Typology

The Enneagram is complex and dynamic and is itself, this act of self-curiousity, a portal to growth. With that in mind, how do we use it in an intentional way to achieve more integration and balance in our lives? In today's episode, we dial into the importance of Stances with Enneagram master Dr. Jerome Wagner. Stances are a way that we move through the world in order to get our needs met, but "th...

Discovering the Enneagram was the key to helping Kelli Thompson get out of her head, move through doubt and rumination, and take action.  "It was really just a journey of how do you bring your life back into alignment with your values, learn to trust your heart and your gut, and that they have just as much merit as your brain, and then how do you use that to speak up and set boundaries, and take n...

Are an Enneagram 4 and an Enneagram 8 compatible? While both bring a fierce intensity to the world, they each bring different gifts to the table.   Helen Palmer describes their match up, as "a partnership of intensity acted out by fight, flight fascination, and flare. Each feels somewhat awed by the other. Eights feel themselves to be coarse and blunt in comparison with the elegant and socially ad...

What is an Instinctual Stack? Do you know yours? We all have three instincts. None of us are absent one. However, one does tend to be dominant.  But what are instincts and how do they influence how each type shows up in the world?  Today's guest, Elan Benami, creator of the EnneaApp and author of  Enneagram Patterns & Poetics, provides a great overview of Instincts, Subtypes, and the Instinctual S...

How has your past uniquely prepared you to experience more joy? In today's replay of one of my favorite episodes, Dr. Dan Allender and I explore this question in an insightful conversation about healing the heart from trauma, rewriting the broken stories we adopt as children, and the overlap with the Enneagram.   Professor of counseling psychology at The Seattle School and founder of The Allender...

Research has shown that Emotional Intelligence (EI) is one of the biggest predictors of personal and professional success.  But how do you develop it?   Today's guest, expert in global leadership and organizational development and co-host of The Evolving Leader Podcast, Scott Allender joins Ian to discuss what emotional intelligence actually is, how the Enneagram aligns with the five essential ski...

This week, my dear friend and gifted songwriter, Cindy Morgan, joins me for a great conversation about Enneagram Fours, including the push-pull dance of fours in relationships, the well of suffering we can get trapped in, and the importance of authenticity. We also discuss the story behind her debut novel, The Year of Jubilee, and explore how she integrated the Enneagram into the main characters'...

As the New York Times bestselling author of 23 books and lead pastor of National Community Church, Mark Batterson believes that the foundation of all healthy relationships and successful careers stems from our proficiency in these three words: Please. Sorry. Thanks.   All three of these words require a posture of humility. All three of these words unlock the law of reciprocity and foster connectio...

When Kate Bowler was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, she was forced to grapple with the cultural scripts that box us into a tidy story about how we "earn our lives and get what we deserve," and that "anything is possible." But what if those scripts aren't true?  She joins me for an open conversation about her chronic sadness, suffering, and pain, and invites us to be honest about the lives that ca...

What actually makes a fulfilling and meaningful life?  Today, Dr. Robert Waldinger, Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development , reveals the key to real happiness is the strength of our connections and relationships with others.  "The people who stay happiest, healthiest, and live the longest have the warmest relationships with other people, "explains Dr. Waldinger. Dr. Waldinger shares th...

What are your parenting goals?  What does a "win" look like for you?  Andy and Sandra Stanley determined years ago that their primary goal as parents was to build strong, healthy relationships with their children that continue into their adulthood. "Our legacy is the relationships, the health of the relationships, and the healthy people in the relationships we leave behind," says Sandra. "We wante...

Several years ago we had Lysa TerKeurst on our show and discussed not confusing the desire for peace with the disease to please. Today, Lysa joins us again for a deep conversation about learning to set good boundaries and where she notices her struggle to maintain them.   "It's not that I don't want to be clear," Lysa says, "it's that sometimes I care so much about what the other person is feeling...

As President of Belmont University, Dr. Greg Jones sees the importance of connection and community and puts a strong emphasis on molding character through storytelling. "I think that people are yearning for that sense of hope and that sense of community," says Dr. Jones, "and, I think, to be able to hear one another's stories, share one another's stories, and find a story worth living." This week,...

As a former at-risk foster kid, Shipp found it difficult to trust adults: "The way I defined trustworthiness was: are you gonna not give up on me when I show you what I'm capable of? When I show you all my ugliness and all of my past and everything you didn't cause, but now you're gonna be dealing with…can you handle all of that?" Josh Shipp wants to pass that experience on to as many others as he...

Two years following his departure from the band, NEEDTOBREATHE, Bo is releasing a candid look at his past with childlike wonder and self-realization under a new name, Coy Roy:  "I got into therapy and began to dig into my childhood and why the trajectory of my life took a different path. I left my six-year-old self back there, and we went different places. [Now I'm] recognizing that I'm not going...

Throughout her 20+ years of teaching,  Professor Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, has seen a significant change in her students' ties to religion.  "I've seen them completely abandon spirituality because that drug of certainty has just gotten too toxic for them," says Whitehouse. "And so, what is really powerful to me is wonder. It's always been really powerful to me, as an Enneagram 2." This week, we tal...

As the director of adolescent counseling at Daystar Counseling in Nashville, TN, Sissy Goff has seen first-hand how anxious behavior in children has been fueled by unrealistic social expectations. But according to Goff, one way to address that worry in kids is by teaching them self-talk: "I have them give the worry a name, because we all think of the voice in the back of our head as truth until we...

No matter where we fall on the Enneagram, intentionality is a crucial posture to take into the new year. This week, we model how you can think ahead in the new year by drawing a few questions out of a hat and reflecting on the year to come. 

A special offer for our podcast listeners: sign up for the Typology Institute today to get access to all 3 courses and other monthly perks. Go to typologyinstitute.com/workplace and use the code TYPOLOGYPODCAST for 30% savings through the end of 2022 only. The Enneagram is all about self-knowledge, self-reflection and learning about ourselves. We close out the year with today's episode, and talk t...

A special offer for our podcast listeners: sign up for the Typology Institute today to get access to all 3 courses and other monthly perks. Go to typologyinstitute.com/workplace and use the code TYPOLOGYPODCAST for 30% savings through the end of 2022 only. This week, we take a phone call from a friend. Also: the benefits of the Enneagram for those in recovery.  Tune in to hear our discussion on th...

A special offer for our podcast listeners: sign up for the Typology Institute today to get access to all 3 courses and other monthly perks. Go to   typologyinstitute.com/workplace   and use the code TYPOLOGYPODCAST for 30% savings through the end of 2022 only. Every month, we record a secret ad-free podcast episode exclusively for Typology Institute Members. This week, we're giving you special acc...

A special offer for our podcast listeners: sign up for the Typology Institute today to get access to all 3 courses and other monthly perks. Go to typologyinstitute.com/workplace and use the code TYPOLOGYPODCAST for 30% savings through the end of 2022 only. I receive so many questions from our listeners via email and social media that I don't get to respond to them all. But I want you to know I'm p...

Podcast listeners: sign up for the Typology Institute today to get access to all 3 courses and other monthly perks. Go to typologyinstitute.com/workplace and use the code TYPOLOGYPODCAST for 30% savings through the end of 2022 only. Hey folks! Last week, I shared one of my favorite episodes in which the host of The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, founder of North Point Ministries, and author of B...

We're off for Thanksgiving, but while we're gone, I wanted to share one of my favorite conversations I've been a part of about the Enneagram. Make sure to check us out next week for part two!  In this episode, The host of The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, founder of North Point Ministries, and author of Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets , Andy Stanley takes over as host and interviews me on how e...

We've got a special treat for you this week. Every month, we record a secret podcast episode exclusively for Typology Institute Members. But this month, we're letting you listen to one of our favorites, a conversation with Andrew Chapman, psychotherapist and meditation teacher, about the nature of mindfulness and how it relates to the Enneagram. You won't want to miss this deep dive into how trans...