The Enneagram -
Integrating Psychology and Spirituality

Introduction
The Value of the Enneagram in Spiritual Direction
Benefits to Spiritual Directors
What Spiritual Directors Say

The Enneagram, a dynamic system of personality types that identifies nine unique approaches to life, respects all spiritual paths and traditions, and is a powerful tool for the discovery of emotional and thought patterns that can distract us from our experience of God and each other. 

While rooted in sound psychological and spiritual knowledge, the Enneagram is not an abstract, esoteric theory. Prayerful awareness of our personalities frees us from the “boxes” in which we unconsciously live. Gentle self-observation, aided by spiritual practice and a practical knowledge of the Enneagram, helps us recognize, accept and let go of our reactivity, and become more fully present to ourselves, others and God.

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The Value of the Enneagram in Spiritual Direction

"WHO AM I?” is a foundational theological question. Deepening self awareness
is key for an honest, authentic relationship with self, other and the Holy. Waking up and becoming available to ourselves and to the Holy requires that we recognize the compulsions, patterns and internal stories that limit us and deny us our full dimensionality.

The Enneagram offers unparalleled benefits to those supporting and companioning others on their journey to the Divine. With its clear descriptions of nine unique personality types, the Enneagram provides type-specific paths to a compassionate heart while dissolving the barriers that each personality encounters on the way to wholeness. Spiritual transformation requires an exploration of the inner dynamics
that drive perceptions, feelings and actions.

The Enneagram equips spiritual directors with an understanding of the core
motivations, fears and internal stories that create automatic responses to life for each of these nine personality types. Serving as a midwife of grace, the Enneagram names the fears that bind us, and identifies the filters of perception that blind us to the love and compassion present in each moment, when we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Complex, yet accessible, the Enneagram provides a compassionate tool for spiritual directors to recognize their own projections so they can listen to directees more openly. This identity consciousness brings a greater appreciation of “other” as well as the understanding that the only appropriate response is compassion.

Benefits to Spiritual Directors

Familiarity with the Enneagram enhances spiritual direction by:

• Helping both the spiritual director and the directee discover blind spots and biases that decrease receptivity
  to the Divine
• Providing discernment tools to distinguish between automatic patterns of reactivity and deeper invitations to freedom and relationship with Spirit
• Increasing respect, understanding and compassion for the diversity of human expression
• Providing tools for identifying and working through personal “hot buttons”
• Offering fresh spiritual perspectives on the directee’s recurrent life and faith challenges
• Building upon innate spiritual capacities and encouraging contemplative practices for spiritual growth

Enneagram Studies in the Narrative Tradition offers a full range of Enneagram programs that integrate psychology with spiritual experience. Helen Palmer, co-founder, has made many original contributions toward understanding how meditation and awareness training relate to the nine psychological types. She has developed and teaches an in-depth psychological-spiritual curriculum for type and spiritual freedom. She presents classes around the world that focus on key topics of psychological and spiritual integration. Some of the themes include type and false identity, projection, presence and self-forgetting, virtues of the heart, intuition and retrieving the Holy Ideas.

What People Say

“In my work with the people who name and honor their lives
as sacred, the Enneagram has been an invaluable tool as it
deepens awareness of specific patterns that lull us to sleep
to our lives. No spiritual experience is possible in this state
of automatic. Waking up to responsible choice, becoming
receptive, allows us to live our prayer.”
SANDRA SMITH, M. DIV., Retreat Facilitator

“The Enneagram has been an answer to prayer for me.
Thanks to the understanding it has given me, I am able to be
more present to God, compassionate with myself, and helpful
to my directees.”
BERNIE VAN DORT, Spiritual Director

“Being a spiritual director is first and foremost about
listening with directees to the Divine Presence in their lives.
The Enneagram supports me in being a better listener by
helping me recognize when my own ‘habits of mind’ keep
me from being fully present and receptive. With receptivity,
I can listen with greater compassion to directees.”
MARY JO RUCCIO, Spiritual Director

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