The Enneagram System
The Enneagram provides a map of the nine underlying personality types of human nature, or nine orientations for encountering and moving through the world. Working with the Enneagram, we begin to see ourselves and others with more clarity and compassion. We begin to recognize where we have choice and to move forward with intention.
In what can be a radical shift, the Enneagram helps us see that we are not our personalities. It provides a guide for each of us to catch ourselves in the trance of our personality and to wake up. With practice, we recognize subconscious patterns playing out in our lives and awaken to what is unfolding in the present moment.
The teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff are foundational to my work with the Enneagram. Gurdjieff taught that there are multiple centers of intelligence, and that there is abundant potential for transformation when we access the wisdom of these three centers – body, heart, and mind. Through somatic, Enneagram-informed coaching, I partner with my clients to become familiar with and proficient in accessing all three centers.
Discovering your Enneagram Type
Correctly identifying your dominant type is essential to experiencing real personal transformation using the Enneagram system. Often, finding your type is not as simple as taking an online test. Behaviors are not a reliable indicator of type, and the ego can trick us into attaching to or rejecting types. What’s more, the expression of type is not universal – it is shaped by many factors, including our unique combination of life experiences and identities.
It is important to take your time with this kind of exploration. I offer 90-minute typing sessions where I can help you understand the Enneagram system, including the finer distinctions between types, and start to identify the patterns that make up your unique system of self.
“We want to understand the Enneagram so that we can become more free – more liberated – from whatever is blocked, negative, and destructive – from whatever is unfree, conflicted, fearful, and wounded in ourselves.”
— Don Riso & Russ Hudson