The Enneagram
A Living Map for Understanding Yourself
The Enneagram is one of the most powerful tools I've encountered for understanding why you do what you do. Not as a label, but as a living map for genuine self-knowledge. At Path of Purpose, we use it not to put you in a box, but to help you see the patterns, defenses, and deeper motivations that have been quietly running the show. From there, real change becomes possible.
What is the Enneagram?
The Enneagram is a personality framework with nine distinct types, each describing a different core motivation, a particular way of seeing the world, and the defenses and patterns that form around it. But unlike most personality systems, the Enneagram isn't interested in what you do. It's interested in why.
At its surface, it can feel like a useful way to understand yourself. Go deeper, and it becomes something more uncomfortable and more valuable: a map of the strategies you developed early in life to feel safe, loved, and capable, and the ways those strategies now limit you without your knowing it.
The Enneagram doesn't flatter. It illuminates. And that's what makes it so useful in therapy.
How I Use the Enneagram in Sessions
I don't use the Enneagram as a test you take and then discuss. I use it as a lens we hold up together, over time, as patterns emerge in our work. Sometimes a client arrives already knowing their type. Sometimes we discover it slowly through what keeps coming up in session. Either way, the type is never the destination. It's a starting point.
What I'm most interested in is the space between your type's automatic patterns and who you actually want to be. The Enneagram is precise about the defenses each type uses, the specific ways each type avoids what it most needs, and the path toward what it calls integration, moving toward greater wholeness and freedom.
I integrate Enneagram work with Gestalt, Existential, and somatic approaches, so the insights don't stay intellectual. We bring them into the body, into the present moment, and into the actual patterns showing up between us in the room.
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Why the Enneagram Goes Deeper Than Other Personality Frameworks
Most personality systems describe what you're like. The Enneagram asks why you became this way, and what it costs you. It traces each type back to a core fear and a core desire, and shows how the strategies built around them play out in relationships, work, creativity, and the way you treat yourself.
For artists, creatives, and deep thinkers, the Enneagram tends to land with unusual precision. It names things that haven't had names before. It gives language to the inner experience, not just the outer behavior. Many of my clients find that a single insight from the Enneagram shifts something they've been trying to understand about themselves for years.
It's not magic. It's a very good map. But a good map in the right hands, used with patience and honesty, can change where you end up.
who I work with
I work with adults who are genuinely curious about themselves and have hit the ceiling of what awareness alone can do. People who understand their patterns intellectually and are ready to work with what's underneath them. The Enneagram tends to be most powerful for those who are already self-reflective and want a framework precise enough to actually account for the complexity of who they are.
I've worked with high-caliber artists and creatives who think in systems and find the Enneagram's precision unusually clarifying, and with adults who have done significant self-development work and are ready to go to the root. My practice is trauma-informed, justice-centered, sex-positive, shame-free, and proudly LGBTQIA+ affirming.
How I Came to the Enneagram
The Enneagram has been part of my personal and professional life for years. I came to it through my training at Naropa University, where I earned a Master's in Clinical and Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling. Naropa's contemplative tradition and the Enneagram speak the same language: genuine self-inquiry, presence, and the willingness to see clearly.
Beyond my degree, I hold certifications in EMDR, Somatic Psychotherapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Trauma, Integrative Gestalt Therapy, and Existential Psychotherapy. The Enneagram sits within that broader whole-person framework. It's one lens among many, and I use it when it's the right one for where you are.
Sessions and Pricing
I'm private pay only, which means our work is never shaped by insurance timelines or approval requirements. Sessions are $140 for 50 to 55 minutes. A free 15-minute consultation is available before any commitment.
start with a free 15 minute consultation
Discover your path forward...your next chapter starts here
Enneagram Therapy
This might be right for you if...
You've taken Enneagram tests online and want to go much deeper than a type description
You sense that some of your greatest strengths are also your greatest limitations
You're an artist, creative, or deep feeler who thinks in patterns and wants a framework that honors that
You're ready to look at the strategies that have protected you and ask whether they're still serving you
You keep running into the same patterns and can't figure out where they come from
You're deeply self-aware but awareness alone hasn't changed anything
You want to understand not just what you do, but why
You're curious about yourself in a genuine, non-superficial way
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The Enneagram is a personality framework that maps nine distinct types, each defined by a core motivation, fear, and the patterns that form around them. In therapy, I use it not as a test but as a living lens, one we return to over time as patterns emerge in our work together. The goal isn't to know your type. It's to understand what your type has been costing you, and what becomes possible when those patterns become conscious.
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No. Some clients arrive knowing their type well. Others come with a vague sense or no familiarity at all. Either is fine. We'll discover what's relevant through the work itself, and I find that the Enneagram tends to reveal itself naturally as patterns emerge in session rather than needing to be determined in advance.
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No. Most personality frameworks describe what you're like on the outside. The Enneagram goes deeper, asking why you became this way and what it costs you. It's built around core motivations and fears rather than behavioral traits, which makes it more useful for therapeutic work. It's less a description of your personality and more a map of the strategies underneath it.
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Sessions run 50 to 55 minutes and cost $140. I'm private pay only, which keeps the structure of our work entirely between us. A free 15-minute consultation is available before any commitment.
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You can reach me by calling (720) 663-0334, emailing jacqui@pathofpurpose.org, or booking a free 15-minute consultation through the website. Path of Purpose is located at 1895 Bluff Street, Boulder, CO 80304. Telehealth sessions are available for Colorado residents throughout the state.