Clean Language was developed by David Grove to help people work indirectly with trauma.
Clean Language uses specific ways of questioning that helps to elicit a metaphor or story that is specific and meaningful for the client. Once the metaphor is created the client is able to engage in the metaphor landscape and safely work with the problem indirectly.
Think of metaphors as a form of analogies which is an inherent way most of us have learnt to share an idea or concept. And although we all have different life experiences, are from different cultures and think differently there are common experiences or expressions that many of us share.
A few of examples of metaphors that people often use to describe a problem:
My life is like ‘an uphill struggle’, I is though my feet are ‘trapped in mud and I can’t get out’, I have a ‘lead weight on my chest’. This is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
Take a look at the picture below 
Most of us can identify with the picture and understand what it is telling us. We may have had an experience of it or we might be able to have a concept of it. However, the magic happens when we actively explore these metaphors because it ‘brings them to life’ and everything changes.
Clean Language can be used with anyone that has language and it doesn’t matter how basic the language is so long as the individual can access an imaginary world and has the willingness to participate in the process. Children are especially good with responding to Clean Language as they naturally inhabit the metaphorical world.