Watch Your Language!
NLP's therapeutic use of language in the Meta and Milton Models works admirably with the sensory and cognitive domains of experience. There is a third domain--metaphors--and now, a third linguistic model that can be used to explore the metaphoric landscapes that people describe as they share their mental experience.
 The first introductory article about David Grove's Clean Language written by Penny and James in 1997. It's all there, and while their model has moved on somewhat, the basics are as relevant today as they were then. Contains a Flash animation by Phil Swallow. Also available in Dutch, French and Polish Clean Language is a method developed by David Grove to dialogue with a client's symbolic representations and metaphoric expressions. This article briefly describes how you can use Clean Language to enhance your non-verbal communication with clients.
Tangled Spaghetti in My Head: Making use of metaphor
Many therapists and counsellors work intuitively with their clients' metaphors -- without knowing there is a language model and a process for doing so. Clean Language is the basis of the appoach and it can be encorporated into most therapeutic modalities.
Using Metaphors with Coaching
As a tool for coaching, the client's metaphors give you an insight
into their unique perception of their situation and their goals. When
the client tells you that they can 'see light at the end of the
tunnel', that is what they are experiencing. There is light for them,
and they are in a tunnel. They will unconsciously 'know' much more
about their situation from this metaphoric viewpoint.
Once we accept that we always affect a person with
whom we interact, we can also realise that there are many ways to
avoid clumsily trampling over another's map and even attempting to
re-write it for them.
Conversing with Metaphors
Some teachers disregard metaphors and consider them 'throwaways' or 'filler'. But many with exquisite rapport skills have learned to listen very carefully to the language their students use so that they can converse within the logic or 'frame' of their metaphors.
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