The way we ask questions in therapy matters. Clean language minimises the chance of imposing our own assumptions and allow clients to explore their own experiences. Leading questions can steer them in a particular direction. Understanding the difference between the two can make a significant difference to how effective your sessions are.
In this article, we’ll look at what clean language involves, and how leading questions can affect the therapeutic process. This will help you to use questioning techniques more effectively in your work with clients, and get better results.
What Is Clean Language in Therapy?
In a therapeutic setting, clean language doesn’t mean not swearing at your client (although in most situations you should probably avoid that as well). It means avoiding leading questions, i.e., those that suggest you’re expecting a specific answer.
The concept of clean language was developed by therapist David Grove in the 1980s. It’s now used in many situations, and you’ll be familiar with it if you watch courtroom dramas on TV. ‘Tell me how you killed your wife’ presupposes that you did. It would bring the defence leaping to their feet with an objection. Grove developed a very specific set of clean language questions. They begin by reflecting back whatever the client had said and then add a non-leading request for more information. Here’s an example.
Client: The worst moment is when my Dad starts to shout.
Leading language response: Is that what makes you anxious?
Clean language response: And when the worst moment happens, when your Dad starts to shout, what happens next?
You can see that the leading language question implies we want a certain answer. By introducing the word anxiety, we’re telling the client what we think they might (or should) feel. The clean language option sets the scene, then encourages the client tell us about their experiences in their own words. They might reply ‘I start to feel anxious’, or they might say something else.
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The Importance of Clean Language
Clean language is important in every part of your therapy session, both in and out of hypnosis. In fact, not using clean language is thought to be the basis of ‘false memory syndrome’. This refers to memories that have been brought about by careless or leading questions. The memories have no foundation in fact, and no evidence to support them. But the client can still come to believe they are true.
This might seem implausible but think how real a dream, or even your client’s peaceful place, can feel. In trance, your client is arguably more than usually open to suggestions, which is why we use trance in hypnotherapy. An implicit suggestion, particularly during a regression, that an event took place, or that it took place in a particular way, combined with the fact that the unconscious is largely unable to distinguish between reality and imagination, does the rest. (If you want to know more, have a look at my article on how hypnosis and memory interact.)
If you are ever not sure how to respond to something the client says and want a clean language response, questions like ‘What happens next?’, or ‘Is there anything else about …?’, will usually get the conversation going again.
(Technically ‘what happened next?’ is not clean language as it presupposes that something did. But as the client is not still in the situation, there must have been something between then and now. And we are not suggesting in any way what that something was.)
Leading Questions in Therapy
As we’ve already said, leading questions contain a bias towards a specific response. One place you’ll meet them regularly is in marketing. ‘Would you like the red one or the blue one?’ takes it for granted that you’re making one purchase or the other. In other words, it’s a type of suggestion, which is exactly what we use in our hypnotherapy sessions.
In general, leading questions are best avoided when you are gathering information about clients’ experiences. But you might use them deliberately now and then to lead the client in a positive direction. Look at these examples and see if you already use any of them with your clients.
- Questions based on assumptions: ‘What will be better when you are a non-smoker?’ assumes that the client will successfully quit. ‘What changes did you notice since the last session?’ assumes that something changed.
- Questions based on linked statements and questions: ‘Most of my clients find this better with their eyes closed. What would you like to do?’ This is close to an indirect suggestion. We’re hinting we’d like the client to close their eyes.
- Questions inviting the client to reframe an experience or feeling: ‘If you look at that childhood event now, how can you understand it differently?’. Or ‘If you think of your anxiety as protective, how does that change your ideas about it?’
- Questions based on cause-and-effect implications: ‘If you continue to smoke, what will happen to your health?’. The ‘Fork in the road’ metaphor used by so many therapists is an extended version of this. Your descriptions of the options are skewed so that the client is primed to choose the path of change.
- Questions asking for agreement: ‘Are you ready to be hypnotised now?’
Are Leading Questions Always Wrong?
Far from it. Asking leading questions in the right circumstances can help to move your client forward. In fact, David Grove developed clean language after noticing that well-known therapists like Carl Rogers used language to help shift their clients’ experiences. He wondered what would happen if they took a step back instead, and subjected clients’ internal experiences to minimal interference.
So, while leading questions risk imposing your views on the client in some contexts, they also have a well-established place in helping therapy move forward. There’s no reason you can’t move between the two approaches, using each where it’s most appropriate to support your client.
References
Loftus, E. F. (1975). Leading questions and eyewitness reports. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 560-572. Leading Questions. [online] Available at: http://changingminds.org/techniques/questioning/leading_questions.htm. [16.4.22]
Tompkins, P and Lawley, J (1997.). Less Is More: The Art of Clean Language, V2. [online] First published in Rapport Issue 35, February 1997 Available at: https://cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/109/1/Less-Is-More-The-Art-of-Clean-Language/Page1.html. [16.4.22]
About Debbie Waller
Blog Author Debbie Waller is a hypnotherapist, supervisor, and trainer with more than twenty years of experience. As well as having a busy client practice, she runs Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training and writes books and articles for therapists who want to deepen their knowledge and develop effective practice.
Disclaimer
The information and ideas shared on this blog are based on the author’s professional experience, research, and training. They are intended for educational purposes and to support reflection and professional development. Therapists should always apply their own professional judgment and consider the needs of individual clients when using any techniques or suggestions discussed here.
While every effort is made to ensure the information is accurate and helpful, no responsibility can be accepted for any loss, damage, or difficulties arising from the use or misuse of material contained in these articles.
