Working with the Enneagram
The Enneagram
& How I Work
with this Incredible
Psycho-Spiritual-
Somatic Tool
Of all the frameworks and tools I've encountered in nearly two decades of doing this work, the Enneagram is unlike anything else. It doesn't just describe what you do, it goes straight to the heart of why you do it, and the deeper story you've been telling yourself, often since childhood, about who you are and what you need to feel safe in the world.
As a trained Enneagram facilitator, I bring this incredibly rich, nuanced system into my work with individuals and couples as a lens for deep self-understanding, greater compassion, and lasting transformation.
A Brief Introduction:
What Is the Enneagram?
The Enneagram (from the Greek ennea, nine, and gramma, something written or drawn) is a sophisticated map of nine distinct personality structures, each rooted in a core motivation, fear, and longing. But it is so much more than a personality typing system.
At its heart, the Enneagram is a psycho-spiritual-somatic framework, meaning it speaks to the psychology of the mind, the soul's deeper longings, and the wisdom held in the body. It illuminates the automatic patterns, defenses, and coping strategies we developed early in life, and it points us toward the path of integration and conscious awakening.
When we understand our Enneagram type and more importantly, when we begin to understand the space between the trigger and the reaction, we gain access to an extraordinary degree of freedom: in how we relate, how we love, how we work, and how we show up to our own lives.
My Approach:
How I Use the Enneagram in Our Work Together
I don't use the Enneagram as a personality typing tool or a box to put you in. In fact, the whole point is the opposite. The Enneagram shows you the box you've been living inside of, often without knowing it, and opens the door to something far more expansive.
When I bring the Enneagram into individual therapy, coaching, or couples work, I'm using it as a living conversation. We look at your type's core wound, the unconscious narrative you've been operating from, and we begin to get very curious, gently, compassionately curious, about the patterns that have shaped your relationships, your sense of self, and your experience of being in your body.
For couples, the Enneagram is transformative. Understanding that your partner's behavior is rooted in a deeply different set of core fears and motivations than your own creates an entirely new kind of empathy. It shifts the story from "why do they keep doing this to me?" to "I can actually understand what's driving this." That shift is where real connection begins.
Whether we're working together in individual sessions, couples therapy, a workshop, or through the Enneagram as a standalone coaching container, this tool has the capacity to unlock profound self-awareness, heal old relational wounds, and help you step into a more integrated, conscious version of yourself.
An Overview
The Nine Enneagram Types
Each type represents a distinct way of being in the world, a core motivation, a fundamental fear, and a path toward greater integration and wholeness.
My Training: How I Became an Enneagram Facilitator
I was introduced to the Enneagram by a friend a number of years ago. I’d never heard of it but was quickly enamored by the accuracy at which it described what I felt like I’d carried inside me my whole life. It was as though someone had a glimpse into the inner depths of my experience and my lens in particular. But, because I wasn’t aware of its spiritual origin, and the potential of the tool, I chalked it up to another personality typing tool and simply identified with my number.
Years later, in the midst of a major life transition, I went back yearning to know more. As I dug further into learning about the Enneagram through an in-person retreat, I was absolutely struck. What struck me most wasn't the typing itself, it was the precision with which the Enneagram mapped the space between wound and behavior, between early adaptation and the defended self I'd built around it. As a psychotherapist, that felt important. Not just intellectually, but somatically. I could feel it.
I went on to pursue training as an Enneagram facilitator with Christopher Heuertz, author of The Sacred Enneagram and The Enneagram of Belonging, as well as with Jerry Wagner, founder of the Enneagram Spectrum of Personality Styles and author of The Enneagram Spectrum of Personality Styles and Nine Lenses of the World. I’ve deepened my understanding of the system through its psychological, somatic and its contemplative, spiritual dimensions, because the Enneagram is, at its root, a tool for awakening.
Not just better relationships, but a more fully inhabited life.
Trained Enneagram Facilitator, 2025
Integration of Enneagram into individual therapy, coaching, and couples work
Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator (Brené Brown) — complementary shame resilience work, 2015
Level 3 Gottman Trained Therapist — evidence-based couples approach, 2019
PhD Student, Integral and Transpersonal Psychology, CIIS — deepening work in consciousness and self, current
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Illinois, since 2010
Available for individual Enneagram coaching sessions, couples intensives, workshops, and group facilitation
Ready to Explore Your Type and Begin the Work?
Whether you're new to the Enneagram or you've known your type for years and are ready to go deeper, I'd love to work with you. We can bring this lens into therapy or coaching, use it as the foundation of a dedicated Enneagram session or series, or explore it together in a workshop or group container.