August2007

Enjoying the summer? We are! We've been having an exciting time at the very-first Clean Summer School in Cambridge: 12 intense days of fun learning, ending with a brand-new crop of 17 Certified Clean Facilitators.

The group came from eight different countries on four continents, with many participants having no previous experience of Clean Language. But they soon tapped into the magic of metaphor - and returned home ready to use the process in their day-to-day lives.

Ready to add Clean to your toolkit? If you care about people and want those you work with to experience profound and lasting change, you'll want to take the plunge! In Module 1, 15 – 16 September, you'll discover the power of modelling with metaphor to help people get more of what they want, more reliably, while Module 2, 29 -30 September, will show you the easy route to facilitating changes which stay changed. These weekend workshops in central London, led by Wendy Sullivan, will be her last introductory-level training this year. For more details, click here.

This brand-new piece by James Lawley, written as notes for The Developing Group's August meeting, has been causing a stir in cyberspace. In it, James reflects on In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric R. Kandel (2007).

In the book Kandel, winner of the Nobel prize for Medicine or Physiology, intertwines a combination of cognitive psychology, neuroscience and molecular biology with his own personal quest to understand memory. James's chosen extracts explore the neurobiology of space perception – and his comments link this knowledge to Clean, and to Clean Space in particular. Thinking caps on!

It's one of the commonest 'problems' raised by those new to Clean Language. When all you have to work with are twelve questions, which is the right question to ask?

Of course, there's an art and a science to using the questions: coming to a training is the way to learn to use them with pinpoint precision. But the questions can be like the notes of the muscial scale – you can use them to create anything from a simple nursery rhyme to a Beethoven symphonies.

What we've noticed is that at the basic level, at least, it's almost impossible to ask the wrong question! Try asking the least useful question about the least useful word or phrase, and your client will still get useful information.

There's just one caveat – always ask about the things your client likes and/or wants more of, and about their metaphors for these, rather than asking about the problem. And enjoy having fun with the process!

If you're already creating Clean facilitation symphonies and want to hone your Symbolic Modelling skills to an even greater level of precision, you'll want to join Clean Change Company's advanced modules. Hot off the presses, we can now reveal our 2008 schedule:

A 25% discount is available if you book and pay for the four modules together. They do need to be taken in order, as each builds on the previous one, unless you have relevant advanced-level learning. If you have done Modules 1-4 (or equivalent) why not come along? Prices are being held at 2007 levels until the end of October.

General Practitioners will be able to try Clean Language for themselves on 4 September when Phil Swallow and Dr Peter Davies hold two short workshops for doctors at GP Forum http://www.rsm.ac.uk/gpforum, an annual conference given by the Royal Society for Medicine in London. "For me the obvious application of Clean for GPs is in establishing and maintaining rapport with patients," said Peter, who runs a busy local practice in Halifax, N Yorkshire and regularly uses Clean in his consultations with patients.
John Martin and Wendy Sullivan will be presenting a paper on Clean at the UK Systems Society conference in Oxford next month.
Have you signed up to social networking site www.facebook.com? The growing Clean Community group there is great for making contact with other Clean enthusiasts, finding answers to your questions, linking up with practice partners and more. The group home page is here.
Could you use ten or more copies of Penny Tompkins and James Lawley's video of a Clean client session, 'A Strange and Strong Sensation', on VHS? Several packs of ten, both in European and US format, are looking for good homes. If you have an idea about how they could be used, please email zannie@cleanlanguage.co.uk. Click here to buy your own individual copy on DVD.

If you've learned some Clean and want to be sure it's at your fingertips when you need it, practice is the key! If you're in London, the Central London Clean Practice Group meets on the second Wednesday of the month: on 12 September our subject will be 'Modelling happiness': go here for full details.

There's also a regular phone practice group which next meets on 11 September at 7pm UK time: if you've had at least two days' training in Clean, please email us to receive details of how to join in. And do you use the internet phone service Skype? If enough trained people are interested, a Skype practice group will also be formed.

"I just wanted to say thank you for the teleseminar. I found it so inspiring and helpful, especially since I was fortunate enough to be selected to do the "Live Demo" with Wendy. Since then I have been amazed at the difference that 5-6 minutes made to me, in that I feel much clearer about what being my 'true self' means to me." GP Sarah Coope