Enneagram School of Awakening Blog

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Embodying Each Type

Through guided embodiment practices and vivid energetic portraits, Dr. Lissa Friedman reveals how each Enneagram type lives in the body—and how that energy shapes our patterns, defenses, and path back to Essence.

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Meeting The Nine Types

Dr. Lissa Friedman breaks down the nine Enneagram types into three energetic groups—adaptors, inward movers, and outward expressers—offering a powerful way to feel the Enneagram in the body and begin to sense each type's core motivation through its energy.

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Exploring Embodiment

Dr. Lissa Friedman shares the origin story of the Embodiment Tradition—how stepping into the physicality and voice of her clients led to a deeper understanding of the nine Enneagram types as distinct energetic patterns living in the body.

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Uncovering the Embodiment Tradition

Dr. Lissa Friedman traces the roots of the Embodiment Tradition to her discovery that Enneagram fixation—our patterned identity—creates an energetic block to true liberation, and that by feeling the type in the body, we can begin to loosen its hold and return to Essence.

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Meet The Team

Ali McGhee and Valerie Wanamaker share personal updates, upcoming workshops, and what’s been inspiring their Enneagram work as they step into leadership at the Enneagram School of Awakening.

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How Do I Really Connect to My Essence?

Tammy from the Enneagram School of Awakening has developed a practice for working with Essence called Sacred Nourishment. This is a practice that guides our essential ecstatic nature into a lived, embodied, and integrated being. ..

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Are Consciousness and Essence the Same?

Essence in the Enneagram refers to the sacred frequency at the core of who we are as unconditioned expressions of the Divine. These frequencies exist at the “level” of our shared being of consciousness, beyond our fixated personality. Consciousness has diverse flavors or facets - these are the essences of the Enneagram.

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How does Essence relate to Happiness?

Happiness is universal and it has universal qualities - facets. The essential qualities of happiness are the essential qualities of the Enneagram types - love, peace, joy, trust, truth, radiance, wholeness, innocence, purity, integrity, oneness, and more. These qualities are deeply nourishing…

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How Do I Feel the Energetics of the Enneagram Types?

3, 6, and 9 – The Adapting Energetic Types. We call them mutable, adaptors, or shifters, because in three different ways they adapt or adjust to their environment, and to the people around them. When someone with the 9 pattern adapts, they are seeking harmony and comfort. They will try to get the people around them to be in harmony, which may involve changing themselves as well as affecting the expression of the others…

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Where Does The Embodiment Tradition Come From?

By the Founder of the Enneagram School of Awakening, Lissa Friedman, PhD - The embodiment tradition began around 1998, while I was working as a psychotherapist in private practice. It occurred to me that many of my clients were getting stuck at a particular place in their process…

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How Do I Find My Enneagram Type and Others?

One of the most difficult parts of teaching the Enneagram is typing people. I believe it works best when it is a joint effort between the student and the instructor or mentor. But however it is done, it is hard. Recognizing the energy of each type can help…

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How do I Embody the Energies of the Enneagram Types?

9 – the adapting gut point. Get really comfortable in your seat. If you can find a soft chair or a comfy spot on your couch, sit there. Let your weight sink into the couch. Loosen your belly, your shoulders, even the muscles in your face. Feel your bottom spread out. If you are wearing anything tight, loosen it. Now, glance around the room and allow your eyes to have a soft focus…

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