5. Glossary: Hemispheres & Embodied Change

Last updated on 22 Oct 2025

Felt Sense

A path to body intelligence. It is the vague, unclear physical sensation that forms in the body before words. It is often accessed through "stumbling" when the left hemisphere's language is insufficient to describe a holistic experience.

Clean Language

A questioning method developed by David Grove. It is designed to explore a client's inner world (especially metaphors) by exclusively using the client's exact words and metaphors. It uses simple, "clean" questions (e.g., "What kind of...") to prevent the coach's interpretations from interfering with the client's unfolding experience.

Controlling (Left Hemisphere)

The tendency of the left hemisphere to want to manage and solve problems. It tries to analyze experiences (like metaphors or a Felt Sense), categorize them, and offer solutions. It gets caught in its own positive feedback loop, reinforcing its existing map rather than exploring new territory.

Map (Left Hemisphere)

The simplified, abstract model of reality created by the left hemisphere. It consists of categories, beliefs, and established patterns. Its great danger is that it tends to believe the map is the landscape.

Landscape (Right Hemisphere)

The complex, living, implicit reality as perceived by the right hemisphere. It includes the entirety of non-verbal, embodied, and interconnected experience.

Left Hemisphere (LH)

The part of the brain that simplifies, categorizes, analyzes, and abstracts. Its mode is Re-presentation (interpreting what is already known). It operates through explicit language and linear analysis.

Metaphor (Language of the RH)

The primary way the right hemisphere presents complex information. It is a "synthetic thought" that captures a holistic experience (e.g., "a wall," "a burden") in a single image, long before the left hemisphere analyzes it.

Positive Feedback Loop (LH)

The mechanism by which the left hemisphere confirms itself. When it analyzes a problem using its existing map and offers a solution based on that same map, it leads to a reinforcement of its own map, preventing new information (from the right hemisphere) from entering.

Presentation (Right Hemisphere)

The mode of the right hemisphere. It is the immediate, holistic, non-verbal experience of reality as it shows up in the moment. It is simply "that which is there," before it is interpreted or re-presented by the left hemisphere.

Right Hemisphere (RH)

The part of the brain that perceives holistically, interconnectedly, and in the present moment. Its mode is non-verbal Presentation. It communicates via the body (Felt Sense) and rich, sensory metaphors.

Re-presentation (Left Hemisphere)

The mode of the left hemisphere. It is the flat abstraction or interpretation of reality based on an existing map. It takes the rich "Presentation" from the right hemisphere (e.g., the metaphor of a wall) and reduces it to a known concept (e.g., "resistance").

Stumbling (Access to the RH)

The moment where language fails or becomes hesitant because the speaker is trying to articulate a complex, holistic experience (a Presentation) for which the left hemisphere has no ready-made words. This "stumble" provides access to the Felt Sense and the non-verbal wisdom of the right hemisphere.