GUIDING THE INNER JOURNEY: How It Works

© Belinda Gore, Ph.D. 2004

The good news about the Enneagram is that it offers an easy access to a basic understanding of personality: three types within each of three groupings or triads based on the three centers in the body—Belly, Heart, and Head. From there The Enneagram system becomes more specific. Each type has a wing, making 18 subtypes. Then each type or subtype has nine levels of health and there are three instincts that color behavior, and we are already up to nearly 500 possibilities. Clearly, a cookbook approach—“Let’s see, you’re a Three with a Four wing, social instinct, with your anchor point in level Five”—is cumbersome and still does not account for the client’s presenting problem or personal history.

In the certification program, “Guiding the Inner Journey,” our approach is to use a method that considers the various elements that are revealed through knowledge of the personality type and uses them as possible portals through which to enter the inner world of the client. As practitioners, we are creating openings for intervention. Which opening to utilize depends on our assessment of the individual and our clinical judgment, but there is nevertheless a basic progression beginning with the simplest issues and developing gradually into more spiritually advanced points of change.

PRESENTING PROBLEM

In all cases, it is important to remember to begin with whatever issue the client brings to counseling or coaching. If it is a career problem, then that is where we begin regardless of all the information and insights we could offer about personality and spiritual development. In our enthusiasm about the Enneagram we cannot place the tool in higher priority than the problem it is designed to help in solving. If the client is a depressed Four, it may be necessary to help in regulating the anti-depressant medication that is creating unpleasant side effects before we move into talking about the roots of depression lying in an erroneous self-perception of deficiency and a frustration-based relationship with the world.

SAFETY, SUPPORT, AND CHALLENGE

We always begin with every client by establishing a healthy holding environment in which personal change can occur. Safety is created by letting your client know, through your words and behavior, that you are trustworthy in your ability to provide confidentiality and that you can be counted upon to hold a comfortable private space within which your client has permission to reveal anything without fear of judgment or ridicule. Safety and security are the qualities provided by the archetypal Father, although not always by the client’s childhood father; similarly, support is ideally provided by the archetypal Mother but not always by the childhood mother. Support includes what Carl Rogers called “unconditional positive regard” or honest respect. It is also the capacity to consistently see and hear your client, the characteristics of a good mother who helps develop a child’s identity through responsiveness to the individuality of the child’s needs and communication.

Challenge is the ongoing ability to help your client take the next step. It requires both experience to help you know when the client is ready, and some idea about what direction that next step might lead. Sharing the Enneagram provides a shared model or structure to help guide the process.

LEAD WITH THE LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE

As you begin to develop a relationship with your client, the first steps with the Enneagram begin with the client’s natural strengths. If she is an Eight, you might want to support her personal power and reframe the therapy or coaching as a means to help her achieve her ultimate self-interest. However healthy an individual might usually be, she is making the choice to seek help because in some part of her life something is not working well. When it comes to that issue, she may fall into low average or even unhealthy levels of behavior for her type and will need to establish firm footing within her strengths before she can be successfully challenged. If challenged too soon, the client is most likely to revert to old survival strategies and is not available for change. It is important to have a few success experiences before diving into the really hard stuff.

In one professional study group, Mark shared his experience in working with a type Five client who assured him that she was spiritually advanced and ready for deep work, so he started her with body work, a difficult practice for Fives, and an array of readings. She did not return.

WORK ON BALANCE IN THE CENTERS

In Understanding the Enneagram, Riso and Hudson outline a valuable model that clarifies the specific nature of the imbalances of the belly, heart, and head centers for each type. Type One, for instance, is most out of balance in the belly center, in that the instincts are not trusted and One’s work hard to create rules and order so the instinctual life does not take over. The secondary center for One’s is the heart center, in that they are passionate about their beliefs in right and wrong, and respond emotionally to violations of order, mostly with anger. The third center is the head center, interestingly the center that One’s, who pride themselves on being rational, are the least likely to be using.

In my work, I have found that the third center is similar to Jung’s concept of the shadow. Because it is the least used, it is the most primitive and at the same time the center through which the most change can be accomplished because it is the least “civilized,” that is, the least under the control of the ego. One’s have to learn objective thinking, the ability to consider the shades of gray and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of any position, not just the one they favor. Objective thinking has nothing to do with intelligence but rather with the ability to be dispassionate, using the head center without it being overtaken by the emotions.

BALANCE THE PROCESS STYLES AND THE COPING STYLES

The Process styles are sometimes called the Horneyvian grouping, and indicate the three groups of three styles by which we try to get what we want. They are the Assertive group (Eight, Seven, and Three), the Withdrawn group (Nine, Five, and Four), and the Dutiful group (Six, Two, and One). People with types in the Assertive group tend to go after what they want, the Withdrawn group tends to pull back into their inner life for safety and inspiration, and the Dutiful group—who are dutiful to their Superego, the internalized set of rules learned from parents, school, church, and peers about how they should live—rely on the rules. Members of each group tend to use their favored style in all situations rather than realizing that it is better to make a conscious choice from the various approaches depending on the circumstance. As Abraham Maslow once said, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, then you tend to see every problem as a nail.”

Teaching the use of all three approaches widens a person’s repertoire of possible choices and increases the likelihood of making a better and more appropriate response.

Similarly, there is another grouping of three groups of three types each. Known as the Harmonics groupings, they represent three styles of coping with not getting what we want. They are the Positive Outlook group (Seven, Nine, and Two), the Reactive group (Eight, Four, and Six), and the Competency group (One, Three, and Five). People in the Positive Outlook group want to highlight what has been going well and not dwell on the negatives; they are cheerleaders and “the glass is half full” people. Sometimes, however, they resist dealing with the problems and so the problems fester until they can no longer be resolved. In the Reactive group, people need to express themselves when things go wrong; they want to be seen and heard, and they want to know how you are reacting, too, so they know where they stand with you. They like to get things out in the open but sometimes say mean and hurtful things in the heat of the moment that cannot be retracted once they have cooled down. Competency people want to address problems by fixing them right away and narrow their focus to whatever it takes to make things work again. They can get pretty task oriented and forget to share and explore feelings, so that eventually people around them get burned out or the juice of the relationship dries up.

Again, as with other groupings, the goal is for people to recognize the various options available so they can choose the best response for a given situation.

EXPLORE DOMINANT AFFECT GROUP

Object relations theory explains the development of personality based on very early experiences of relationship with the primary figures in an infant’s life. In the relationship between self and other there is a connection based on emotion. The three categories of emotion from this theoretical perspective are Attachment, Frustration, and Rejection. Once a client has evolved into working on deep layers of personality, it is useful to explore the ways in which the dominant affect, or emotion, colors their perception of life in general.

This is a rich and fruitful topic that we will explore in more detail in a later edition of Life Stories.

WORK WITH THE SOUL CHILD ISSUES

An unusual behavior characteristically emerges when a person feels secure in a relationship or setting. While it is psychologically and spiritually beneficial to move to our Point of Integration, or the Heart Point, on the Enneagram circle, we can also manifest some of the less healthy behaviors of that Point of Integration, ironically when we are feeling the most safe and at ease.

Sandra Maitri suggests that the Soul Child resides at the Heart Point. It is the aspect of our soul that was stunted in its development when we were very young and operates in a more primitive, or childish, fashion. Because it was shunned in childhood, we learn to similarly reject these behaviors in our adult personalities. In order to be fully integrated and without skeletons in the closets of our house of personality, we have to learn to recognize and lovingly embrace the Soul Child. We have to love those aspects of ourselves that we most abhor.

For example, the Point of Integration for type Three is Six. While it is highly beneficial for a person with a Three personality to learn to work, and play, as a loyal team member, in every Three there is a whining, anxious Soul Child that always fears the worst. That Soul Child needs to be accepted, reassured, and loved in order for the Three personality to finally emerge at its highest level, fully able to be authentic and present.

This is powerful work that can only be accomplished once a person has built a solid foundation in earlier therapy or life coaching. As professionals we are challenged to undertake this transformation in ourselves in order to guide those who have come to us for help.

THE PRACTICE OF PRESENCE

As we continue our support of the unfolding of our True Selves, the most essential tool is the practice of Presence, learning to be fully aware and in the moment. With this practice, we can continue to move up the levels of health and to facilitate the emergence of an integrated personality that can be a durable vehicle for consciousness. As more and more people reach this level of Liberation, we have hope for a new stage in the evolution of humanity.

The method taught in the “Guiding the Inner Journey” certification program addresses each of these steps and stage in detail, with opportunities to apply the new knowledge first with ourselves as practitioners, then with our clients. For more information about “Guiding the Inner Journey,” contact Belinda Gore at bgore@enneagram-ohio.com. The next core courses to be offered in Ohio are:

The Journey of Self Discovery January 22-23, 2005 (Sat-Sun)

Passions and Presence May 20-21, 2005 (Fri-Sat)