The Intersection of Psychology and Spirituality: The Enneagram and the WE-I Profile

“It seems to me that before we set out on a journey to find reality, to find God, before we can act, before we can have any relationship with another….it is essential that we begin to understand ourselves first.” 

— Krishnamurti

 

I first heard from fellow coaches about an instrument called the Enneagram 20 years ago, at the beginning of my coaching journey.  I don’t recall why coaches liked it, but I remember hearing that it possessed a spiritual dimension they valued.  Since I’ve owned Learning in Action, several WE-I practitioners have told me that they use the Enneagram in tandem with the WE-I Profile and that the two together help to reveal the root of the patterns beneath the behaviors that hold their clients back from achieving what they want for their lives.

I’d been thinking about the Enneagram for years. So, last year, as I was preparing to empty my nest, I spotted an Enneagram certification class in L.A. starting just days after I would be dropping  my son off to college there. (I’d mistakenly thought that we might spend a bit more time together before I left him for home 2,500 miles away. Yeah, right?!)

The Enneagram had much the same impact on me as the WE-I Profile.  And my initial reaction to them was similar. When I received my results, I read them with a degree of skepticism, feeling some of it fit and some didn’t. And to make the most of my learning experience, I decided to stay open to what I might not be seeing.

At the beginning of the Enneagram training, I imagined that I had a mini-observer that could somehow exist both in my mind and on my shoulder, examining my thoughts, my narratives and my actions. What that mini observer discovered during that week-long training floored me. 

I could trace nearly all my actions and reactions to either my Enneagram or my WE-I Profile or both.  In short, the Enneagram revealed the “why” beneath my thoughts, feelings and actions and why I might get triggered and the WE-I Profile revealed my internal response (my thoughts, feelings and intentions) when triggered.

So what? These are just assessments, right? They're just coaching tools. Or could they be something more?

What has been said about the Enneagram, I believe is equally true about the WE-I Profile. Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson said this about the Enneagram:

“Psychological integration and spiritual realization are not separate processes. Without spirituality, psychology cannot really free us…and without psychology, spirituality can lead to …an escape from reality… The Enneagram is the “bridge between psychology and spirituality”™….Our basic type reveals the psychological mechanisms by which we forget our true nature - our Divine Essence - the way in which we abandon ourselves”. 

I believe the same can be said about the WE-I Profile. And I go one step further to say the WE-I Profile reveals how we abandon each other. 

Note: I’m not an expert on the Enneagram. What I’m sharing here reflects my own sense of it based upon my own knowledge and experience.

Enneagram types are sometimes referred to as personality types. It’s said that we are born with our personality type and our core type doesn’t change over the course of our lifetime. We may become more or less integrated, but our core personality type doesn’t change. Further, each personality type has a  basic fear that drives the type. 

Here’s how my Enneagram and WE-I Profile came together during the training.

I’m an Enneagram Type 1 - sometimes called the Strict Perfectionist, sometimes called The Reformer. Type 1s are motivated by being “good and right”. Initially, these labels and descriptions didn’t resonate with me. I don’t see myself as a perfectionist or a reformer. And don’t we all like to be good and right?! That said, what I’ve learned from my years with the WE-I Profile is that we humans tend not to see ourselves as others do because we use ourselves as our primary frame of reference. 

As I checked in regularly with my mini-observer, I realized just how accurate the Typing was. When I looked beneath what was motivating what I thought, said and did throughout the training week, I realized how much of it was driven by wanting to do the right thing, the good thing or stand up for what was right. 

For instance, during the training, someone in the class (a Type 2) said that one of the other Types (Type 4) seemed addicted to drama. Without thinking and without skipping a beat, I said “That sounds like a judgment”. 

Then I asked myself, what motivated me to say that? And I realized that I felt what had been said could cause the 4s in the room to feel judged and that felt wrong to me. There it was! I was motivated by “doing right”. 

And true to my Type, the more I came to learn about my Type, the more I felt criticized by it. And that felt triggering to me. When I felt triggered, I’d react in line with my WE-I Profile.

Just as my WE-I Profile would indicate, I felt ashamed, sad and disappointed in myself. I focused on what was wrong with my Type, not what was good about it. When something wasn’t right, I felt responsible to change it (my Self Orientation). I could feel what others in the room felt (Empathy Accuracy) and I cared about it (Empathy Compassion).

Rooted in developmental psychology and attachment theory, the WE-I Profile reveals our internal experience under stress. It identifies the emotions we tend to access and how much, whether we tend to see things more positively or negatively, whether we tend to see ourselves as responsible for doing something about what’s creating the stress or whether we look to others, the extent to which we can identify accurately what others are feeling and the extent to which we care about their feelings. 

Why is any of this important?

“We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.” - Jack Kornfield.

The mission of Learning in Action is to Heal the Divide: to become aware and let go of what blocks our heart so that we can reconnect with our Divine Essence and with each other. I believe that when we become aware of our psychology through instruments like the Enneagram and the WE-I Profile, we can see and perhaps choose to let go of what blocks our heart. And when we are able to do that as coaches, we can support our clients in doing the same.

If you are not a WE-I Practitioner and you’re interested in bringing these kinds of revelations to your clients, join us for our next WE-I Certification training, starting February 20. 

If you are a WE-I Practitioner and you are interested in refreshing and deepening your learning, join us for a Refresher for only $395.