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Judging ourselves and judging others is a powerful and destructive barrier to real and genuine collaboration. We all have an inner critic operating in clandestine ways to keep us locked in patterns of personality that prevent us from truly opening beyond our limited perspectives. In [...]
The Healthy Five Terry, a Type Five Investigator extraordinaire, walks through the back door of the 8 AM, Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, a gangly softness to his movements. A well-navigated precision to each step, he quietly moves through the rag-tag Oregon crowd, a blend of all-ages, [...]
Suggestions for the Nine in Recovery You must learn to lean into conflict. Okay, let’s face it, this is last item on your Nine list of “Things I’d love to do in 2017.” As with all of your fellow traveling Nines, you’ve mistakenly learned to [...]
The Core Suffering and Dilemma of the Nine in Recovery You see the Type Nine—the peacemaker, the easy-going, self-effacing type—sitting at an AA meeting, initially withdrawn and distant, but with a little time clean and sober, a sort of likable, relaxed, I-won’t-bother-you-character, emerges. Gentle, kind, [...]
First Twelve Weeks in Recovery—Helping the Nine Devan sits in group day after day, so still and quiet you’d never know he was there. Second week in it dawns on me. I continually don’t ask Devan to share. It’s like he emits a strange force-field [...]
Each of us is recovering from something in our lives. Many find themselves addicted to substance or process addictions. And whether or not we have a "socially unacceptable addiction," each of us, as we navigate our way through life and awaken to see the strategies [...]
Copyright 2017 Version 1 The Core Suffering and Dilemma of the Nine in Recovery You see the Type Nine—the peacemaker, the easy-going, self-effacing type—sitting at an AA meeting, initially withdrawn and distant, but with a little time clean and sober, a sort of likable, relaxed, [...]
Copyright 2017 Version 1 The Healthy Type Nine Marty, a lanky Type Nine addiction’s counselor, glides across the room, his presence so seamlessly interwoven and in-flow with the texture, depth, and the psychological energy of the space you hardly see him. He’s beside you, he’s [...]
The world of addiction and recovery is fraught with beliefs and assumptions. It brings up deeply tender emotions and there can be confusion and reactivity that tests our courage and shapes who we are. How do we have conversations in the midst of this? What [...]
Protective Mechanism of the Eight: I’m in Charge—You Will Not Mess With Me The Eight defends himself against being rejected or hurt by instinctively creating a protective barrier around him, actually, an impenetrable shell which he mistakes as ‘power.’ He exudes an intense force-field that [...]
The Doorway Home: The Path of Surrender At AA meetings he begins to hear the broken stories of other men, men who have sat where he sits, who have learned one primary lesson: Recovering from addiction is never a solo journey. Never. Ever. It’s a [...]
Copyright 2015, Version 1.0 The Heart and Soul of Type Eight When men enter Mercy House rehab they meet Dominic, a tall, broad-shouldered, kick-your-ass-swaggering, confidant-as-God, pony-tailed Dominican. An addiction’s counselor with eighteen years clean from heroin, his fierce intensity and street-smart-bust-your-balls-courage greet you like a [...]
[NO RECORDING] This workshop will explore the direct application of the Enneagram to the 12 Steps of addiction recovery and will provide a deeper clarity regarding the right use of the steps with the Enneagram. Much of the early development of AA centered around the [...]
Suggestions to the Type Seven Become aware of your emotional habit—gluttony—and begin to disidentify with it. Gluttony is the drive to fill up your emptiness—the hungry heart of the Seven—with stuff, like the stuff of food, or material objects, or sex, or whatever appears as [...]
Type Seven in Addiction—Life at Level 6 & 7 When the Type Seven is caught in addiction, mired in the prison of Level 6 and 7 [...]
The ENTHUSIAST—The Excitable, Variety-Seeking Type Copyright 2014 by Michael Naylor, CCPC, LADC, CCS, M.Ed/Version 1.0 “Happiness comes from Inner Peace…nowhere else!” Dalai Lama ____________________________________________________ The Healthy Seven I watch Peter, a true type Seven, walk into the basement of St. Jude’s Church where other members [...]
Understanding the dynamics of the Inner Critic, and the way in which it affects the Three Centers of Intelligence, is critical work for transforming the type-specific defense patterns of each Enneagram type in addiction recovery. More importantly, understanding the intrusion of the Inner Critic in [...]
The Healthy Three The healthy Three is a radiant motivator of others, encouraging them with skill and faith to do their best, to see their capacities, to shine as they are capable of shining. Effortlessly, and with grace, they support others, championing them to celebrate [...]
The Healthy Five Terry, a Type Five Investigator extraordinaire, walks through the back door of the 8 AM, Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, a gangly softness to his movements. A well-navigated precision to each step, he quietly moves through the rag-tag Oregon crowd, a blend of all-ages, [...]
The Healthy One John, a Type One, is a delight when he’s healthy. Light-hearted, kind, reasonable, fair, wise, discerning, Jon Stewart-funny (of The Daily Show) and self-effacing, he can laugh at his tendencies to be a perfectionist, and to take himself way too seriously. Although [...]
Core Relapse Wound—I Do Not Deserve nor need Love, you do! When the Two enters recovery he is driven by the heart-breaking feeling that he has lost contact with all love, that he lives in a love-empty world, and that he himself is utterly beyond [...]
Healthy Two Martin came into addiction recovery twenty-four years ago, and it shows. Sitting at an AA meeting, his angular face and body embody stillness, grace, strength and gentleness. One hears the moment he speaks, a depth of compassion and kindness towards the men in [...]
Suggestions to the Type Four 1. Begin to notice how you unconsciously confirm your feelings of being a rejected outsider. Because you feel flawed and insignificant you look for your environment to confirm these feelings. For instance, you’re at an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting and you’re [...]
The Ongoing Shocks of Recovery—Embracing the Shadow Recovery for the Four truly begins when he sees he has erroneously imagined himself being sensitive, compassionate, and emotionally honest while under the influence of his addiction—when his real behavior has been self-absorbed, hateful, and self-centered (Level 6 [...]
Protective Mechanism of the Four: Hiding Out in My Imagination & Intensity The Type Four protects himself and his shame-filled heart (“I’m a nobody…I have no significance”) by withdrawing into his imagination, avoiding real contact with life which he anticipates will cause him more shame. [...]
The Individualist, – The Sensitive, Introspective Type The Healthy Four Thomas came into recovery eight years ago. He was a 30-year-old-heroin addict and alcoholic and homeless, not a penny to his name. Raised in foster homes, and living on the street since age sixteen, this [...]
What it Mean to Become Conscious When an individual is living at level 5 or below they are living in a state of unconsciousness. (This doesn’t mean they don’t have times during their day when they are more conscious and present.) What does being “conscious” [...]
When the Lights Go Out When individuals drop to Level 7 and below, they are fully leaving the track of reality, in fact, you could say they are off the rails, having lost contact with objective reality. Here they act out the distorted versions of [...]
Going on Automatic Pilot At the Average levels of development (Levels 4 to 6), when an emotional trigger is touched by another or by a stressful circumstance, the individual frequently blames and judges the external source for the suffering they are experiencing (As in…”It’s your [...]
The Levels of Development are a map and guide to greater Presence. Let’s take a closer look. Awake, Present, and Alive When we are functioning in the Healthy Levels we are flexible, spontaneous, joyful, open-minded, heart-felt, compassionate, understanding of others and self, and more often [...]
Anyone in 12 Step recovery knows about the Levels of Development from their daily life. It’s as simple as this: on good days I’m clear headed, serene, not emotionally reactive, less self-absorbed, can relax and do my best work, and am less distracted. In essence, [...]
This workshop addresses the primary issues each Type must navigate to move up the Levels of Development to successful sobriety and an addiction-free life. Of great importance, and often not referenced in recovery circles, is the importance of the three instincts and how they affect [...]
This session will discuss the use of the Enneagram with individuals in early recovery and the use of the Enneagram at different stages of addiction recovery. Each type will be discussed and the particular struggles each type encounters in early recovery and later recovery will [...]
