Personality in Practice:
Experiencing the
Enneagram as a
Chaplain Power Tool
Wanda Burton-Crutchfield, BCC
Honing our Emotional
Intelligence:
Approaching the
Enneagram
for Self-Reflection
Session One:
9:15am - 10:30am
Foreword/ Disclaimer
So, Who are the Experts?
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Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D. Bringing Out the Best in
Yourself at Work: How to Use the Enneagram
System for Success. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson. Discovering
Your Personality Type, Revised and Expanded.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Honing Our Emotional
Intelligence

What is Emotional
Intelligence?
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It has two different yet
interconnected components
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Intrapersonal-- “The ability to
know oneself accurately and to
use that knowledge to operate
successfully in life”
Interpersonal-- “The ability to
understand and work well with
others”
(Lapid-Bogda, xvi)
Honing Our Emotional
Intelligence
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The Enneagram is a
powerful tool to develop
emotional intelligence.
We can use the
Enneagram to
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Know Ourselves Better
Have Compassion for
Others
Work Effectively in a
Communal Environment
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Lapid-Bogda
Honing Our Emotional
Intelligence

“Understanding the
Enneagram is like having a
pair of special glasses that
allows us to see beneath the
surface of people with special
clarity: we may in fact see
them more clearly than they
see themselves” (Riso and
Hudson, 3).
Exploring the Enneagram
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The WORD--Greek
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Ennea--Nine
Gram--Something written or
drawn
It is a nine-points model.
The Enneagram is a
geometric figure that
delineates nine basic
personality types of human
nature and their complex
interrelationships.
Exploring the Enneagram
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Origins
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No one knows the
precise origins.
Roots are in Asia and the
Middle East.
Suspect that the idea/
typology/ was used
several thousand years
ago.
Exploring the Enneagram

Origins
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Brought to the attention of the
modern world by GreekArmenian spiritual teacher,
George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, in
early 1900s
Current typology was developed
by Oscar Ichazo of the Aria
school of self-realization in 1950s
and 60s (using mystical Judaism
and Christianity)
Attempting to integrate ancient
philosophical ideas with empirical
observations
Exploring the Enneagram
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The descriptions are universal
and apply equally to males and
females.
The Enneagram uses numbers
to designate the types in an
attempt to be value neutral-imply a range of attitudes
without designating it as
positive or negative.
The numerical ranking is not
significant. Larger numbers are
not more valuable than smaller
ones.
Exploring the Enneagram
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People do not change from one
basic type to another.
Not everything in a type’s
description will apply all the
time because we fluctuate
constantly among healthy,
average, and unhealthy traits.
No type is inherently better or
worse than any other. Some
types may be more desired by a
particular culture or group.
Exploring the Enneagram
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The Nine Enneagram
Styles represent nine
distinct habits of
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Thinking
Feeling
Taking action
Nine Unique personal
and spiritual paths
Exploring the Enneagram

The Enneagram
describes Nine basic
personality types found
in human nature that are
“all equally useful and
valid and have
something necessary to
contribute to a thriving,
balanced world”
(Riso/Hudson, 5).
Exploring the Enneagram
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We can find ourselves reflected in
the whole of it. The whole
Enneagram is within us.
The Nine are metaphors for the
various psychological functions
operating in each of us.
Inborn--temperament
Heredity and childhood experiences
shape us as well.
We use the strengths and limitations
of our temperaments to cope with the
stresses in our environment.
Exploring the Enneagram
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Each of us has one dominant type.
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Default setting
Motivational core
Driving our ego agendas
Enneagram style remains the same
throughout one’s lifetime.
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Characteristics may soften or become
more pronounced as we grow and
develop.
Our core pattern is naturally linked to
four others, so two or three types may
seem to match.
Personality in Practice
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The Enneagram helps people
recognize and understand overall
patterns in human behavior
(Riso/Hudson, 5).
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External behaviors
Underlying attitudes
One’s characteristic sense of self
Conscious and unconscious
motivations
Emotional reactions
Defense mechanisms
Object relations
What we pay attention to
Our spiritual barriers and potentials
Personality in Practice
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“Always remember that
the Enneagram does not
put you in a box--it
shows you the box you
are already in (but don’t
know it) and the way
out!”
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Riso and Hudson
Personality in Practice
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The Enneagram is the
“key that can open the
door to a deep
understanding of the self
and the connections
among personality,
psychological
development, and
spiritual transformation.”
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Lapid-Bogda
Personality in Practice
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Spiritual as well as
Psychological
Foundation
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Psychological growth =
Ability to Function more
effectively
Spiritual growth =
Acceptance of self,
compassion for others
Personality in Practice
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We have two selves
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Automatic, unconscious
Secondary that can watch the
mechanics of one’s own mind
Through the Enneagram we
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Discover our Type
Learn to recognize and relax
the personality patterns that
do not bring out our best
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Helen Palmer (LapidBogda’s teacher)
Personality in Practice
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“Our personalities are based
primarily on repetitive habits and
patterns” (Riso/Hudson, 8).
Personality is not all of who we are
but the “filter” that affects the way
we see and interact with our world.
We study the Enneagram to identify
the “chief features and barriers of our
psychic landscape” so that we might
“prepare for a more profoundly
direct and spiritual relationship with
reality” (Riso-Hudson, 8).
Personality in Practice
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The Key to Transformation…
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Lies in our ability to be present
To abide in the here and now, with our
minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits fully
engaged
Our personality is not at all interested in
the here and now.
Personality constantly draws us
somewhere else--habitual thoughts,
emotional reactions, fantasies about the
future, and old stories about who we are
and what others have done to us cloud
our awareness.
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Don Riso and Russ Hudson
Personality in Practice
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This work is perfect
chaplaincy work.
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Finding ways to awaken our
true condition
Once awake, being mindful of
“the siren calls of personality”
(Riso/Hudson, 9)
Possess a capacity to bring a
non-judgmental awareness to
our own reactivity
Personality in Practice
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We are on a journey to
discover a self that is not
conflicted, self-deluding, or
fearful.
Once we discover the
mechanical aspects of
temperament--automatic,
reactive, and defensive
patterns--we are less
controlled by them.
Personality in Practice
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CAUTION:
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The Enneagram can become
another label through which
we hide.
We might find our type but go
no further.
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Obstacle to growth
We need to make room for
grace.
At our deepest, we are more
than our personality.
Personality in Practice
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CAUTION:
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Exploring the Enneagram is not
about “fixing” ourselves but
gaining access to our higher
essential qualities.
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Acceptance
Love
Authenticity
Forgiveness
Compassion
Courage
Joy
Strength
Presence
Gratitude
Personality in Practice
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“The Enneagram takes us to the
threshold of spirit and freedom,
love and liberation, selfsurrender and self-actualization.
Once we have arrived at that
uncharted land, we will begin to
recognize our truest self, the self
beyond personality, the self of
essence. That self, of course,
cannot be tested by a
questionnaire, but only by life
itself.” (Riso/ Hudson, 11)
Moment for Reflection
Credits
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Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D. Bringing Out the Best in
Yourself at Work: How to Use the Enneagram
System for Success. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson. Discovering
Your Personality Type, Revised and Expanded.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
“Knick Knack.” PIXAR Short Films Collection.
Pixar Animation Studios, 1989.