personality

Engage in an Enneagram Typing Interview

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Why the Enneagram?

I believe everyone should know about the Enneagram. It’s a tool of self-discovery, self-reflection, and growth. It gives language to our core motivations, the beliefs deep down that drive our behaviors. Why wouldn’t we want to better understand that part of ourselves?

The Enneagram is for you if:

-You want to keep growing and evolving personally and professionally

-You are seeking clarity on your strengths

-You are seeking insight into your challenges or growth edges

-You want a tool for connecting authentically with yourself and others

There are tons of tests and quizzes out there to help you discover your Type, however they are only approximately 66% effective. What if you are in fact a Countertype, meaning you don’t show up like other folks in your type structure? That’s where a Typing Interview can help!

What’s an Enneagram Typing Interview?

A typing interview is a 60 minute meeting with a trained Enneagram professional where you are invited to reflect on a series of questions to help you narrow down your possible Enneagram type. Although the Nine Types are most well-known, did you know there are actually 27 types when you take into account instincts and subtypes? That’s a big difference!

What you can expect in a Typing interview with me as a consultant and mental health professional (although this is not therapy and does not replace therapy) is a supportive, safe place with open questions to help you discover your type structure possibilities. You’ll also get resources and reading recommendations on your type, including relevant

-YouTube links

-articles to read

-books to check out

Why work with me? As a trained mental health therapist, Certified Financial Therapist, and Enneagram certified professional, you get the best of three worlds: a safe space to show up, clarity on your money behaviors, and the experience of purposeful questions to support your self-discovery journey. An Enneagram Typing Interview does not replace therapy with a trained professional, and this meeting and content shared are for educational purposes only.

Are you craving clarity or language for why certain things are a struggle? Do you want to embrace your strengths and lean into that next level of growth? Are you ready to explore how the Enneagram can create meaningful change for the better? 

My Enneagram Evolution

I first engaged in an Enneagram training in 2012, where it left a profound impression on me because it gave language to my experience personally and professionally within the world. Then I experienced it again as part of pre-marital counseling with my spouse of almost 10 years (and counting). The Enneagram became a regular tool in my mental health private practice with clients struggling with low self-worth, perfectionism, and workaholism. 

But it didn’t stop there.

In 2019 I began using the Enneagram with colleagues in my consultation role to help them recover from burnout within our field. In 2020, I wrote my first Amazon #1 Best-seller Perfectioneur: Moving from Workaholic to Well-balanced, that called out risks for certain personality types (I’m looking at you Enneagram Type Twos and Threes) to struggle with work-life harmony. In 2022 I leaned into Enneagram conversations with colleagues in peer consultation groups. 

In 2023, I saw an intersection of Enneagram and money behaviors as a Certified Financial Therapist, crafting a blog that would be the origin story of our Amazon #1 Best Seller Your Enneagram and Money, which published in January 2025. In March 2025, I crafted and taught an elective on The Enneagram in Therapy for Master’s counseling students at the University of Denver and presented the same content at the Colorado Counseling Association’s Annual Conference to a standing-room-only crowd in August 2025. The Enneagram fascinates many of us as therapists and helping professionals, and for lots of valid reasons! 

From 2023 to now, I continue to bring in aspects of the Enneagram into healing retreats with therapists. And at the conclusion of 2025, I successfully completed an Enneagram Certification Program with Milton Stewart, MBA of Kaizen Coaching, Consulting & Community and incoming president of the International Enneagram Association.

So in 2026 it’s time for me to give back to my professional helper community in a new way—by providing language and insight into our personality type structures that also informs our conscious work with clients! Schedule an Enneagram Typing Interview with me here.

Exploring the Enneagram: Relationship Reinforcement

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I can’t handle it when others are upset. I throw myself into work to avoid emotions. I want to be left alone. No one understands me. I want everyone around me to be happy. Can you relate to any of these statements when it comes to how you operate in your world? Does this describe your reactions when relating to others? If so, there is good news! The Enneagram is a personality test that not only looks at your strengths and weaknesses, but also allows insight into relationships with others in order to strengthen compassion and connection.

 

Personality Test Popularity

For many of us, we’ve been exposed to personality tests in the past, whether it was part of high school psychology class, a component of starting a new job, or a viral quiz on social media. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was the go-to personality test for several decades starting in the 1940s when exploring a person’s extraversion, intuition, and decision-making skills. The Enneagram has been around almost as long, making an introduction in America in the 1950s. Praised as a tool for deeper awareness, self-understanding, and self-discovery, The Enneagram classifies personality into 9 categories or types, identified below by The Enneagram Institute as:

  • Type 1: The Reformer

  • Type 2: The Helper

  • Type 3: The Achiever

  • Type 4: The Individualist

  • Type 5: The Investigator

  • Type 6: The Loyalist

  • Type 7: The Enthusiast

  • Type 8: The Challenger

  • Type 9: The Peacemaker

The Enneagram also claims that a person’s designation as one of the nine types is solidified in childhood based on traumatic or impactful experiences that reinforce behaviors that support feelings of safety and security.  For example, someone who tests at Type 2, The Helper, may have a core belief that “I am good and ok if I help others.” The authors of several Enneagram books, Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson further describe each person’s capacity to equally develop into any one type, however the type that ultimately defines us is reinforced by our environment at a very young age. Another example that can highlight this concept is the child who is praised for every positive performance or good grade, allowing them to feel pride when sharing their accomplishments at a young age. In continuing to seek that valuable praise to feel positively about themselves, they might find themselves pursuing various accomplishments throughout their life in a series of patterns of achievement, categorizing them as Personality Type 3, The Achiever.

 

Put it to the Test

So now that your curiosity is peaked, why not put it to the test and see for yourself? You might have an idea of your type just from the names above, however there are several options that can clarify your results.  The Enneagram Institute (enneagraminsitute.com) has an online test that can define your type and any other connections to other types based on your responses to a series of questions. A faster option can also be found in a free App called EnneaApp, that can allow you to explore your type and read more about what the results mean in shortened form, ideal for those who want family members and loved ones to also test and identify their personality types. The Enneagram has risen in popularity due to its use in various contexts to help people better understand themselves and others.

  • Premarital Counseling

  • Individual and Family Therapy

  • Workplace Efficacy & Human Resources

As you can imagine, clarity about your type and The Enneagram type of others around you can help you rise to your fullest potential, including strategizing on projects in the workplace or connecting at a deeper level interpersonally. Therapists value the Enneagram due to its ability to start conversations about similarities and differences between people, as well as its ability to provide opportunities for growth and self-discovery.

 

Discovering Depth

Self-discovery with the Enneagram reflects the effort you put in the results and your ability to have an open mind. Designation of your personality type includes implications for balance and wellness by looking at the positive characteristics (which will please you) and the negative characteristics (which will make you want to hide). In other words, you will have positive traits that you feel fit your personality very well, and negative traits you will want to reject due to the painful accuracy of things you want to keep hidden from others due to embarrassment or shame.

Allow me to illustrate. If you are found to be a Type 8, The Challenger, you, like all the types, have both positive and negative characteristics. Some of your positive characteristics include having a powerful vision of your future, being vocal about your goals to get results, getting others cooperation in those goals, and being described as passionate.  So far so good right? You sound like a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand, your negative traits include speaking over others, a ‘my way or the highway’ mentality when challenged, being described as bossy and overbearing, and being intimidating when expressing anger. As you can imagine, balance between positive and negative characteristics is important in exploring shifts to support connection with others both personally and professionally as well as workplace success.

 

Enneagram Enhanced

The Enneagram can go much deeper into passions, difficulties, relationships, team work, and more. Just look for trainings in your community and online to move into further discovery after you identify your type or the type of those you value. By beginning your journey into The Enneagram starting with your own reflection, you will uncover unlimited possibilities regarding how to successfully connect with strengths in yourself and with others! 

 “The point of it isn’t to just be a type, but to use the awareness of our type as a kind of entry into a more full-bodied humanity and a greater and greater capacity to embody and flow with all the different qualities of our humanness.” Russ Hudson