What is the Enneagram?
“The Enneagram is an ancient map of consciousness which serves us in returning to the awareness of our oneness with All-That-Is.”
-Nhien Vuong, founder of Evolving Enneagram
The word Enneagram comes from the Greek “Ennea”, meaning nine, and “gram” meaning shape. The Enneagram is a personality system with nine distinct types. The description of each type can be uncanny in its detailed accuracy, but most of all, it hits home with its profound insight into each type’s deepest motivations, desires, fears, and behaviors.
Some people have likened learning about their type to finding the manual to their personality or to reading their own journals. This is one of the reasons I integrate the Enneagram into coaching and therapy—it is so efficient at outlining patterns and why those patterns exist. It describes you at your healthiest and your unhealthiest, and outlines ways to move up the ladder of wellness, fulfillment, and functionality.
The Enneagram also describes something similar to IFS regarding who we are at our core. The Enneagram calls this Essence. In The Wisdom of the Enneagram, the authors speak to this,
“Beyond the limitations of our personalities, each of us exists as a vast, largely unrecognized quality of Being or Presence—what is called our Essence.”
- RISO & HUDSON, P. 27
The NineTypes
Type 1: The Improver
Ethical, dedicated and reliable, they are motivated by a desire to live the right way, improve the world, and avoid fault and blame.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to make mistakes.
Healing message: You are good.
Type 2: The Befriender
Warm, caring and giving, they are motivated by a need to be loved and needed, and to avoid acknowledging their own needs.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to have your own needs.
Healing message: You are wanted.
Type 3: The Achiever
Success-oriented, image-consious and wired for productivity, they are motivated by a need to be (or appear to be) successful and to avoid failure.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to have your own feelings and identity.
Healing message: You are loved for yourself.
Type 4: The Individualist
Creative and sensitive, with quickly shifting moods, they are motivated by a need to be understood, experience their full range of emotions, and avoid being ordinary.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to be too functional or too happy.
Healing message: You are understood for who you are.
Type 5: The Investigator
Analytical, detached and private, they are motivated by a need to gain knowledge, conserve energy, and avoid relying on others.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to be comfortable in the world.
Healing message: Your needs are not a problem.
Type 6: The Loyal Skeptic
Committed, practical and witty, they are worst-case scenario thinkers who are motivated by anxiety and the need for security.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to trust yourself.
Healing message: You are safe.
Type 7: The Enthusiast
Fun, spontaneous and adventurous, they are motivated by a need to be happy, to plan stimulating experiences and to avoid pain.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to depend on anyone for anything.
Healing message: You will be taken care of.
Type 8: The Challenger
Commanding and protective, with natural leadership qualities, they are motivated by a need to be strong and avoid feeling weak or vulnerable.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to be vulnerable or to trust anyone.
Healing message: You will not be betrayed.
Type 9: The Peacemaker
Pleasant, laid back and accommodating, they are motivated by a need to keep the peace, merge with others and avoid conflict.
Internalized childhood message: It’s not okay to assert yourself.
Healing message: Your presence matters.
Descriptions of each type excerpted and interpreted from The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron.
The internalized childhood messages and healing messages are excerpted and interpreted from The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Riso & Hudson.
Where IFS & the Enneagram Intersect
If IFS illuminates how our personalities are made up of parts that have developed systems in order to survive, the Enneagram organizes these systems into nine distinct types. These nine types efficiently highlight core beliefs, motivations, and behaviors. The Enneagram serves as a detailed map of the patterns in which your parts found relief, safety, and protection. Utilizing IFS, you access the ability to create space within the ego structure of your personality type; within that space you are better able to reflect, recognize your shadow side, and allow the energy of Self or Essence to heal, moving beyond the limitations of your personality type.
IFS and the Enneagram both recognize that at our core, there is something that is unshakeable, unconditional, eternal—it is an emanation of healing, wholeness, love, and compassion. Whether using the IFS term, Self, or the Enneagram term, Essence, combining these two perspectives is powerful.