The Enneagram is an incredibly powerful instrument for personal and collective transformation. With 9 Enneagram types, the model describes just as many different strategies for relating to yourself, others and the world. Each of these Types has a different pattern of thinking, feeling and acting that springs from a deeper inner motivation and a specific view of the world. These Types or styles are not who you are, but they do reflect the patterns that dominate your experience. Patterns that sometimes serve you, and just as often don't. Awareness of those patterns gives you new choices, and therefore different results.
The Enneagram sheds light on nine
ways in which we forget who we truly are
unconscious patterns that can blind us to everything we really care about
ways in which we lose our ‘presence’ as human beings
direct routes to waking up and rediscovering your essential nature
inherent gifts that each Type has to offer the world
Understanding your Enneagram type, acknowledging it and evolving within it - we call that process ‘integrating’ - is an insightful growth path that touches every facet of your life. It is the road to your effortless ‘I’, from which you, your surroundings and the world will undoubtedly benefit.
Through the validated online Enneagram iEQ9 questionnaire, we discover the unique lens through which you look at the world. And so: how it serves you tremendously while also creating quite a few challenges.
Typing, not stereotyping: why the Enneagram doesn't put you in a box
The Enneagram doesn't put you in a box. On the contrary, it shows you the very box in which you have unconsciously confined yourself. It gives you deep insight into your motivation, limiting beliefs, fixations and hidden fears. Once you realise how distorted your view of the world actually is, you can make the shift to new perspectives. You move from autopilot or ‘trance’ to awareness. And so also to conscious Being. In other words, the Enneagram is an invitation to look deep inside yourself and explore how you have held yourself in place and limited yourself. It allows you to embrace and make use of the full richness of your existence.
9 Core Types, 27 Subtypes, 3 Instincts
Based on their preferred instinct (self-preservation, sexual or social), each of the 9 Core Types of the Enneagram has three Subtypes, which can come across as very different from one another. The most accurate way to discover which of the 27 Enneagram Subtypes you resonate with most is through the validated iEQ9 Enneagram Questionnaire - see below.
The foundation of the Enneagram is three Centres of Intelligence: the Action Centre, the Feeling Centre and the Thinking Centre. Each of these Centres houses three Types: 8, 9 and 1 have their base in the Action Centre, 2, 3 and 4 in the Feeling Centre, 5, 6 and 7 in the Thinking Centre. Even if we ‘are’ a particular type, in each of the other Centres too we have a style with which we resonate most. We call this combination of three styles a Tritype, which in turn determines a very specific personality - a specific archetype. An Enneagram Type One with the Feeling style of Type ‘3’ and the Thinking style of Type ‘6’ comes across completely differently from an Enneagram Type One with the Feeling style of Type ‘4’ and the Thinking style of Type ‘5’. Even though they are both Enneagram Type Ones, they have a different focus, a different growth path, a different Purpose in life …
The three Centres of Intelligence house the 9 Types: the Action Centre - Types 8, 9 and 1, the Feeling Centre - Types 2, 3 and 4 and the Thinking Centre - Types 5, 6 and 7.
Because we don't necessarily show up in the world from our Core Type - but rather from one of the other styles in our Tritype - it is impossible to type people accurately on the basis of their behaviour. It is essential to aim for the motivation behind their behaviour.
The Enneagram: the most powerful tool for rediscovering yourself
The Enneagram is an ancient model based on archetypes, which only became an effective tool for personal development over the past hundred years through psychology. For individuals, groups and organisations alike, it is the ideal way to make full use of their own potential.
It brings more personal awareness, self-discovery and greater emotional intelligence. As soon as you become aware of the behavioural patterns that unconsciously influence you and motivate you to act in certain ways, growth and change become possible. By rising above those underlying patterns and motivations, you can consciously choose a richer and more tolerant way of being. You then take responsibility for your own behaviour and development.
A glimpse of the wealth of self-knowledge the Enneagram offers you:
Which motivation drives you in life: the wanting that steers you
Which typical - conscious and unconscious - behaviour goes with it
Which paradoxes, paradigms, blind spots, triggers and defence mechanisms play a role
Which strengths and challenges are typical for you
How you show up in the world, guided by your typical patterns and preferences of thinking, doing and feeling
How you can still evolve in terms of self-awareness
What your triggers for tension and stress are and how you find calm
What your typical patterns and pitfalls are when it comes to communication, giving and receiving feedback, conflict, decision-making, leadership, management and team behaviour
…
The Enneagram shows us the way back home to ourselves. An effortless Being, in which we do from our Being rather than doing for the sake of doing - the difference between the Human Being and the Human Doing.
The Enneagram fosters insight into, and an approach to:
Emotional, psychological and interpersonal effectiveness
Personal transformation and personal development
Loss of productivity as a result of team conflict
Leadership maturity, impact and effectiveness
Resistance to change, resilience and readiness for change
Decision-making
Stress and its symptoms
Interpersonal tension and conflict at work and at home
Career development and transitions
Communication and influencing skills
…
The effect of Enneagram coaching:
Conscious self-leadership
Powerful professional leadership
More focused decision-making
Understanding of other people's motivation and behaviour
Insight into your own blind spots, strengths and challenges, and therefore more conscious choices in how you think, feel and act
Awareness of your own triggers and those of others, and therefore more intelligent ways of responding
Clear and impactful communication
More influence to get what you need
Giving feedback more effectively
Greater openness to receiving feedback
…
IEQ9: an online Enneagram questionnaire with unrivalled validity and 95% accuracy
Enneagram experts worldwide build on and trust the results of the iEQ9, developed by Integrative9 Enneagram Solutions (South Africa). After more than six years of scientific research and continuous innovation, the iEQ9 now has an unrivalled reliability of more than 95%. It is an adaptive online test - the questionnaire automatically adjusts to your answers and is thoroughly checked for errors. Among other things, the report gives you nuanced insight into your core Enneagram type, your instinctual Subtype, your preferred style of thinking-feeling-doing, your level of integration (the degree to which you master your blind spots and paradoxes) and six dimensions of tension and stress. Guided by an accredited iEQ9 Enneagram Practitioner, your personal development path becomes clear straight away.
Natacha Ciezkowski
Accredited Enneagram Coach and Trainer, member of the International Enneagram Faculty of Trainers and international Enneagram keynote speaker
Discover how to maximise your potential, feel good in your own skin and be yourself in harmony with others.
Book your free introductory callHow an Enneagram journey works in practice:
Step 1 - Questionnaire
Complete the online questionnaire (NL) - allow about 40 minutes for this.
After completing the online questionnaire, you receive a comprehensive report (40 pp.) in Dutch - the iEQ9 is also available in many other languages.
Step 2 - Report
You receive a 40-page report (NL) with a number of instructions to help you make it your own, step by step.
Step 3 - Debrief
In a 1.5-hour debrief, we make clear how the dynamics of your unique personality fit together. You receive insights that go even further than the report, and we map out a clear development path.
Step 4 - Coaching
Based on your desired development path, we decide together on the intensity and duration of the journey. Request a no-obligation intake conversation so you can assess whether you are ready to make the best investment you will ever make in yourself.
Ask your questions, no obligation
