All these questions invite them to go deeper into their experience, so that you can unpack and elicit the deeper structure of their experience. And within that deep structure, you’ll find treasures and insights; what’s ‘beneath the surface’, which can then help them to shift into their ‘desired state’.

Similarly, if we’re to take a desired state frame – talking to someone who’s really inspired or excited by something – you could ask them, ‘Inspired in what way?’ or, ‘Excited in what way?’ And they’ll then reveal more of that desired state, which gives them even more access to what inspires or excites them. In this way we are accessing the almost limitless pool of resources available in that person’s unconscious by digging beneath the surface of what they are saying.

The key idea behind Clean Language is that we respect the other person’s ‘internal mental maps and models of the world.’ By staying ‘clean’, we allow them to explore and navigate their internal world without distorting, deleting or generalising it from – or with – our own perspective.

You might imagine that the person we are conversing with or coaching is navigating a computer game: they can’t see the full map of the game. In real world terms, they can’t see the full spectrum of their potential experience. Essentially, they’re just finding their way through their experience as best they can.
With Clean Language we can ask a question based on their ‘map’ or experience, but which takes them in different and unexplored directions within their own internal world. This can be deeply revealing and incredibly enriching for the person we are talking with. It can be profoundly liberating and transformational. And it’s remarkably simple.