I got cleaned!

Attended the Clean Coaching Conference in London over the weekend.  Very good material and sessions, all based on the "clean" concept of questioning, used particularly in coaching.   

For those unfamiliar with the concept of "clean" questioning, it is a way of helping another person find answers without giving advice.  This may sound similar to the contemporary model of "coaching", so popular today, particularly in the business context.  However, "clean" is substantially different.  "Clean" is as clean as possible of the questioner's assumptions, opinions and metaphors.  Furthermore, although listening is an integral component of the process of clean, it definitely does not use techniques such as paraphrasing, summarising etc, for these automatically provide the opinion of the questioner.

"Clean" was developed through the therapeutic approaches and methods of David J. Grove, creator of Clean Language.  Grove found that using clean language is a simple method of having the client amplify the metaphors they often use when describing a traumatic experience.  The key to Clean Language is to use the client's exact words without inference in a structured process that enables the client to self discover the cause of their problem.

From Grove's initial work in therapy, the concept has now been applied to coaching, communication and as I found at the conference, even market research (with stunning results).  In terms of practical and useable (by the layperson) psychological concepts, I believe "clean" is one of the greatest breakthroughs of the last 50 years!

See my reviews of two books on the subject "Metaphors in Mind" and   "Clean Language - Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds" for more information.