Start here: Clean Language for the real world
Practical resources for practitioners, advocates, and curious connections
Clean Language gets most interesting when it meets the real world: in healthcare, in tech, in conversations and in complexity. #CleanInTheWild
What is Clean Language?
Clean Language is a way of asking questions that helps people explore their own thinking, with minimal leading or interpreting. It’s especially useful in complex situations, when clarity, autonomy and understanding matter.
👉 Read my What is Clean Language? article
Choose Your Focus
Community connections
📬 Subscribe to my linkletter. It’s been delivering weekly news of minds and metaphor, #CleanInTheWild and much more since 2009.
🎟️ Come to Metaphorum. Gathering Clean Language enthusiasts online since 2016.
🩺 Join the Clean in Healthcare community to find allies and share practice.
💬 Comment on my posts here on Substack to share your perspectives.
Essential resources
📘 Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds: the book
📺 Who uses Clean Language? YouTube playlist
🎓 Practical Clean Language recorded course
FAQs, academic citations, translated materials, case studies, and more are all here:
👉 Browse my favourite Clean Language resources
Work with me
🧭 Mentoring for Clean Language advocates and trainers
🎓 Teaching conversational Clean Language skills, especially in healthcare
🔗 Network weaving for Clean Language enthusiasts, connecting people, projects, and ideas.
About Judy Rees
I’m an internationally recognised expert in communication and collaboration, known for bringing Clean Language into mainstream organisational life. I’m co-author of the bestselling Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds, and have taught and applied Clean Language globally for more than twenty years.
I lead the Mainstreaming Clean in Healthcare project (which was funded by the Health Foundation), and my recent peer-reviewed work on Clean Language appeared in BMJ Open Quality. I’m also Global Head of Methodology and co-founder of WhisperQuake, developing innovative tools and practices to enhance communication and insight.
With a background in journalism and extensive experience as a trainer and facilitator, I help leaders, teams, and clinicians communicate clearly in high-pressure, high-ambiguity environments. I’ve introduced Clean Language tools across healthcare, business, public-sector organisations, and community groups, making the approach accessible, evidence-informed, and practical.
I share insights through this Substack, LinkedIn, my YouTube channel, and Metaphorum - the annual Clean Language unconference I founded nine years ago.