Any-a-what?

When I talk to people about the Enneagram (ennea, meaning nine; gram, meaning diagram or picture), they often respond with any-a-what? The Enneagram is a personality typology that supports spiritual and personal growth. Though gaining in exposure recently, the Enneagram has ancient roots and has been used by spiritual directors in the United States for more than a half century. 

I first encountered the Enneagram in the mid-1990’s. At that time, fresh out of graduate school, I saw it as just another personality test. I thought that Myers-Briggs, Friendly Style, 16PF, DISC already provided an alphabet soup of personality inventories. Who needed another? 

I have since come to understand the Enneagram goes beyond personality inventories, which help explain behaviors, to get at why we do what we do; what motivates us. Most importantly, it can help us challenge the false stories we tell ourselves that keep us trapped in repetition. 

In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . .the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.” (Romans 7:15, 18). The Enneagram offers a way to understand why we each think, feel, and act in specific, albeit different, ways, and how we can find freedom to respond differently with more compassion, kindness, mercy, and grace toward ourselves and one another. While the Enneagram does promote self-awareness, more importantly, it offers direction and hope, for personal and spiritual growth. This makes it different from other personality inventories and why I look forward to sharing it here at All Saints’. 

Our first session will help narrow your type, introduce you to the three “triads” of the Enneagram, and offer some tools for working with insights gained. For the first session, it would be helpful (though not absolutely necessary) to use one of the tools for Enneagram typing at YourEnneagramCoach.com. Over the next three sessions, we will look more deeply at each type and then conclude with resources for going deeper. 

I invite you to be curious. 

Nancy+