A radical, accessible approach to relationships and self reflection
Enneagram from a Liberation Lens
Traditionally, the Enneagram has been used to help us grow towards our highest good. However, most Enneagram theory focuses on individual growth for the sake of individual prosperity-not collective growth. We know liberation doesn’t happen alone.
Common Enneagram theory also focuses on “growth” from a the perspective of capitalism, often racism, and the traditional hetero-normative family. For example, seeing manic productivity as a sign of growth for Type 7 or using ma/paternal norms for types 2 and 8 respectively.
Our practice prioritizes getting dominant cultural expectations out of the Enneagram. We embed our curriculum and theory with an anti-racism, anti-capitalism, and anti-oppressive framework. Our workshops are built to help you reflect and commit to your own personal growth— to be the real you. Not just the “you” that contributes to an oppressive society.
We also focus on building curriculum for your community to learn and grow together. The Enneagram teaches us how to hold each other in empathy; gives caution to potential conflict; and offers paths for individualized accountability.
There is so much more to share on this topic. Keep an eye out for workshops and discussions!
The Enneagram was not written or theorized by any one particular person. Its historical roots stem as far back as ancient Kabbalah mysticism and as recent as modern anti-racist revolutionaries. Though the Christian community has written much of what we know the Enneagram to be today; it is not an inherently religious practice.
The theory has been shaped as quickly as our society has. It has adapted to the ever-evolving world we live in. It belongs to all of us— no one person can say what is correct or incorrect. However, there is a solid agreement about the basics of the theory.
Our practice is actively attentive to the conversations of revolutionizing Enneagram theory to adapt it to our modern liberation.
Learning to trust your wisdom in taking the basic theory and adapting it to your life and relationships is at the center of our practice.
The wisdom of the people
Trauma and the enneagram
We are all humans with distinct reactions to trauma in our lives. In a lot of respects, the core fears of each Enneagram Type can all be considered very valid trauma responses and understandings of the world around us.
Embedded within our curriculum is information about how trauma works in our bodies and common ways that it shows up within each Enneagram type. While this curriculum is not a replacement for therapy- trauma is at the center of everything we do.
The Enneagram can be used as a spiritual tool of reflection and self actualization. This tool has been especially used by Catholics and Christians- often with the best intentions, but at sometimes at harmful costs through oppressive and missionary-like practices.
We’ve been working hard to take the powerful good from the Enneagram and wrestle with the bad—reclaiming it.
So often, folks in Western or White-Dominated cultures are taught to avoid this work. Instead, they’re expected to exploit or take practices from marginalized cultures— and Indigenous practices in particular. This is mainly due to their own culture’s practices being used as a tool for harm, or disappearing under colonization.
If Christianity is a part of your lineage, reclaiming this practice may be a helpful way to move towards your personal liberation.
Reclaiming the tools that were given to us and moving forward with the good in them is one of the most important things