"When we live inside a pattern, we don't know that we're living inside a pattern, which is why it's hard for people to type themselves. We just think that's reality. It's like the Johari box, there's what we don't know what we don't know. And I didn't know how desperately disconnected I was. I didn't feel as a child that was missing out on anything. I thought I was just fine. I thought watching the ants was more interesting." Russ Hudson co-authored The Wisdom of the Enneagram and other Enneagra...
May 14, 2024•1 hr 28 min
“I simply drove to this person’s house right away when I was feeling this rejection and said, listen I’m sitting outside in the car if you want to come out and talk. You know, but I didn’t go to the door and knock. I didn’t want to intrude. I want to respect his freedom. But at the same time I want to say “Hey let’s move on and see what’s happening, and if things need to shift and if I have missed some things, please.” Bob Fecas [SO/SP 2w1 279] is a spiritual advisor, mentor, and teacher of phil...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 34 min
"I've often heard people talk about The Work of Byron Katie as the "how"... there's the "what" of spiritual development... you know freedom, what it looks like... it's described so well in terms of Essence in the Enneagram. There are many ways to talk about it in many traditions. And there are many ways in terms of the how. But Byron Katie's is such a simple and accessible how. Like, take this step, follow this step, go through these little points... and there's often some evolution happening in...
Apr 16, 2024•2 hr 17 min
Sandy Jahmi Burg is a facilitator of Gendlin's Focusing -- the most powerful method of tapping into body intelligence that I've encountered. In this interview, we define it, demo it, and debrief. Enjoy. WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE Learn Focusing with Sandy The Enneagram School's Website Timestamps 0:00 Intro 3:46 What is Focusing? 6:30 The "felt-sense" implies "life-forward" movement 10:02 The importance of being "in relationship" with the felt sense 12:13 Making an invitation as you enter a...
Apr 02, 2024•1 hr 24 min
Yamira [SO/SX 5w4 531] is an artist in New York. Watch this interview on YouTube so you can see Yamira's art as she talks about it. WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE Yamira's Art Yamira's Social @mossyscabs @_brujaja The Enneagram School Get Officially Typed by Enneagrammer Timestamps 0:00 Intro 1:49 Why make art? 7:34 Grief losing whole portfolio of art (!) 10:49 What was the Grief like? 12:09 On delaying "dealing with the grief" 13:55 Facing fear and becoming a more "public" person 15:15 5 theme...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 17 min
Kelly Ayadi [SO/SX 5w6 512] is frequenter of online Enneagram forums and a somewhat more "relational" type 5 than might be typical, given her double-people instinctual stacking and 2 fix. In this conversation, we talk about her childhood "doing her own thing" and her relationship with her 9 partner, her kids, and her family. Kelly's framing of certain emotions as "unnecessary" is illuminating, as is her relationship with expressing love in a way that reaches the other person and appreciation for...
Oct 26, 2023•1 hr 35 min
I present to you the audio of the infamous Mascara Incident (which we don't talk about). This was recorded in December 2022, about 9 months before Courtney's official video interview. In this conversation, we explore Courtney's experience as an Attachment type in the Mental center, her typing journey (starting at 1, landing on 6), and her 6-ish journey to uncovering original insights about Object Relations and sharing them on the Big Hormone Enneagram podcast. We also touch on Alexander Techniqu...
Oct 10, 2023•1 hr 47 min
Courtney Smith [SO/SP 6w5 631] is a brilliant & original Enneagram thinker who has contributed hugely to our understanding of Object Relations. In this conversation, we explore her life as a 6 navigating her desire to work within systems and to rebel against them, and ultimately cultivating a more grounded relationship to her inner authority. Courtney's insights are illuminating and penetrating as always. WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE Courtney's Coaching & Enneagram Consulting Website ...
Oct 03, 2023•1 hr 30 min
Siena Hassett [SX/SO 8w7 827] is a Theatre Maker, Movement Artist, and someone who really embodies the virtue of the 8 -- Innocence: the joyful unselfconscious expression of one's life-force, and the willingness to be affected by one's environment. Siena is so alive and engaging, and I couldn't help but be moved by her wide open presence in this conversation. I really appreciate how we moved from "caricaturing" her 8ness in the first 15 minutes to unveiling her real sensitivity and heart, especi...
Aug 30, 2023•1 hr 28 min
Alexandra Arroyo-Acevedo [SO/SP 9w1 963(154)] is a brilliant Enneagram thinker with a very evocative and inspiring triple attachment life story. There’s no one I trust more to explain Attachment from the inside. Alexandra’s insights have been transformative for me, and for many in our community. Find her on the Big Hormone Enneagram podcast, on YouTube doing Enneagram breakdowns of the Bachelorette, and on her website, where you can book a natal chart reading with her as well. WATCH THIS INTERVI...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 37 min
Kristen Oberly [SO/SP 9w1 963(172)] is an exceptionally gifted dream analyst, artist, and guide for the unconscious realm. We explore her misdiagnosis with paranoid schizophrenia, her bouts with depersonalization, and the way she has come back home to herself by following her fascination with the unconscious. A very interesting and particular case of Social Bermuda 9, but the core 9 themes are certainly here: numbness, dissociation, and coming back to life by following the natural flow of my lif...
Jul 22, 2023•1 hr 29 min
Round 2 with Sarah [SO/SP 9w1 937]. A conversation ABOUT our last conversation, and a very personal look at both of our attachment games. I loved this. WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE Sarah's Links Sarah's Music 1 Sarah's Music 2 Sarah's Podcast Sarah's Instagram Learn the Enneagram at The Enneagram School . Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 3:29 Setting up the convo -- why we're here 7:56 First clip 9:53 Sarah pauses. "Floating on the river of meaning" swirling & managing the swirls 15:36 Second clip ...
Jun 14, 2023•1 hr 19 min
Sarah [SO/SP 9w1 937] is getting her PhD in psychology en route to becoming a therapist. In this conversation, Sarah is quite open and courageous in sharing what it's like for her on the inside of her "swirly 9-7 stem" energy and speaking style and her positive outlook vibes. We also how she accidentally gaslights partners without knowing it, because of how she can blur inner fantasy with outer reality. (I love this part.) We also hit a really interesting conversational glitch that put both of o...
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr 28 min
Emily [SO/SP 8w9 836] is a beautiful example of a heart-forward 8 who has done significant inner work and values her sensitivity. We get into what it means to be in a social "power position," why that's important for her, and what it means to value her vulnerability, among other things. Really good, high resolution introspection. Emily graduated from Yale undergrad and Oxford business school. She also rowed on the Irish national team. She currently works in a purpose-driven startup bringing smoo...
May 12, 2023•57 min
Czan [SO/SP 9w1 953] is a software engineer for a gaming company and currently lives in the US. He's an original Enneagram thinker, and "Attachment to Disconnect" is his profound insight into how Attachment types create situations to continue reaching for connection, rather than stably connecting. Czan has experience with various inner work modalities and has excellent insights about being an Enneagram 9. I'll add that I experienced his 5 fix vividly in this conversation, which you'll see in the...
Apr 28, 2023•1 hr 16 min
TRIGGER WARNING: sensitive content. Nancy Walter (SP/SO 3w4 369) is a co-host on the Big Hormone Enneagram podcast and is currently navigating graduate school in genetics. In this extremely candid interview, we talk about Nancy's childhood, wrestling with severe depression and mental health issues (possibly undiagnosed autism, according to her), her self-discovery through competence in knife salesmanship and sugaring, and the road trip that cemented her choice to live. Enjoy! WATCH THIS INTERVIE...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 16 min
Charles is a 42 year old father of four that's been married for more than half his life. He’s started multiple businesses and currently runs a small internet marketing and web agency. He self-describes as a “body type that speaks from the gut while trying to make social connections.” In this interview, we explore what his 8 “rejection” wing does to his core 9 attachment, his meandering, relaxed conversational style, and what it was like to realize that he’s been operating on autopilot for over 2...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Kier [SO/SP 3w2 358(267)] is a trial lawyer, dad, and frequent commenter on Enneagram discussion boards like the Enneagrammer Universe Facebook group. This is our second conversation — we didn’t publish the first one for reasons we explore in the interview. This is a really special conversation that captures a 3 (and 3w2, 358 trifix no less) freshly embarking on the journey of interior excavation, exploring his sensitivity, and asking questions like, “Why the secrecy?” “What am I really afraid o...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 27 min
Emma is an Enneagram coach and mom, and she has her own podcast called There Are No Tangents. In this conversation, you get to see Emma model presence in the mental center as she incorporates a new insight about herself with rather amazing openness. Her self-owns about accommodating people resentfully and "throwing a stink" are charming and helpful distinctions regarding 6s duality of being both an Attachment and a Reactive Type. A pleasure of an interview. Enjoy. WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE...
Jan 11, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Jamie (SP/SO 9w1 963) is an gifted cinematographer, an aspiring therapist, and a good friend that I met in my first Enneagram class. He has committed to his inner work in extremely courageous ways and has great language for the inner experience of 9-ness, especially what it's like to "numb out," to drift into invisibility, and to speak up for himself in relationships. This is a great, user friendly introduction to 9ness. Enjoy. WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE Jamie's Website The Enneagram School...
Nov 29, 2022•1 hr 10 min
UPDATE: Kaisa's Heart Fix has been updated from 3w4 to 3w2. Kaisa is a psychology and neuroscience graduate student and Enneagram enthusiast with an exceptional ability to articulate her experience of being a Sexual 9w8. Enjoy. WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE The Enneagram School Timestamps 0:00 Intro 2:56 Kaisa's typing 5:10 Flatline (935) vs triple reactive (846) overlay, 9 core withdrawn vs 8 wing assertive + sexual dom need to broadcast self 9:53 SX 9 being hooked by something or catatonic 1...
Nov 08, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Gray and I have similar typing, and in this episode we explore what social 3 is "really wanting," underneath the stereotypical social 3's polish and comportment. This conversation gets to the heart of the Social 3 in a way that meant a lot to me personally. Enjoy. WATCH THIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE Gray's YouTube Channel Learn the Enneagram at The Enneagram School Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 3:05 Dropping in as social 3s; "camera on!" "I want to be real, but that doesn't mean my brain agrees that that's...
Nov 01, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Sam is an essayist and poet who recently discovered he is a 7, having mistyped as a 4 for years. Before this interview, Sam sent me his beautifully articulated thoughts on being a 7 -- a link to which is below. This conversation explores the Gestalt Therapy session that "got underneath" Sam's mental buzzing and helped him encounter his lonely inner child. Sam is mid-process in a tectonic shift in his self-concept as he reconciles with his 7-ness and goes "back to feelings school." Sam lays our f...
Oct 25, 2022•1 hr 21 min
Joseph Salteri is a Type 4 (SO/SX 4w3 461) and is part of the team that runs Enneagrammer.com. He wrote all of the (excellent) content on the Enneagrammer website, including the written typing test, and he is one of the trio of typing experts that runs Dark Arts Academy -- weekly classes where they take you under the hood of their experiential typing process by typing a celebrity in real-time. This conversation explores how Joseph experiences being a core frustration type in the heart center and...
Oct 18, 2022•1 hr 28 min
Ikraam Ali is a Type 7 (SO/SX 7w6 793) who works in local politics. She also has her own YouTube channel focused on Objective Personality System (OPS). This conversation challenged the stereotype of 7s as “positive” types and reframed the 7 pattern “positive outlook” way of being from a frustration lens — in particular, frustration with negativity, which paradoxically creates its own kind of negativity. We get into deep territory here: Ikraam’s relationship with negativity itself and her bout wi...
Aug 02, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Dr. Mary Bates is a Type 6 (SP/SO 6w7 692) primary care doctor, writer, and mother of 2. Mary discovered she is a 6 with the help of the Enneagrammer typing team after having mistyped as a 2 and a 9, the other two types in her trifix. More than anything, this conversation awoke in me a new reverence the 6’s sense of sacred responsibility and “core of humanity,” which permeates Mary’s life and way of being — both as a doctor, and as an inner anchor for her in surviving major childhood trauma. Our...
Jul 26, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Jess is a Type 5 (SO/SP 5w6 538) writer and artist “based on the internet.” Like many 5s, she prefers her privacy and requested that I mention no signifiers of her identity beyond the above. She originally typed as a 7, which given the way she presents, is no surprise. Jess takes on a a whimsical romp through "pleasure gardens," symbolic objects, and the terror of soul-dead zombie-people. This conversation really challenged my understanding of 5-ness. It was fascinating to explore how her withdr...
Jul 19, 2022•1 hr 25 min
John Luckovich is one of the most brilliant and authentic Enneagram teachers of my generation. His teaching is clear, challenging, thought-provoking, and comes from sincere desire to illuminate the psyche and immersion in his own inner work. His book, The Instinctual Drives and the Enneagram, presents the first ever coherent theory of instincts that incorporates evolutionary biology and developmental psychology, and it successfully argues for the instincts' centrality in spiritual transformation...
Jul 12, 2022•1 hr 13 min
Kelsey Bishop is a Type 3 (SP/SO 3w2 378) whose shift from chasing "The Dream" to discovering her dream tangibly illustrates the 3's growth journey. She is the Founder of Candor, a new kind of professional network dedicated to increasing fulfillment at work by helping you discover and share "how you work." I find Kelsey inspiring and refreshingly self-revealing. We get into some good core 3 stuff like work/activity as self-regulation and what it means to rest and restore oneself. This convo is a...
Jul 05, 2022•1 hr 11 min
Niklas Wilkens is a humanistic depth psychologist practicing in Germany, and he’s been working with the Enneagram for 14 years, although only 2 years ago realized that he was an Enneagram 2. Niklas honestly blew me away with his very personal and high resolution description of his 2-ness (despite mistyping as a 5 for 11 years!). We get into why 2 is a rejection type, the "inner hope machine," why 2s can come across as creepy, and what it took for him to start really seeing himself. Really (reall...
Jun 28, 2022•1 hr 31 min
