9 Styles of Being Human: An Introduction to the Enneagram

An ancient and modern tool that illuminates nine distinct motivations of human behavior, the Enneagram is a map of human diversity that can give you insight to become more aware, compassionate, effective, authentic, and free.

• If you’ve been baffled about how your boss or partner or child insists on seeing things in that ridiculous way…

…the Enneagram can help with that.

• If you are confused why you continue to behave in the same ways that keep leaving you frustrated or lonely…

…the Enneagram can help with that.

• If you give yourself a hard time for how you approach things…

…the Enneagram can help with that.

• If you feel constrained, deadened or unable to connect in the way you’d like…

…the Enneagram can help with that.

• If you see that you are not living the life your soul is longing for…

…the Enneagram can help with that.

The Enneagram offers a deep understanding of ourselves and others that can allow huge breakthroughs in chronic conflicts, stuck relationship dynamics, and personal performance.

And this is just the beginning. The Enneagram as a tool is useful right away, and there are additional rich layers that continue to invite powerful insights and leverage for personal growth.

Cracking the Human Code

Let’s admit it: people can be confounding!

Before I knew the Enneagram, even as an empathetic person, I couldn’t fathom why certain people approached life the way they did. How could they think it was a good idea to persist in their baffling ways? Why couldn’t they be more like me? (HA!)

Of course I confounded myself too. I didn’t understand why I kept behaving in ways that didn’t get me the connection or results that I wanted. Why was it so hard for me to change my patterns even when I could see they weren’t useful to me?

When the Enneagram explained how this all makes sense, I felt instantly empowered. I could now understand my own and other people’s motivations. Compassion and objectivity were more available to me, as well as a sense about how to approach things in a more effective way.

I’ve always had a knack for understanding people and what makes them tick, but it wasn’t until I learned the Enneagram that I could give that gift of understanding to others in a powerful and lasting way.

Learning the Enneagram can open up the deep territory that you’ve been immersed in all this time, perhaps without realizing it.

The way it illuminates why we do what we do is unparalleled in the study of psychology and spirituality. The self-awareness that it provides alone can be life-changing. Applying what it indicates, even can be even more transformative.

More Than a Personality Typology

Especially inspiring in learning the Enneagram was the implicit promise that I didn’t have to keep living in the cage that my personality was mandating. I learned I was much more than who I usually take myself to be.

Working with the Enneagram has allowed me to appreciate my gifts, to face my shadow, and to see things in front of me freshly, instead of out of patterned thinking and feeling.

Most importantly, the Enneagram has invited me into territory where I begin to experience more and more of who and what I truly am. I am not ultimately my personality pattern or traits.

“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.” -- Albert Einstein

This promise of the Enneagram is about knowing your essential self and experiencing the freedom your soul is longing for. This is what I love to work with people toward discovering, contacting and developing.

But we can’t get there without seeing the patterns first— getting intimate with them. That’s what this workshop I’ve created for you offers.

Finding Your Style

The Enneagram describes nine distinct patterns of feeling, thinking and acting that are driven from deep perceptions about the self and the world.

It can be very affirming to have your worldview reflected to you through this lens. Finally- there’s clarity about how your way makes sense!

It can also be disturbing- as we learn that each of the nine points of view are essentially based on a mis-perception of reality. The way we each see the world has big gaps in it. And each of the nine types has its own predictable blindspots.

"...unless you know the basic mechanics behind the workings of the ego, you won't recognize it, and it will trick you into into identifying with it again and again.” -- Eckhart Tolle

The Enneagram helps you see these mechanics and undo the inner tricks you play on yourself without realizing it.

9 Different World Views

After we plot ourselves on the map, seeing which vantage point we specialize in and default to, we can then develop awareness and choices about where and how we can travel next.

Which one of these mantras do you think might represent your point of view?

• I’m really good at being who you want me to be.
• I’m easy going. I don’t rock the boat.
• Nothing personal, but I’d rather just be alone.
• I can find the bright side of anything!
• I tell it like it is. If you don’t like it, too bad.
• We should all work on improving ourselves and the world.
• I trust authority, except when I don’t.
• I love helping people— I can’t help myself!
• Mediocrity = Death.

NOTE: Discovering your type is not about putting you into a box, but rather helping out of the one you are already inevitably in.

As you explore the 9 points of view the Enneagram describes, you may have a sense about your point of view right away, or it may take some time and discernment. Each of us actually has all of these 9 energies within us. It’s just that a few of them, and one in particular, has the most pull on us. And sometimes it can be truly surprising when we find out which approach is our key strategy.

Why Enneagram Panels?

In this workshop you’ll learn the essentials of this dynamic system directly from the experts, and discover how its wisdom can enrich your life.

By experts I mean panelists of each of the 9 types explaining what it is like to come from their point of view.

Panelists can transmit the heart of each type in a multidimensional way that isnot possible in a book or from a test. Witnessing real humans you get to learn in four dimensions. You can see what’s similar and different between living examples instead of imagining what that might look, feel like, or sound like from a written description.

Watch An Excerpt of the Type 3 Panel

Learning this way, you not only understand cognitively, but can feel the emotional tone, the energy, and the body language of the 9 styles. Through their narratives, you can sense a resonance or “gestalt” of the way each type feels.

You can read Enneagram books and take Enneagram tests, but neither of these is guaranteed to give you an accurate assessment of your type. Unlike other personality typologies which can be determined by how you answer a quiz, the Enneagram requires an inner honesty and self-discernment process.

"I learned so much about myself, my family and my community members. It opened my heart even wider. The panels were great- the lightbulbs kept coming on!" - Brenda, participant

In my experience, learning from people who accurately understand their types and who can articulate their points of view, is the best way not only to understand the system, but to determine one’s own type.

What If I Don’t Know Anything About the Enneagram?

Perfect! This workshop will be a great starting place to offer you background, context and all the essential information needed to begin your journey.

What If I Know a Lot About the Enneagram?

That’s great too!

• If you haven’t seen a panel workshop before, get ready for the Enneagram to come alive and deepen in you.
• If you have seen panels before, you already know that each one adds to the richness of your understanding and to the matrix of impressions about each energy. I strive in the interviews to get at both typical and deeper themes of each style organically and respectfully. Experienced Enneagram students have told me it this approach has been evocative and additive for their understanding. Additionally, many panelists offer wisdom from their journey including which practices and experiences help them stay awake and rebalance their patterns.

After you take this course you will be more able to:

• Dissolve misunderstandings
• Increase empathy and compassion
• Own your strengths and weaknesses
• Understand yourself and your loved ones better
• Effectively communicate your views in a way others can understand
• Have more choice about your default patterns running you
• Understand how to leverage your personal development
• Break through old patterns that are holding you back
• Address outmoded beliefs and behaviors
• Reduce or resolve conflicts
• Communicate more effectively to different types of people

This online workshop can save you time and money while powerfully delivering you the essentials of this system. To seek out this level of content on your own would take countless hours and not be guaranteed at as high a quality.

To learn this content one-on-one with me would be valued at well over $1000. Accessing it in this form, not only saves you that cost, but also allows you to avoid travel costs and having to take time off from your personal or work life, and gives you the ability to access the content again and again as your understanding grows.

Experience this workshop and be introduced to the Enneagram, the 9 primary points of view we orient from as humans, and help you understand where you can go from there.

The Enneagram is both an ancient and modern map that allows you to see through your trappings and remember who you truly are.

This Workshop Includes: 7 hours of online audio and video content:

• 12 evocative videos and 1 audio covering essential Enneagram introductory material
• Teaching on the 3 centers of intelligence plus awareness exercise
• Lively panel discussions for each type describing what it's like to come from their point of view- with two people of each enneatype
• Discussions about straightforward and deeper aspects of each style
• Q&A after each panel

15 pages of useful handouts:

• Explanation of the three centers of intelligence
• Unique content about each type including self-image, avoidance, paradox, key tasks, transformations, archetypes, etc.
• A handy “scorecard” to take notes while discerning your type
• Ethics of using the Enneagram in a way that supports development
• List of Enneagram resources for future enrichment

The information in this workshop can be life changing- a paradigm shift that can continue to support your development ongoing.

You will have access to all of this in the convenience of your home. You can enjoy watching and discussing at your own pace.

All of this is available for an incredible value without having to travel anywhere.