The Enneagram is a system of nine personality types that combines traditional wisdom with modern psychology. It is a powerful tool for personal and professional growth, successful relationships, effective communication and spiritual development.

One idea underlying the Enneagram is that people have two important aspects-essence and personality. Each person has a unique ‘essential self’ that can’t be reduced to a category or number. However, the Enneagram describes nine patterns or themes by which people form a personality, and a social persona, to meet the challenges of life. Ideally, personality is an effective way to express ourselves in the world, but problems arise when personality covers up the inner self, or our point of view becomes stuck or rigid.

Working with the Enneagram can help us create understanding and compassion, for others and ourselves. By identifying our own type, with it’s accompanying patterns and defense mechanisms, the Enneagram creates opportunities for profound healing and personal growth.

The Enneagram describes three centers of intelligence and perception; head, heart and body. While all of us have all three centers, our personality type has a particular strength and ‘home base’ in one of them. See "The Three Centers" in the right column of this page.

The Enneagram can help us work with the three centers. By understanding them better we can find our 'blind spots' and learn to expand our awareness. We can find our own unique path towards our essential selves.