Clean Language with Wendy Sullivan

Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds

Latest research reveals that metaphor is the very stuff of thought. Our unconscious habit of thinking of one thing in terms of another is at the heart of what makes people tick. It’s as if metaphor is the native language of the mind. Metaphors, or symbols, have a profound influence on our behaviour and yet are usually outside our conscious awareness – we notice them as little as a fish notices the water it swims in.

Clean Language, developed by David Grove, a counselling psychologist, is a tried-and-tested questioning technique for bringing a person’s metaphors into consciousness, improving inter- and intra-personal communication and having the potential for driving powerful, long-lasting change.

Effective in situations as diverse as psychotherapy and sales, school teaching and business management, team-work and research, complementary health and computing, motivation and modelling, and across different languages and cultures, it’s an approach which is catching on worldwide.

This hands-on workshop will give you the chance to ask and be asked Clean questions, to explore some of your own unique internal metaphors and those of other participants, and to learn the fundamentals of Clean and how to apply them, so that you can put it to use immediately.

By the end of the Clean Language weekend, you will have learnt:

To notice more of the metaphors all around us
How to tap into an altogether different and profound quality of information within yourself and others, by harnessing the power of your clients’ metaphors.
To help others to change by facilitating them to access astonishing resources within themselves (‘Surprising’ is in fact the adjective most often used about Clean).
To act more fully in line with NLP presuppositions such as ‘body and mind are one system’ and ‘a person potentially has all the resources they need’.
How to supercharge your NLP skills, by blending them with your new Clean skills, to get out of your client’s way as they craft, explore and evolve their desired outcomes.

Wendy Sullivan bio

Wendy Sullivan has over 30 years experience in training, development and coaching. She is a specialist international trainer of Clean Language and Symbolic Modelling who has worked with the founders of the field – David Grove, Penny Tompkins and James Lawley – for more than nine years. She is one of the most experienced Clean trainers in the world and also works as a coach, facilitator and consultant. Wendy’s clients span five continents, and include private individuals, SMEs and corporate organisations, that use these powerful approaches in personal development and to improve team-working, communication, relationships and business success. She is a registered psychotherapist and a certified trainer of NLP and she owns and runs West London-based Clean Change Company (www.cleanchange.co.uk). She is co-author, along with Judy Rees, of the Amazon Category Best-seller Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds.

‘Traditional coaching methods work well, but Clean just seems to cut through. Once you start coaching in metaphor, you can sort through problems and challenges; you don’t need to fix someone’s metaphor because it allows some very, very clever information to come through. The applications of Clean are really quite profound; the impact of it is very significant.’ Phil Roberts, senior manager, broadcasting
“Clean is a fantastic tool. It’s just so versatile and so respectful.”
Sheena Bailey, Consultant.