A Spiritual Strategy for People in Relationships

November 1-2, 2008
Scottsdale, AZ
Two-day workshop with Helen Palmer at Franciscan Renewal Center
For registration information, contact Carole Whitaker.

Please see our current schedule for other Enneagram workshops in the Narrative Tradition.

This program highlights people in partnerships of all kinds. We’ll be hearing panel interviews in the Narrative Tradition of couples, colleagues, spouses and friends who are seated on stage as pairs. Interwoven with the story of how type has shaped their relationships, we’ll see live role-plays between the pairs, paying special attention to both what they say, and where their awareness is placed as they speak.

In hearing what different types of people think, feel and say to each other, we grasp their intentions and needs in relating. Yet however complex or fascinating the story, our pattern of thoughts, feelings and ways of relating is an automatic habit of mind that constantly recurs as attention is drawn up and out to cope with daily living.

But knowing where your awareness is placed is work for the inner observer. The classic spiritual question “Where are you” is about knowing the crucial difference between automatic up–out relating and relationships that are in–down and receptive to things as they actually are.

Receptivity is “what’s left” when the automatic patterns of type relax – an undefended awareness that is touched and shaken by the world around us instead of being distant from it. The type structure ordinarily guards our vulnerability, but the same defenses that offer protection also obstruct authentic emotions that bring us alive to each other.

This is a lively format of panels, lectures, meditations and type group breakouts, all of which are focused on the spiritual task of relaxing into receptivity “on the spot” instead of reacting mechanically. You will accomplish a detailed record of your own history of relating to discover key points of strength and resistance in your pattern. Our aim is to relax in and down when resistance is triggered rather than be carried away from subtle perceptions of heart that only can be received.

Psychological-Spiritual Curriculum overview

Other topics:

Type and False Identity
Projection
Presence and Self-Forgetting
Spiritual Antidotes
Virtues of the Heart
Retrieving the Holy Ideas
Type and Intuition
The Enneagram for Counselors, Spiritual Directors and People Working with Others

See other workshops by Helen Palmer

San Francisco Bay Area workshops and classes