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Latest News
23rd June 2008 The very first Clean Conference 'Magnetic Metaphors and Creative Conversations' took place in London, June 21-22 2008. Organised by the Clean Change Company, it was a fantastic success. So much so that there will be a 2009 conference on 12-13 September 2009. Put the date in your diary now!
9th January 2008
 We are sad to announce that David Grove, originator of Clean Language, Clean Space and Emergent Knowledge, died suddenly on January 8, 2008.
He was staying at the home of a long-time friend and collaborator in the USA when he appeared to suffer a heart attack. Emergency medical treatment was unsuccessful.
David will be sorely missed by all who knew and worked with him.
Further information can be found on the home page . Contributions to the extraordinarily high cost of returning David's body to his Maori homeland will be gratefully received by David's family via PayPal at donations@davidgrove.org - surplus funds will go towards creating a permanent memorial to David.
If you have tributes, stories or comments about David that you would like to share, please use the contact form to send them to us, or post them in the David Grove forum at www.cleanforum.com.
"My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends - it gives a lovely light." - Edna Saint Vincent Millay
18 Nov 2007 - Steven Pinker quotes Lawley & Tompkins by Judy Rees
 Did you know that Metaphors in Mind is quoted in the new Steven Pinker book, The Stuff of Thought — Language as a Window Into Human Nature?
Pinker says: "A book on psychotherapy called Metaphors in Mind calls on therapists to work with their patients’ metaphors like: “I have a sensitive radar for insults” and “I’m trapped behind a door.” " p.245
Pinker's book is already a New York Times best-seller. Tongue in cheek, James Lawley says "Of course it is only fair he should quote us seeing as we quoted him first!"
24 Sep 2007 - Symbolic Modelling goes Academic by Penny Tompkins
John Martin (Department of Systems, Open University, UK) has recently published an book review/article of Metaphors in Mind (James Lawley and Penny Tompkins) in the Journal of Metaphor and Symbol. As a result, he has become part of the Scientific Committee of the next 'Researching and Applying Metaphor Conference (RaAM7)' to be held in Spain (May 2008). This Committee is a selection of experts in the field of metaphor research who will review submissions for presenting at the conference. John was invited to represent aspects of metaphor in clinical settings.
24 July 2007 - Report on SUPERVISION EVENT July 2007 by Penny Tompkins
 James Lawley, Phil Swallow and I recently returned from our annual Supervision/Coaching retreat in France (Jennifer's de Gandt's beautiful center in Normandy). In addition to personally supervising experienced Symbolic Modelling facilitators each working with a client for 3 days (9 client contact hours), we introduced 'triads' — where we coach and supervise over a six-day period those who have at least 10 days training but have limited experience working 1:1. All facilitators reported a significant increase in their modelling skills, and clients were surprised and pleased with the results in their personal development.
This unique supervising format has always been one of my favourite events. I love having the face-to-face time with participants, the discussions and debriefing of their case work, the networking and finding the myriad of ways people are using Symbolic Modelling in their lives and work. There simply isn't time on a formal training to support people's skills in this way, nor to develop the friendships that result.
We will be holding this Supervision Event in England in 2008 for the first time, and I will be letting you know in due course when and where that will be taking place. And if anyone can recommend a good residential venue for 20 people, do get in touch via the web site contact form.
12 July 2007 - The Developing Group background notes to be published.
We (James Lawley and Penny Tompkins) established The Developing Group in January 1997. Initially its focus was supervision. Then in October 2001 we changed our remit to providing a bi-monthly forum for the exploration of new ideas in the field. Our background notes and the input from the day either form the basis for an article or they remain 'work in progress'. We intend to make available all of the articles and most of the notes. Ten have been posted so far.
27 May 2007 - Launch of new 'Clean Collection' web site. 
The all-new web site of the Developing Company was launched today, ten years after our first offering arrived on the Web. Naturally we used the Symbolic Modelling process to come up with an 'organising metaphor' (ably facilitated by web designer, Phil Swallow) of a gallery housing and displaying The Clean Collection.
Once we had the metaphor of a gallery, it made sense to arrange a guided tour for new visitors. This may be the only place in the world where you can get an overview of all the bits that go together to make up Symbolic Modelling and David Grove's work.
It's been a fascinating process modelling the old website and working out what we wanted in the new site and what needed to happen for that to come about.
As you can see here on the right, the original site was one page with some featured events at the top, links to our book and video and other sites down the left-hand side, with the right-hand side entirely occupied with articles.
To start with, most articles were written by Penny and James. As others contributed articles so the page got longer and longer until finding a specific article was becoming a chore. There was no catalogue, only a loose grouping by author name.
It was the desire to catalogue and organise the articles to make them easier to find that triggered the move to a new website design. Naturally, once we started the process, every aspect of the old site was scrutinised and a place found for it in the new site. There are fresh articles too in the new site and more will be added as time progresses.
We're hoping the new website will help more people to become acquainted with Clean Language and Symbolic Modelling - and we're genuinely open to feedback via our contact form.
Penny Tompkins and James Lawley
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