As with Clean Language, I do wish David Grove had come up with a better name than Clean Space! It’s one of those phrases that seems to mean more or less anything to anyone, which causes all sorts of confusion.
And that’s a shame. Participants on my demo day on Saturday were blown away by it – even more so than by the three deep, metaphorical Clean Language coaching sessions they watched.
To me, Clean Space has a specific meaning. It’s a change facilitation technique devised by David Grove after Clean Language and before his final set of projects, Emergent Knowledge. It involves the client moving from space to space and “nailing their history to the floor”, as David put it.
In fact, rather than hammer and nails, we tend to use post-it notes.
I like to use Clean Space when I’m coaching a client who’s overwhelmed with a complex decision involving lots of different factors, but it can be used for all kinds of changes. Because the client is standing up and physically moving about, the whole of their neurology gets involved and shifts can feel pretty dramatic.
Clean Space can be very handy when, for whatever reason, you as the facilitator can’t be told what subject your client is working on, because it can be completely “content free”. That’s true of Clean Language too, but complete confidentiality is easier to achieve with Clean Space.
Clean Space seems to work best with individuals, but I know some people like to use it with groups, too.
Clean Space looks a bit like constellations, a bit like NLP perceptual positions. But it’s not the same. It’s both simpler, and more complex than that.
I’ll be releasing the video of Saturday’s session in a few weeks, and I’ll probably run a Clean Space day next year.
Meanwhile I’m curious. Have you been facilitated using Clean Space? What results did you experience? Please comment below.
Comments from original on judyrees.co.uk Alistair Donnell
5 December 2012
I love using it but haven’t been fortunate enough to experien
e it yet. I’ve had some really surprising results with it and one that sticks out, the quickest change I helped someone achieve was with a lady who receiving messages from her dead dad for about seven years. The lady asked me if she needed to see a psychiatrist with a look of dread. I took her through clean space, took about 15 minutes and the messages stopped. I must admit I still find the results I’m getting using clean approaches a bit difficult to get my head around. I can’t understand how these changes can occur so quickly I almost don’t believe my clients sometimes!!
hans van laake
5 March 2014 at
I have used clean space with great results; for example with a person who started out with a goal of “stop taking benzodiazepines” but was very scared of what would happen if she did: by the end of the CS session she had changed her goal into “living a healthy life” and she was confident she had the skills to do just that. On another occasion I did CS with a person who was petrified by receiving a letter that reminded him of a very painful part of his life that he had been avoiding with all his might. This letter was so upsetting that he could hardly even look at it, although he could not discard it either. Talking about it was very difficult as he found his reactions utterly irrational and unacceptable. After running through the CS protocol he was able to sit comfortably with the letter and make choices as to how he would respond to it.
I am always fascinated to see how meticulously people choose their spaces and how natural the process seems to be for them, even if they are taken by surprise when they are asked to “find another space” for the first time. I had people also spontaneously leave the room to identify a space in the hallway.