Enneagram Origins
The Enneagram has roots in ancient spiritual traditions, including Sufism, Christian mysticism, and other wisdom teachings.
In the 20th century, modern thinkers like George Gurdjieff, Oscar Ichazo, and Claudio Naranjo integrated these insights with psychology, creating the personality system we know today - a dynamic tool for self-awareness, growth, and transformation.
The Enneagram is now widely used in personal development, psychotherapy, leadership training, spiritual formation, and relationship work because of its depth and practical relevance.
The Nine Types
Type One – The Reformer / Perfectionist
Motivated by a drive to be good and right; seeks improvement, integrity, and correctness.
Principled, purposeful, rational, self-controlled, and perfectionistic.
Motivated by a need to be loved and needed; seeks connection, appreciation and belonging.
Caring, generous, nurturing, people-pleasing, supportive, and possessive.
Type Three – The Achiever / Performer
Motivated by a drive for success and personal value; seeks achievement, recognition, and efficiency.
Driven, adaptable, self-assured, success-oriented, and image-conscious.
Type Four – The Individualist / Romantic
Motivated by a longing for identity and significance; seeks authenticity, depth, and emotional truth.
Sensitive, introspective, creative, emotionally attuned, and temperamental.
Type Five – The Investigator / Specialist
Motivated by a need to conserve energy and inner resources; seeks knowledge, self-sufficiency, and competence.
Curious, analytical, innovative, cerebral, independent, and introverted.
Type Six – The Loyalist / Loyal Sceptic
Motivated by a need for safety and certainty; seeks security, trust, and support.
Committed, responsible, security-oriented, loyal, vigilant, and suspicious.
Type Seven – The Enthusiast / Adventurer
Motivated by a desire to maintain freedom and avoid pain; seeks enjoyment, possibility, and variety.
Energetic, optimistic, versatile, future-focused, variety-seeking, and scattered.
Type Eight – The Challenger / Protector
Motivated by a need to be in control and protect themselves and others; seeks autonomy, strength, and justice.
Strong, confident, protective, assertive, action-oriented, and dominating.
Type Nine – The Peacemaker / Mediator
Motivated by a desire for harmony and inner stability; seeks peace, unity, and ease.
Easygoing, receptive, self-effacing, agreeable, steady, and complacent.
The Three Centres
The Enneagram is organised into three centres of intelligence, which reflect the main way we tend to engage with life - whether we naturally lead with our thinking, our feelings, or our actions. Within each centre are three personality types that share familiar patterns in how they experience the world and connect with others:
Heart Centre - Types 2, 3, 4
Types in the Heart Centre are led by emotion, focused on gaining love and attention, and driven by shame and image.
Head Centre - Types 5, 6, 7
Types in the Head Centre lead with thinking and analysis, prioritising security, with fear as the primary driver.
Body / Gut Centre - Types 8, 9,
Types in the body or gut centre lead with instinct and action. They focus on autonomy, and experience anger as a driver.
Wings and Arrows
While each of us has a core Enneagram type, we can also draw on qualities from one or both of our wings - the numbers that sit on either side of our type. E.g. if you lead with type 2 on the Enneagram, your wings will be 1 and 3, meaning that you might take on a few characteristics from those types too.
Our core type is also connected by arrows to two additional types on the Enneagram, one of which is our security or integration point (where we naturally go when we’re feeling safe and secure), and one is our stress or disintegration point (where we go under pressure). These mean we often adopt patterns from those types which are helpful or less helpful, but either way they are resource points that offer us something to learn from.
Instincts and Subtypes
The Enneagram also describes three biological drivers, often called instincts: Self-Preservation, Social, and One-to-One (or Sexual).
These instincts are how we’ve learned to survive, belong, and form close bonds, influencing our behaviour and the choices we make. They exist alongside personality rather than being part of it.
Most of us have one dominant instinct that leads the way, a second that supports it, and a third that tends to fall into the background or become repressed. Unlike personality type, these instinctual patterns can shift and change over time.
Subtypes of each type are created in relation to whether the Self-Preservation, Social, or One-to-One instinct is dominant, where core motivations remain the same but the outworking of the type looks different.
The Journey of the Enneagram
The above is just a brief insight into the Enneagram framework, and there is so much more to talk about!
The real work is to become more present and conscious of our own motivations and patterns of behaviour. Like noticing moments where we want to run, or hide, or control, or when we’re most afraid.
At its heart, the Enneagram invites us to slow down, notice the strategies we rely on, and reconnect with ourselves, so we can meet life with more clarity, freedom, and intention.
“The Enneagram does not put people in boxes; it shows them the box they are already in and the way out.”