The Enneagram

The enneagram, a model of human personality, is a great passion of mine. I have used it consistently in every area of my life for close to 20 years.

• It helps me figure out how to communicate with others so that they can actually hear me.
• It helps me to create closer relationships with those I care about.
• It shows me how to remain calm and clear during conflicts and arguments.
• It has helped me understand and soften toward myself.

What prevents us from doing these things naturally is that we can’t see ourselves clearly. We each have our blind spot. The enneagram hands you a diagram of your own and others’. If you are willing to be brave, it gives you the opportunity to actually see the beliefs and patterns that you hold out of fear and self-protection. If you are willing to be even braver, it points the way to releasing them. If you are willing to braver still, it can guide you to releasing others from your expectations about who you think they should be to instead embrace who they are.

In other words, it is a compassion tool of the highest order. Deep, broad, complex, and subtle, the enneagram can teach you many things, from how to talk to a colleague about a new project to how to release yourself from the expectations of others and live authentically. It stops you from interpreting the actions of others through your own filters and thus enables you to know them rather than simply reacquainting yourself with yourself. It can help you avoid arguments in favor of connection. It enables you to see through your own and others’ defenses to find the point of genuine connection.

Please join me for an online workshop to explore this rich, powerful, and mind-altering system. We will meet on Saturday, April 16 for a three-hour workshop that gives an overview of the system. You will receive guidelines for how to type yourself and begin to sense the types of others. There will be specific follow-up questions and exercises. We will meet again on Saturday, April 30 for a two-hour session from 11a.m.- 1p.m. EDT to hear what you have learned and give feedback for continuing to explore this game-changing system.

Sessions will be recorded and links sent out within 24 hours. Recordings and course materials will be available for use for 90 days after the last class date. We will meet on Zoom, an online videoconferencing platform.

We will cover:

• Introduction to the enneagram
• How to use the system skillfully
• Possible abuses of the system and how to avoid
• The Hornevian directional theory
• The three triads/centers of intelligence (intuition, emotion, reason)
• The three instinctual drives (self-preservation, social, intimate)
• A detailed description of each of the nine types and their three subtypes
• Specific suggestions for how to type your yourself
• The power (and danger) of typing others
• Recommended reading

Questions? Please email Michele

I’m really appreciating how your enneagram class helped me digest some of my blindspots that have been obstacles in my practice.  Apparently I am most like a self-preservation 4…  Now I’m seeing the humor in it!  The more I was able to be present, the more intimate I became with the textures of my emotions. Gail C.