I’ve posted often about the relationship between our bodies and our thoughts. You are not a disembodied mind or brain or personality who happens to inhabit a physical body – you are a whole person, and your body is essential to the way you think.

And I’ve recently been asked by several people, “What’s the relationship between all of that and Clean Language?” (What is Clean Language?)

One connection is that the late David Grove, creator of Clean Language, was fascinated by the role of space and movement in thought, and by the way people used metaphors – often unconsciously – to connect things.

His later work was all about space and movement. First came a process called Clean Space… then something called Emergent Knowledge… then another set of processes which have been called the Powers of Six, which he was still working on when he died in early 2009.

Each of these therapeutic processes involved moving the client physically, either on the therapist’s instructions or actually strapped into a device called a whirlygig, operated by the therapist and an assistant. (Read about my experience of this here)

Even within his Clean Language period, David was very into space and movement, and embodied metaphor.

He used the Clean Language questions to map out the geography of people’s unique, individual metaphoric landscapes. The basic Clean Language question, “Whereabouts is X?” was used frequently, in lots of interesting ways.

He also used questions like “Is that a right-footed step or a left-footed step?”… nowadays echoed in Andy Austin’s Metaphors Of Movement work.

At once time David Grove and his then wife ran a retreat centre which had lakes, caves etc, intended as external representations of people’s inner landscapes. And he would often send clients out of the therapy room to walk, explore, and get new insights from the physical environment.

All David’s approaches from Clean Space onwards were highly process-driven. They’re even easier to learn than Clean Language – anyone can pick up the procedure in a few minutes. And many clients find them incredibly powerful.

  • What are your questions about Clean Space, Emergent Knowledge and the Powers of Six? Have you tried these processes as a client, or with your clients? If so, what results did you get? Please post in the comments area below.