Accessing the Wisdom of the Enneagram

Who am I?

What a powerful question. And, one that lives at the core of every conscious person I know. If you have been living in this question, perhaps the most powerful tool for self-understanding you can find is the Enneagram.

I have been using the Enneagram in my coaching practice since 2002. The Enneagram is a personality type system with deep roots in spirituality and psychology. The many teachings contained within this incredible meta-system are profoundly important to anyone seeking to understand themselves and others, and to de-mystify their relationships. This teaching does not show up in the  traditional yoga lineages, so it’s an incredible complimentary teaching for all the yoga practitioners in the world. The Enneagram is not only deep and useful, but also fascinating and fun!

Want to learn more? Check out Yoga Journal’s first article on the Enneagram, which clearly and succinctly describes the system. A companion article explains The Best Pose for Your Enneagram Number.

GETTING YOUR TYPE RIGHT

There are nine types in this system:

Type 1 – The Reformer
Type 2 – The Helper
Type 3 – The Achiever
Type 4 – The Individualist
Type 5 – The Investigator
Type 6 – The Loyalist
Type 7 – The Enthusiast
Type 8 – The Challenger
Type 9 – The Peacemaker

Do one or more of these descriptive names sound like you? If you want to explore the Enneagram, the first step is getting your type right.

Click HERE to take our FREE 2-minute quiz so you can gain insights into your motivations that even your best friend might not know!

A Cautionary Tale
I was first introduced to the Enneagram in 2000, and I was promptly mis-typed.

A therapist friend who claimed familiarity with the Enneagram declared I was “such a Type 2.” He loaned me a book, and I read the chapter on the Enneagram Two Helper. It wasn’t a fit, so I didn’t go any further into the system. What a lost opportunity!

Fortunately, two years later I participated in a rigorous training program for Integral Coaching that included work with the Enneagram. I was asked to read Wisdom of the Enneagram by Riso & Hudson and speculate on my type. When I declared my type as the Enneagram Two Helper the panel of instructors looked surprised. “What led you to choose Type Two?” they asked so, I shared my story.

Their assessment was that I had an Enneagram Nine Peacemaker personality. They grounded this assessment with the fact that (i) I worked in the Conflict Resolution Department of a local University, (ii) previously I had been a professional saxophonist (so adept at non-verbal communication), and (iii) my energy was very calm, grounded and grounding.

They invited me to try on the Enneagram Nine Peacemaker. I did, and a whole world opened up for me!

What opened first was a world of understanding myself, deeply and powerfully, and then, understanding others.

I began to recognize the ways I automatically defaulted to the typical patterns of my type. I began observing these patterns, and over time was able to intervene and shift them.

I quickly learned how I could better relate to others by meeting them exactly as they were, rather than projecting MY personality onto them and getting “upset that they weren’t behaving properly.”

Finally, I began to learn how to both understand and traverse the contours of my unique path of psycho-spiritual development. The Enneagram allowed me to customize my path of personal development to greater psychological health and maturity.

What Our Enneagram for Yogi’s Quiz Accomplishes
My story illustrates just how important it is to get your type right. Lacking that, you will either stall out (as I did for two years), or even worse, confuse yourself with incorrect guidance. Accessing the good stuff the Enneagram has to offer requires that you first determine your “home base type.”

If you took the quiz above, I suspect you are wondering if our free Enneagram for Yogis’s quiz led you to an accurate choice.

We designed this quiz to inspire folks to take a first step towards the Enneagram, and that’s all. While you may have in fact chosen your correct type, confirming this, or accurately determining your actual home base type, will take more engagement.

Getting Your Type Right
Are you curious how to accurately determine your home base type?

Over the last 18 years I have developed a four-step process for helping coaching clients accurately determine their type. It looks like this:

1. In The Art of Typing, Enneagram author Ginger Lapid-Bogda explains that there are “five commonly used tests – iEQ, WEPSS, RHETI, Essential Enneagram and Eclectic Energies.” (page 31). To this list I would add QUEST. I have clients and students take three of these tests – typically the Essential, QUEST and Eclectic Energies tests.
2. We then triangulate the results of these three tests to determine the top two to three candidates.
3. I suggest videos, songs, books and websites so that clients can do some fun research.
4. Finally, we hold a conversation using a set of differentiating questions that help them get their type right.

At this point about 90% of clients settle on an Enneagram type and “try it on” for a while to see if it’s a good fit. For the others, a bit more research is in order.

Where Do I Go from Here?
The Enneagram is a profound system for understanding personality type with deep psychological and spiritual roots. The Enneagram gives insights into motivation – why you do the things you do. Motivation is a powerful driving force, and, if properly understood, offers unfathomable possibilities for deep understanding, grounded compassion and skillful action.

Email [email protected] if you are interested in booking a coaching session to Determine Your Type. You will take three tests, and I will score two of them for you (the third is automatically scored). We will then hold an hour long coaching call to help you differentiate your top types so we can determine your home base type. Reach out today to redeem this offer for a special price of only $149 (regularly priced at $199).