Here in this E + M mini, Christa explores the concepts of masculinity and femininity, as well as the tendency of certain types to lean toward different qualities, and how understanding this can transform your marriage dynamics. Learn which qualities come naturally to your type, which ones you might need to develop, and how accessing both strength and tenderness both offers us more resilient, balanced partnerships. Whether you're a Type 8 learning vulnerable collaboration or a Type 2 developing a...
Jun 25, 2025•15 min
Join Christa for a crucial conversation with Rachel Clinton Chen, MDiv and faculty at The Allender Center, about spiritual abuse and its unique impact on marriages. Rachel brings both professional expertise and Type 2 heart-centered wisdom to this difficult but necessary topic. Discover how spiritual abuse differs from general church hurt, the specific challenges it creates for couples when one spouse's faith is shaken while the other's remains intact, and how partners can support each other's h...
Jun 23, 2025•48 min
Join us for an inspiring conversation with filmmakers Nathan (Type 4) and D'Lytha (Type 5) Myers as they share their unique journey of marriage, parenting, and creating meaningful entertainment together. Nathan, known for his work on The Chosen and now running Grafted Studios, brings passionate creativity, while D'Lytha offers thoughtful wisdom. Together, they've created the award-winning film "Aria Appleton Shines," which tackles technology's impact on children and parental authority through th...
Jun 18, 2025•43 min
What does it mean to bring light to the darkest seasons of life and faith? In this deeply moving post-Father’s Day episode, Mike Donehey, lead singer of the reunited Tenth Avenue North, shares the heart behind their new album “Learning to Trust.” As a social Type 4 married to a Type 2, Mike demonstrates the courage to go to those dark feelings, sit with them, and grapple with them honestly—both in his music and his marriage. The album, which explores “the midnight hour in a person’s faith,” was ...
Jun 16, 2025•45 min
When emotions run high in relationships, knowing how to self-soothe can make the difference between connection and disconnection. In this practical mini-episode, we explore a few way each instinctual variant, Self-Preservation, Social, and Sexual/One-to-One, approaches calming when feelings are intense. We also break down a bit further to designate heart types of each instinctual variant needing emotional safety, head types seeking mental clarity, and body types requiring physical grounding. In ...
Jun 11, 2025•15 min
What if the key to a stronger marriage isn't avoiding conflict, but learning to dig in and work through difficult moments? In this practical episode, marriage therapist and relational life therapist Zach Brittle, 8 brings over a decade of professional wisdom combined with personal insights from his Type 8-Type 2 marriage. Host of the popular Marriage Therapy Radio Podcast, Zach shares his gifted perspective on the stories that often lie beneath our relationship struggles and offers Terry Real's ...
Jun 09, 2025•57 min
What does it mean to age with strength and wisdom? In this powerful episode, Kathleen Henderson, 8 (8-9 pairing) shares her honest journey and OR nursing background to help others through health challenges, empowering you to use your voice and your spouse through the seasons through health challenges and through the evolution of marriage in later seasons of life. As a Type 8 married to a Type 9 with adult children, Kathleen opens up about self-advocacy in healthcare, life, and work settings, sup...
Jun 04, 2025•54 min
As we step into a summer of refinement here at Enneagram and Marriage, what better time to focus on creating homes that truly work for our families? In this insightful episode, interior design and home organization expert and author Whitney English, Type 4 (4-9 pairing) shares her room-by-room approach to creating spaces that are both beautiful and functional. Whitney believes that anyone can live a beautiful life, that "if you're real you can't be ugly," and that everyone is creative—some of us...
Jun 02, 2025•54 min
Is artificial intelligence becoming the third party in your marriage? In this timely episode, we explore the growing trend of couples turning to AI for relationship advice, planning, and emotional processing. Based on survey data from real couples, Christa unpacks three major benefits AI brings to marriage—from vacation planning to communication tools—and three significant concerns about emotional bypassing, digital intimacy, and false authority. Drawing from relationship research and real-world...
May 28, 2025•28 min
In this special Memorial Day episode, Enneagram Type 2 Kristen Strong shares her powerful journey as a social Enneagram 2 giver and also military wife who spent two decades moving across the world, constantly rebuilding friendships and community. Author of "Desperate Woman Seeks Friends," Kristen offers vulnerable insights into the acute loneliness facing all of us in the busy culture of today and practical wisdom for anyone struggling to make meaningful connections through busyness, loneliness,...
May 26, 2025•50 min
What does it truly mean to love someone with your whole being? In this transformative episode, we explore the essential practices needed to move beyond surface-level connection into profound, soul-nourishing love. Drawing from both Enneagram wisdom and practical relationship insights, we unpack how your personality type influences your capacity for love, and offer compassionate strategies for breaking through the childhood patterns and defense mechanisms that limit your ability to love completel...
May 21, 2025•29 min
Influencer and Coach (Enneagram & Coaching) Hillary McCaskey, 9w8 joins Christa to explore how her Enneagram type shapes her marriage to an 8. Together they discuss how Hillary's 972 Tritype influences her ability to support her Type 8 husband's dreams while finding her own voice—culminating in both a healthier and more attuned marriage as well as their bold decision to embrace a comfortable life on the road as the traveling duo @VanKaskeys on YouTube. Hillary also shares her powerful journe...
May 19, 2025•54 min
Christa takes you on a journey through the subtle influences of Enneagram wings in marriage relationships. In this illuminating episode, she explores how our wing tendencies can sometimes take over our interactions with our spouse without us even realizing it. From the silent withdrawal of a 1w9 to the stubborn resistance of a 9w8, Christa breaks down real examples of how each type's wings manifest in marriage - both helping and hindering connection. Discover practical strategies for finding bal...
May 14, 2025•25 min
In this powerful episode, former megachurch pastors Jimmy and Irene Rollins share their raw journey from a marriage that was "surviving, not thriving" to genuine transformation after addiction threatened everything they'd built. For fifteen years, the couple maintained a thriving public ministry while privately struggling—Irene battling alcohol addiction and Jimmy confronting generational patterns of dysfunction—until their 2015 breaking point forced them to seek authentic healing. Through an En...
May 12, 2025•53 min
Just in time for Mother's Day, this special episode features Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jessica Turner sharing hard-earned wisdom about rebuilding when life veers dramatically off-script. Whether you didn't get to have kids, your marriage is different than what you wanted, or like Jessica, your marriage took a turn in a different direction, Jessica discusses how to navigate heartache, as she had to at the end of her 16-year marriage after her husband came out, transforming heartbreak...
May 11, 2025•27 min
In this illuminating mini-episode for anyone who finds themselves in a reactive Enneagram Eight space, Christa unveils tools for finding and accessing the hidden vulnerability healthily beneath the Eight armor. Whether you're an Eight, have an Eight wing or arrow connection, or love someone with Eight energy, this episode offers crucial insights into navigating those critical moments when an Eight hits their wall. Learn why fight-or-flight responses are so instinctive for Eights and discover the...
May 07, 2025•15 min
In today's episode, we challenge the common assumption that men always want more sex than women in marriage. Join us as we speak with J. Parker, author of "The Higher-Desire Wife," about the estimated 25% of marriages where wives have a higher sex drive at various seasons of marriage. We explore multiple causes of mismatched desire beyond stereotypes, from hormonal factors to relational dynamics, and discuss practical strategies for navigating these differences with compassion. This episode brin...
May 05, 2025•47 min
In this stance episode, Christa helps you to explore how our emotional regulation patterns impact our closest relationships through the lens of stances. This episode dives into the three stress stances—moving against, moving away, and moving toward—and how understanding these unconscious reactions can transform your marriage. Whether you're caught in criticism-defensiveness cycles or pursuer-distancer dynamics, you'll discover practical tools to recognize your patterns, regulate your responses, ...
Apr 30, 2025•24 min
It's all been done. I can't start until it's perfect. What if the critics come? In this episode, Christa talks with Mary Marantz, Enneagram 4, about her journey from growing up in a trailer in rural West Virginia to becoming a Yale Law graduate, successful entrepreneur, and author, only to learn she was still underestimating herself. This empowering conversation explores how to overcome self-doubt, silence your inner critic, and stop playing small. Mary's powerful message will help you move from...
Apr 28, 2025•46 min
Ever wonder why personal growth seems to follow predictable patterns of progress and plateau? In this illuminating episode, we dive into one of the Enneagram's most fascinating but rarely discussed aspects: moving around the whole Enneagram system. Learn how this powerful concept applies to everything from skill-building to relationship development, and why certain growth points require conscious attention to move forward. Whether you're an Enneagram enthusiast wanting deeper understanding beyon...
Apr 23, 2025•13 min
In this illuminating episode of the Enneagram and Marriage Podcast, we welcome Philip Nation, Vice-President/Publisher of Thomas Nelson Bibles and acclaimed author (Enneagram 4) to explore the powerful intersection of faith, scripture study, and marital connection. Philip shares his expertise on making the Bible accessible in relationships, offering practical wisdom for individual study as well as couples engagement on how to engage with scripture together. From his insights on The OPEN Bible's ...
Apr 21, 2025•35 min
In this special mid-week mini episode, Christa explores the ancient practice of biblical lament as a pathway to deeper intimacy with God and our spouses. Discover why expressing honest sorrow and questions to God isn't just permitted but modeled throughout scripture—from the Psalms to Jesus himself on the cross. Learn how each Enneagram type bypasses lament or grief differently, and how understanding these patterns can help couples create sacred space for lament together. The episode offers prac...
Apr 16, 2025•11 min
In this engaging episode, Brad and Sarah Johnson, Triad Partners, reveal how life as an entrepreneurial couple (Brad is the co-founder of Triad Partners) creates both unique challenges and extraordinary strengths in their marriage, family, and business. Brad and Sarah (types 7 and 6 pairing) share candidly about their journey and deep dive with us to the dark night of the soul moment of their marriage to climbing metaphorical mountains together, recognizing their different approaches to risk, pl...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 2 min
In this heartfelt episode, discover the transformative power of "holding vigil" for your spouse through prayer and presence in a way that reallly costs, but also really gives, both to you and your spouse. Learn both general tips and how each Enneagram type uniquely supports their partner during difficult times and what challenges they face in staying present. Drawing from literary examples like Frodo and Sam, Atticus Finch and personal experiences, Christa explores how true empathy creates sacre...
Apr 09, 2025•18 min
Who can get in a sexy state of mind when they're dealing with the triple threat of emotional load, cognitive load, and the physical demands of partnership and parenting, too. Mental load inequity is now recognized as the leading source of relationship tension through research, but what can we do about that when not one but both partners feel equally burdened? In this enlightening conversation, we answer just that with relationship psychologist Dr. Morgan Cutlip (Type 9), as we explore the princi...
Apr 07, 2025•49 min
When your personality seems to straddle multiple Enneagram types, it can feel confusing or even invalidating. In this illuminating episode, we explore what it means when you identify strongly with two or more Enneagram patterns, referencing insights from Dr. Dan Siegel's previous conversation on the show. Discover why this "multi-type resonance" isn't a flaw in the system but potentially a more nuanced understanding of your personality structure. Learn practical approaches to growth when you're ...
Apr 02, 2025•22 min
Is a clean house a spiritual obligation? In this liberating conversation, Dana K. White, author of the brand new book, "Jesus Doesn't Care About Your Messy House," challenges the shame and spiritual baggage many attach to home management. This book is for you, if no matter how competent you feel in other parts of your life, you still feel overwhelmed and defeated by your messy home. While it’s true that keeping a clean and organized living space can contribute to a sense of peace and well-being,...
Mar 31, 2025•42 min
How does your Enneagram type influence your experience of anxiety? In this insightful episode, we explore the unique ways each type encounters, processes, and responds to fear. Discover why Head types (5,6,7) intellectualize anxiety, Heart types (2,3,4) emotionalize it, and Body types (8,9,1) somaticize it—creating entirely different anxiety experiences. Learn how your type's core fears amplify specific anxieties and the unconscious strategies you've developed to manage them. Through compassiona...
Mar 26, 2025•13 min
In this compelling conversation, bestselling author Ian Cron discusses his new book "The Fix," revealing how addiction in its many forms affects us all. Ian moves beyond stereotypical views of addiction to show how everyone struggles with attachments that promise fulfillment but ultimately leave us empty. With wisdom and compassion, he explains how isolation fuels our addictive cycles, while genuine community creates the environment for healing. Ian shares practical wisdom about how the steps of...
Mar 24, 2025•46 min
In this transformative and quick episode, we walk together through several powerful practices to develop genuine internal validation. If you constantly seek others' approval or question your decisions, this episode is for you! Learn practical techniques to strengthen your self-trust and break the cycle of external validation right here. YouTube the episode here! Here we explore: Deliberate Self-Acknowledgment Practice Lived Evidence Documentation Faith-Based Self-Compassion Strategic Disengageme...
Mar 19, 2025•12 min
