An Introduction to the Enneagram with Helen Palmer

Course Description:

This two-hour and forty-minute online course introduces the nine personality profiles that comprise the Enneagram system. Featuring interviews with Helen Palmer, MA, international author and the world’s leading expert on the subject, the curriculum introduces the nine personality types and their respective subtype expressions. Helen describes each profile as a cognitive-emotional habit that is recurring, compulsive, and unconscious. Her discussion includes further instruction on how each of the nine types manifests in the three spheres we all live in: individual (“self-preservation”), with the other (“one-on-one”), and with a group (“social”).  The result of this introductory presentation of the Enneagram system is a validation of its ongoing contribution to growing self-awareness, improved relationships, and an increase in well-being for those who apply its wisdom in and outside the therapeutic alliance.   

Presenters:

Helen Palmer, MA, is the world’s leading expert on the nine-pointed personality system known as the Enneagram. Her book, “Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life: The Enneagram” is the classic text on the subject. It has been translated into thirty-two different languages with 1.2 million copies sold to date. Helen is also co-founder of the Enneagram Professional Teachers Association and the International Enneagram Association with learning cohorts around the world, including Europe, Australia, China, South Africa, and Latin America.

Kath Gilliam, MA, is the president and CEO of Helen Palmer Inc. and its website, www.enneagram.com. Kath and Helen formed a partnership in 2005 to bring Helen’s Enneagram teachings to the academic community through online education courses. This first course is the entry point into learning all about the Enneagram system.  

Course Objectives:

1. Describe the nine personality types and subtypes that comprise the Enneagram system;
2. Describe the childhood coping strategy that gives rise to each type;
3. Describe the structure and mechanics of each type’s unconscious and recurring cognitive/emotional habit;    
4. Describe the behavioral manifestation of each type within the three subtype categories of self-preservation, one-on-one, and social interaction.

Course References:

Daniels, David, Saracino T., Fraley M, et.al (January 2018). “Advancing Ego Development in Adulthood through Study of the Enneagram System of Personality.”  Journal of Applied Development (January 2018) 25: 229-41. https://di.org/10.1007/s10804-018-9289-x.

Matise, Miles (November 2018). “The Enneagram: An Enhancement to Family Therapy.  Contemporary Family Therapy, an International  Journal (2018) pp 1-10. http://doi.org./10-1007/s10591-018-9471-0.

Rasta, MahMonir, Hosseinian, Simin, and Ghodsi (2012).  “A Survey on the Effectiveness of the Nine Type Personality Training (Enneagram) on the Mental Health (Anxiety and Self-esteem) of School Girls.” .Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research (2012) pp. 111845-111848.

Tapp, Karen and Engebretson, Ken (2010).  “Using the Enneagram for Client Insight and Transformation: A Type Eight Illustration.”  Journal of Creativity in Mental Health (2010) pp. 65-72. doi:10.1080/15401381003627277.

A. Objective #1 Learn how a therapist/clinician can benefit from knowing and applying the Enneagram for themselves and their clients

B. Objective #2 Learn how a therapist/clinician can become aware of their own type bias in the therapeutic alliance

C. Objective #3 Learn how to see clients as they are to themselves and not exclusively through the lens of diagnostic categories

D. Objective #4 Learn how to effectively enroll clients in their own therapeutic process whether individuals, couples, and/or families using the Enneagram system.