new chunk and chapter, and this clarifies what could be otherwise a heavy and impenetrable subject.
The Authors also include methods of easily beginning and ending a Clean session, and a session structure diagram for reference, and move on to expand on the many areas that clean can be used, not forgetting to explain that Cleanish, or almost Clean, can be used conversationally almost at will, with excellent results.
This Book is structured to bring the reader on a journey, demonstrating gently by the order of content the qualities that must be present or developed to respectfully and usefully bring Clean to a client session. The tools required to do this are provided, with activities and/or assignments at the end of the chapters to allow practical application of the theory.
Clean can indeed be a complex and difficult, not to mention dangerous subject, as metaphors and Clean can be a bridge to the unconscious mind, and revealing parts of this can be traumatic for both the explorer and observer. This danger is well documented, and the reader cannot help but be aware and cautious as to the latent power of the information.
Perhaps the Book could have been structured slightly differently, and the intriguing success stories that form chapter fifteen could have made a delightful and enticing introduction? Or interspersed throughout the chapters along with the example transcripts. It was really only after reading these that I fully understood the power and wide-ranging application potential of Clean. I might have paid more attention throughout the book armed with this level of understanding that I only received at the conclusion.
In the acknowledgements the reader is thanked for picking up the book, but is thanked last. I would like to be either first, as the purchaser, or ultimate facilitator of the books success, or left out entirely.
But, these are minor and personal quibbles, not to detract from what is a thorough, respectful, detailed study, that becomes a manual, and moves on to educate and inspire as to the possibilities of the application of Clean.
My final thought? Buy it, read it, apply it! You will be thrilled at the results!
For more information contact brian@bdolan.com
