“The Enneagram doesn’t put you in a box – you are already in a box. The Enneagram makes you aware of the box you are in.”
This is how Pam Roux, transpersonal psychologist, started the Enneagram workshop I attended over the weekend. The Enneagram describes nine different personality types clustered in threes around head, heart and gut.
The heart types are the helper (2), the achiever (3), and the individualist (4). The head types are the researcher (5), the loyalist (6), and the enthusiast (7). The gut types are the leader (8), the peacemaker (9) and the reformer (1). The typology is a dynamic in that each type “integrates” (or becomes more healthy) toward a second type and “disintegrates” toward a third.
I found understanding my own type number 4 in relation to that of my family and colleagues opened up new possibilities of relating with them and enormously helpful in creating flow within our relationships.