Words That Wound

an exercise in Clean Language by David Grove

Within a problem there are symptoms, and symptoms are a persons unsuccessful attempts to heal themselves. In Clean Language there is no attempt to remove a symptom, but instead to honour it and help it achieve its aim, the symptom has within it the seed for its own healing. One of the first steps is to evolve the symptom or the experience of the symptom into an object. This object can then evolve. David thinks of the symbols and metaphors as containers of information, and as being more intelligent than the client!

Many people use words which, deliberately or inadvertently, wound the recipient. This is a Clean Language exercise which heals the hurt caused by words. Within this exercise is encapsulated the structure of the Clean Language methodology of transforming a T-1 symbol and evolving it beyond T and into T+1.

The format starts and ends in almost conversation, 'normal' language. The client is invited into their own metaphorical domain and at the end they leave it gently. As always with Clean Language it is important to repeat back exactly the words the client used.

1. Firstly the client is asked where they would like to sit and where they would like the questioner to sit.

2. Then the questioner as the client to think about what kind of words have hurt and what they meant.

3. "And take a little time, and what words hurt you?"

4. "And when (WORD/s) hurt you, where did they go? Did they go to your head, to your face, to your throat, to your chest, to your heart or to your stomach?

5. "And when (WORD/s) went to (LOCATION), whereabouts at/in (LOCATION) could that (WORD) that hurt have gone in?"

6. "And what did they go there like?" "And when they went there what did they turn into?" "And when they went there what were they like in there?" (This evolves the word into a symbol, an object which can be picked up and carried across.)

7. "And when (FORM) goes into (SPECIFIC LOCATION), whereabouts did (FORM) come from before it/they hurt you?"

8. "And what kind of over there?"

9. "And when (SPECIFIC LOCATION) before (WORD) hurt you, who said those words?"

10. "And when (WORD) came from (SPECIFIC LOCATION) would (WORD) be willing to return to (PERSON) and in what form might that be?"

11. "And when (WORD) is willing to return to (PERSON), what does (WORD) go there like?"

12. "And when (WORD) is willing to return to (PERSON), what would (WORD) like to do to (PERSON)?"

13. "And how do you feel now about (PERSON)?"

14. "And what has happened to the original feeling?"

The exercise is then brought to a conclusion.