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Objects as Symbols
Following on from Clean Constellations last month, we decided to experiment with a similar process, using objects (e.g. Lego bricks, Russian dolls, coins, stones) rather than people as representatives. Of course it then becomes a different process, but has the advantage that instead of needing a whole group of people to cooperate, it is possible to work 1-2-1.
We were using a cut-down version of Lynn Burney’s process; cut-down because many of the questions in large-scale constellations simply don’t work in a one-to-one context. We noticed that the client quickly became engaged with their landscape and that it was possible to add in regular Clean Language questions.
Posted on 21 Apr 2011 by Marian Way in Practice Group
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Clean Constellations
As well as our usual evening session, a few of us met all day for an extended practice group session, all on the subject of Clean Constellations. This was run by Jordan Collier and John Barlow, who had recently been on Lynne Burney’s 2-day Systemic Representations workshop and who wanted an opportunity to practise.
Clean Constellations combines David Grove's ideas on space, psychoactivity and emergence with Bert Hellinger's famous Family Constellation work. Using audience members to represent important elements in their life, the client takes a privileged position outside of their personal process where they can watch the drama of their inner patterns and outer relationships acting themselves out in front of them.
Posted on 21 Mar 2011 by Marian Way in Practice Group
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Working With Physical Symptoms
The topic this evening was ‘working with physical symptoms’. We agreed we would start by asking about the symptom and to develop this into a symbol / metaphor, and then to find out what the symptom (or the client) would like to have happen. We started with a demo, where the symptom was ‘creaky knees’, which reminded the client of a creaky ship.
She was able to use this analogy to draw some conclusions about the relationship between ligaments, muscles and bones. She then went on to establish that, as well as balancing periods of rushing around with periods of relaxation (which she already does), she will (a) note in her journal how her knees feel now when she is sitting, standing, kneeling and walking, (b) research into what else she can do to help her knees feel good (e.g. massage), and (c) check in with how she is doing in three months time, noting again how her knees feel when sitting, standing, kneeling and walking.
Posted on 21 Feb 2011 by Marian Way in Practice Group
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How Resourceful Are You?
Practice Group Report
Happy New Year! And welcome to Jenni, Jo and Pete, who joined us for the first time this month. The topic for the evening was Modelling Resources. This is a topic we explored in May last year - and was voted as one of the 'winners' of our poll (the other was working with symptoms which we'll explore next month). We started with a short discussion of what is a resource. I drew a quick sketch (right) to show the difference between a resource, a problem and a desired outcome and we agreed that we would keep one another's attention in the 'resource' box on the diagram. Working in pairs, we used the following as a starter question:
Posted on 17 Jan 2011 by Marian Way in Practice Group
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Modelling Time
Practice Group Report
This month's topic was Modelling Time, and we worked in pairs, starting each session with a Clean Set Up (devised by Caitlin Walker and Dee Berridge), which involves asking three 'starter' questions with two or three questions of each response. This helped everyone to discover what kind of session we'd like to have, how we needed to be in order to make it the best session it could be, and what we needed from each other.
(I've also started doing this Clean Set Up at the start of each of my coaching sessions and am finding it works very well to make sure that my clients get the kind of session they want.)
To model time, we used another activity of Caitlin’s which involves the facilitator putting the client’s attention on first the past, then developing their perception of the past with clean questions, then the same for the future, then for ‘now’. This proved to be a very interesting exercise.
Posted on 13 Dec 2010 by Marian Way in Practice Group
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Clean Language is like… Permaculture
Permaculture is the practice of working with, rather than against, nature, in order to optimise the output from any piece of land. For example, by observing its natural resources in detail, practitioners are able to design an allotment to minimise weeding and to maximise yield. And although permaculture principles are derived from nature, they can be applied to all kinds of living systems, including business and community design.
Charlotte has been taking a course on permaculture, one weekend a month, for most of this year – and in talking about it, we’ve noticed that there are a number of similarities between permaculture and Clean Language.
Posted on 28 Oct 2010 by Marian Way in Clean Language, David Grove, Emergence, Metaphor
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When a Client’s Metaphor Landscape Changes
Practice Group Report
Welcome to Allison and Claire, who joined us for the first time this month, and welcome back to Julie who we haven’t seen for a while. It was good to see you all.
Our topic was ‘recognising and developing change’. We spent a short while at the start of the meeting talking about how to recognise a change, once a stable 3D metaphor landscape has been established, and about what to do when you recognise it.
Posted on 18 Oct 2010 by Marian Way in Practice Group
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Scope and Category
Practice Group Report
Welcome to Rasjad, who is here from Australia for the 12-day training that starts this Saturday, and who joined us for this month’s practice group.
We started with a ‘Clean Set Up’, asking each other what we would like the evening to be like, what we’d need to be like and what support we needed (with clean questions in between). Individual answers varied, of course, but some common themes emerged, to do with connecting back with Clean Language, and the environment being easy-going, relaxed and fun.
Posted on 20 Sep 2010 by Marian Way in Practice Group
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