MY CLIENT KEEPS GOING ROUND AND ROUND HIS SAME LOOP OF OPTIMISM AND DEFEAT. I KNOW IN ORDER TO STAY CLEAN, I SHOULD NOT SUGGEST A SOLUTION, BUT ISN'T IT WARRANTED IF HE IS MAKING NO PROGRESS?

-J.P., COACH

While it may seem like you are helping your client by offering a suggestion of a solution to his repeated pattern, you would be robbing his system's chance to learn about itself and come to his own determination of whether he is ready to change and what that change needs to be. To experience his pattern metaphorically means your client gets to witness in a short, compressed time what may take hours, days, weeks, or more to play out in real time. This offers new awareness and perspective that are likely to be more effective in the long run than a suggestion coming from you. Just keep on asking Clean Language questions about what it's like now and what he would like it to be like. Trust the process: something always happens! 

And look for the next time we run our webinar Yes, but… Untangling Problems and Outcomes for Greater Effectiveness to learn still more helpful Clean Language skills.