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What does the ‘clean’ in Clean Language stand for?

The clean of Clean Language is an intention by the questioner to keep their own bias, assumptions or expectations to a minimum and to leave the person receiving the question with as much freedom as possible to answer in a way that suits their own system. They were developed by the Counselling Psychologist David Grove and applied initially to support clients in resolving traumatic memories.

While classically clean questions look simple, they are tiny training tools in their own right. In order to ask a clean question, the questioner must listen carefully to what has actually been said while at the same time keeping their own bias, assumptions and expectations to themselves. This creates a level of safety in the interaction. Then as the the questioner listens to what is being said, they consider the purpose of the interaction, the content and the structure of what has been said and then choose a word or phrase to invite the listener to share more about. This creates a level of belonging in the interaction, the meta-message being, what you are saying matters to me. Once a clean question has been asked, the listener has complete freedom to answer in whatever way their attention has gone AND it means that the questioner is likely to learn something new because they didn't restrict the content of what was going to be said.

Clean questions are most effective when used within a culture of psychological safety. We recommend, within Systemic Modelling, supporting groups to detect, acknowledge and be able to work with contempt or drama across a group so that the group can genuinely share what they are thinking and the group's attention is open to updating their model of reality. All Clean Coaching trainers require personal development to ensure they develop their clean stance as well as their Clean Language questions.

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