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The Enneagram is a powerful personality typing tool used by coaches and others interested in personal and spiritual growth. In the Enneagram, there are nine different personality types and three centers – or triads – of intelligence, including heart mind and gut. And in each triad there are three different personality types.

In the heart triad lie types 2, 3, and 4. Type 2 is the Giver, 3 is the Performer, and 4 is the Romantic (also sometimes referred to as “Tragic Romantic”). All feel at home in their emotion center or the heart center.

These three types have an emotional thermometer which is going out into the world and testing everyone it bumps into. They come into a room and it’s almost like they can probe the people in the room. They’re going through questions like, “How are they feeling? How are they reacting to me? What’s their emotionally content here?”

Types 2, 3, and 4 – it’s all about Image

Types 2, 3, and 4 are the heart triad and are emotion-based. They feel very at home, interacting with the world through emotion, and they are focused on image – on how they are perceived.

They are not just in tune with your responses or emotional content, they’re also constantly adjusting themselves because they are concerned with how you are responding to them. They are constantly adjusting themselves to what perceive to be the emotional reactions around them. Each of these three types appears different when they do it.

Types 2, 3, and 4 have an underlying belief that they need to earn value or a sense of worth. Their internal sense of self is largely dependant on what is reflected back to them through others. What the outside world sees in them becomes who they are. This is where their attention is naturally drawn – towards other people’s emotional response to them. They are focused on what they do and say – how they project and hold themselves. It’s all about appearances.

And this “image thing” goes on and on. It is reflected in the energy they put out, the way they walk, and they way they move. It’s even in the jargon they use; for example, you can see Type 3 (Achiever) picking up the jargon in a specific group or social context.

Type 4 is in touch with anything somebody might say that would make them feel less than – or on the outside of – the group. Emotionally they have this huge reactivity to this and response to it.

And Type 2′s are paying attention to all the emotions everybody else is having, and what is going on for them. They’re asking, “How can I help you out and you’re your needs?” It is all tuned all into emotion; that’s why it’s called the Image Point – they are creating their image based on the emotional way others react to them.

Underneath the surface of 2′s, 3′s and 4′s there is sadness and shame. As they start doing their work, they’ll usually bump into underlying signs of shame of who they are, and find they’ve compensated by trying to be somebody else.

Their thoughts are running along the lines of, “There is something down there that is not right inside me. I can’t let people in too close because that internal flaw might be discovered. They can come in, but just not too close. They might discover that thing.”

Types 5, 6 and 7 – the Mental Triad

Types 5, 6 and 7 are the head-based types, with an underlining of fear and anxiety.

They live in the world of thinking, cognition and strategizing. The move they’ve made into the head is about creating safety and control where they won’t be “down in the messy emotions” where they are out of control and interacting with “other things” out in the world.

Their thoughts go something like, “Up in the head I can try to understand it. I can think through things. I can create a model for how this world works and then I impose my model onto the world, and I start to believe the model even more then I believe the world.”

The Mental types are strategizers – often adept chess players. They understand the world and social situations through the head rather then through the heart (emotions) are body (gut). They are paying attention through the eyes. They are watching and observing to answer questions such as “How are people reacting – in a thinking way – to me?” and “What’s going on here?”

For all the head types, there is usually a basic mistrust of the world. For the 5′s, people come too close and there is a connection. From this, mistrust develops and they retreat from the world as part of their strategy.

Type 6′s are going in and out, but their mistrust is out there in the world. They’re thinking, “I can’t trust out there.” But it’s also an internal sense, so they’re also thinking, “I can’t trust me.” Hence there is a lot of dichotomy inside the six’s.

The 7 is more of an externalized trust. Their focus of attention is out in the world, sometimes giving their authority away but also not feeling comfortable with that. Then the fears and the anxieties can manifest out in the world, even more then they can inside.

Types 8, 9 and 1 – in the Body and Gut

Types 8, 9 and 9 are the body (or gut)-based types. They feel things through the body. They get energetic hits. When they walk into a room, it’s not about the emotion or thinking; rather, they’re wondering, “How does this person feel to me – down here in my gut?”

For the body types, there is an underlying anger or resentment that often shows up as judgment. For Type 9, when anger gets repressed, they don’t actually let it out. And their needs get repressed.

If you talk to a “young 9″ just starting to do their personal work, they’ll likely answer, “Anger, what are you talking about? I’m the most mellow, happy-go-lucky, peaceful person I know. I don’t know anger.

But as they move deeper into themselves that anger becomes apparent and is often a gateway for them. They will experience a whole new level of self-awareness and expression. For the first time in their lives, they’ll understand what their needs are and what they want.

Type 8′s tend to externalize the anger. Their energy is much bigger and it comes out. It can overwhelm people and anger can flood into the world. They also tend to not have a sense of other’s boundaries. They get their anger out, and like facing others the same way.

Type 1′s turn the anger inward. They’ll describe an internal critic – a judging voice – that is riding them. It’s usually saying something like, “You have to do it this way. This is what you did wrong. You are stupid. You aren’t doing this right. You aren’t affective enough. You are not energized enough. You are not (whatever) enough.

This anger is internalized, but often they can also be very judgmental and critical of other folks. There is a defiant internal component for them. Type 1′s tend to hold onto the anger in their body.l

So those are the three “Centers of Intelligence” – the heart (Types 2, 3 and 4 with an underlying sadness or shame), the head (types 5, 6 and 7 with an underlying fear or anxiety), and the body (types 8, 9 and 1 with underlying anger or judgment).

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Doug Greene is the owner of TheUltimateCoachingTool.com. Visit http://www.TheUltimateCoachingTool.com for a free eBook and audio lessons on coaching with the Enneagram.

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