Last year I had the pleasure of interviewing – and then meeting in person – Marian Way, who came all the way from England to teach a class on ‘Clean Language’ with my good friend Bev Martin. And I’ve just learned that she’s returning in May this year and that she and Bev are offering a free teleseminar this coming Thursday to give people a chance to find out about this amazing, holistic coaching / therapeutic tool – and to ‘meet’ Marian in advance of the training itself.
Clean Language is a great tool for helping people to understand themselves, and in doing so, you get to understand them. And the idea is brilliantly simple: rather than ‘interpreting’ what a person has said and asking questions that (often unintentionally) lead them down your own line of thought, a clean question accurately reflects the other person’s words and is as open as possible. This has many effects – the person hears their own words and can question whether that is what they meant to say; they feel understood and respected; and they are given maximum choice about how to respond. Their answer’s not constrained by the assumptions of the questioner. The clean questions were devised by psychotherapist David Grove and there are only about thirty altogether, 9 of which are used 80% of the time. Most of the questions are everyday questions (e.g. Is there anything else about that … ? and What kind of … is that?) so Clean Language is not restricted to coaching and therapy – it’s is used by parents, teachers, business managers, health practitioners… anyone who helps other people to think more clearly. And many people use it to help themselves to think more clearly, too…
Marian says: “You know something deep inside you but can’t put it into words? The solution to a problem. An idea for a business. The right decision. The best way to motivate your staff. The problem is, there are so many aspects to it, so it goes round and round in your mind. You focus on one aspect, it seems that a solution is close, then oh no, you remember another thing and the solution / decision / idea seems just as out of reach as ever. If only you could take some time to really think it through, get to the bottom of it all… you decide to spend some time mulling it over – but it’s too hard, and you’re easily distracted, or you notice you’re putting your own barriers in place. I am keen to show as many people as possible how Clean Language helps people to access their own inner wisdom to a degree they had not attained before. I seek to do this by helping coaches, teachers, trainers and other leaders in the community to learn how to use the method.”
The free introductory seminar, which will give you more information about Clean Language and how it works, and which will include a short live demonstration with an audience member, is this Thursday at 12.30pm PST. I’m planning to be on the call, and if you would like to join me, you can read more and sign up at: http://www.apricotisland.com/