Around the Circle | An Enneagram Channel

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What four films best capture the story of America?

In this Fourth of July edition of Sacred Frames, Jeff Cook, Sean Palmer, and Mike Yager each build their own cinematic "Mount Rushmore," selecting four films they believe reveal the promises, contradictions, triumphs, and tragedies that have shaped the American experiment. From Far and Away, Do the Right Thing, Wall Street, and The Right Stuff to Lincoln, Killers of the Flower Moon, Saving Private Ryan, Malcolm X, and beyond, the conversation explores immigration, race, capitalism, war, religion, identity, and the...

In this week's Reading Room, we dive into Chapter 3 of Brené Brown's Atlas of the Heart : "The Places We Go When Things Don't Go as Planned."

Jeff explores boredom, disappointment, regret, discouragement, resignation, and frustration through the lens of the Enneagram, asking what these emotions reveal about desire, courage, vulnerability, and the stories we tell ourselves.

Why does disappointment occupy so much of our emotional lives? What does it mean to name what we truly want? And how can regret become a path toward wisdom instead of shame?

Join us Tuesday : HERE

Parents of neurodivergent children often carry questions, grief, hope, and a fierce love all at once.

In this conversation with Christina Young, creator of The Autistic Enneagram and mother of three autistic children, we explore autism, parenting, the Enneagram, and what it looks like to create environments where children can truly flourish—not by changing who they are, but by understanding them more deeply.

Connect with Christina on Instagram : HERE

Or at her website : HERE

The video of this episode is up at www.aroundthecircle.org

We're traveling to Alaska this week! Braden & Lydia walk us through their relationship as a young 3 & 9; we chat about performance, rest, & meeting each other in the middle.

A quick disclaimer for this video - we had some audio issues around the 15 minute mark. They resolve themselves in ~5 minutes but Braden's comments were so good that I didn't want to cut them out! You might also notice some fluctuations in volume across the recording because of this.

Also - tune in next week for a big SURPRISE!!!!!!!!

Follow me on Instagram to keep up...

JOIN US ON TUESDAYS : HERE

In this week’s Reading Room, Jeff explores Brené Brown’s discussion of comparison and the surprising emotions that can grow from it: admiration, reverence, envy, jealousy, resentment, schadenfreude, and freudenfreude.

Along the way, he reflects on why some comparisons inspire growth while others expose our wounds, how resentment may be rooted in hidden envy and unmet needs, and why celebrating the success of others might be one of the deepest forms of connection available to us.

From Enneagram insights to questions of justice, self-worth, and belonging, we're invit...

What happens when an Enneagram Eight is also autistic, non-binary, and willing to speak candidly about their inner world?

For Jeff’s 50th, he sits down with his oldest, Augie Cook, for a discussion about identity, neurodivergence, gender, family, and the Enneagram.

Together they explore what it feels like to move through the world as an autistic person, how sensory processing shapes daily life, why so many assumptions about Eights miss the mark, and how understanding motives can deepen relationships.

The conversation also explores the overlap between autism and online communities, the experience of...

In this episode, we continue our exploration of the spaces between the Enneagram types by examining the shared ground between Eights and Nines, and between Nines and Ones. While these pairings can appear very different on the surface, they often share deeper motivations, struggles, and strengths that reveal the logic of the Enneagram symbol itself.

Jeff and Katie discuss themes like guardedness, resistance, agency, self-control, confidence, team dynamics, conflict avoidance, and the unique relationship these body types have with anger. Along the way, they explore why Eights and Nines can seem so stubborn, why Nines often act...

Veronica is back, today with her younger sister Veronica! We talk about what it's like to share a common sense of justice, the difference (and similarities) between "harmony" and "order", and how a 1 and 9 offer each other a lot of balance.

Dani Cooper is a Certified Enneagram Teacher, Coach, and your biggest cheerleader on the road to self-discovery.

She helps individuals, couples, and teams identify the patterns keeping them stuck — and grow beyond them into who they were always meant to be. She’s the author of The Enneagram for Christian Couples (2022), and her life’s work is simple: helping people know themselves, love themselves, and live more freely.

IG: @deepwatersenneagram

website: deepwatersenneagram.com

This week in The Reading Room, we continue our journey through Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart by exploring "comparison."

Join our Tuesday night discussion : HERE

As we elevate other topics in ths text, it seems good to sit on this experience for a moment. Drawing from Brown’s research, we examine how comparison shapes our relationships, self-worth, emotional life, and even our sense of the future.

Join us Saturday, June 13th to discuss 369s! : HERE

This episode goes some places!

In this month's Second Saturday gathering, we explored the Enneagram's Affect Groups (sometimes called Harmony Groups), drawing on the work of David Daniels.

The conversation focused on the 2-5-8 triad, often called the Relationists or Rejection Group.

Together we explored questions such as:

Surprise!

We are doing more than just parent/child episodes now. Emma & Gregg have been dating for 5.5 years, and on this episode we discuss what they've learned about each other and what their specific relationship dynamic looks like. We talk about the difference between a 3's anxiety and a 6's anxiety, and we get to really dig deep about what makes each of them feel vulnerable - and why the answers are so different from each other.

Follow me on Instagram : here

Learn more about what I'm up to, sign up for a...

In this episode of Inside Story, Kristen sits down with Joe, a Type Nine whose journey through recovery, Enneagram work, marriage, parenting, and leadership offers a thoughtful look at what growth can look like for Nines.

Together they explore the relationship between the Enneagram and 12-step recovery, the challenge of recognizing and expressing anger, passive-aggression, conflict, self-forgetting, and the fear of disrupting peace. Joe reflects on how routines, courage, accountability, and trusted communities have helped him find his voice and take meaningful action.

The conversation also touches on humility, expertise, relationships, spirituality, and why growth...

Dan Siegel's Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP) framework is one of the first serious attempts to bridge Enneagram ideas with neuroscience, developmental psychology, and clinical practice.

In this episode, I break down the core concepts behind PDP: temperament vs. adaptive strategies, neuroplasticity, the role of "wholeness" in personality development, and the three pillars of the framework -- Vectors, Attendency, and Emotional Regulation Strategies.

We'll also explore how PDP maps onto traditional Enneagram types, where it agrees with existing Enneagram theory, where it diverges, and why Dan Siegel prefers talking about patterns rather than fixed personality...

Upcoming Reading Room Discussion

📅 Tuesday, June 9

🕢 7:30 PM Eastern / 5:30 PM Mountain / 4:30 PM Pacific

📖 Discussion Topic: Atlas of the Heart, Chapter 1 — Places We Go When Things Are Uncertain or Too Much

Sign up for a Free Membership : HERE

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In this Reading Room episode, Jeff continues our summer study of Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart, exploring the emotions and experiences that emerge when life feels uncertain, overwhelming, or simply too much.

Drawing connections between Brown’s research and the Enneagram, this discussion covers stress, overwhelm, anxiety, worry, avoidance...

Jeff and Katie continue their exploration of the numbers that sit beside each type, uncovering how neighboring types share underlying emotional patterns, coping strategies, and ways of moving through the world.

They discuss why wings may be more useful for self-awareness than personal growth, the role of instincts and subtypes in Enneagram study, and the surprising similarities between Sixes and Sevens as they manage anxiety.

The conversation then turns to the dynamic relationship between Sevens and Eights: adventure, challenge, disruption, leadership, independence, and the pursuit of a life fully lived. Why do these types seem...

Katie talks to a mother/daughter duo that she first met at one of her in-person courses in Cincinnati. Featuring our youngest podcast guest ever (eee!), the trio discuss what it feels like to be a teenage 4, what's important as we grow up and think about what we want our life to look like, and the many different ways that a 1 can show up as a parent.

This week on the Morning Show, the crew continues their exploration of the Enneagram centers by diving into the Head Center.

Jeff, Kristen, Jackie, and TJ discuss fear, certainty, anxiety, planning, and all that emerges through that cognitive, future focus.

Sign up for a Free Membership : HERE

We've selected our next book.

Brené Brown's Atlas of the Heart is one of the most influential books on emotions in recent years, and we're going to talk through it this June and July.

The first 2 classes are free to all free members.

Register : HERE

In this episode, Jeff highlights fifteen key ideas from the introduction that connect emotional awareness, language, and personal growth with the wisdom of the Enneagram. Along the way, he reflects on the relationship between feeling, thinking, and b...

Connect with us at Aroundthecircle.org : HERE

Katie Whitlock and Jeff Cook continue their dive into the shared space between adjacent Enneagram types, exploring the emotional and psychological overlap between Threes and Fours, Fours and Fives, and Fives and Sixes. Along the way they discuss authenticity, significance, narcissism, objectivity and subjectivity, emotional processing, rumination, preparation, and the strange intimacy that can emerge between neighboring types.

This conversation moves beyond simple wing theory and into the deeper architecture of the Enneagram itself: why certain types sit next to each other, what they share beneath...

n this episode, Katie talks to mother/daughter duo Penny and Tori. We chat about how a 4 navigates life with two independent stance parents, and we ask ourselves an important question: Exactly how much fun can a 7 create at a wedding when given the opportunity to do so?

Thank you to Penny and Tori for coming on the show, and if anyone else is interested in being interviewed, don't hesitate to navigate to my website and fill out the application form.

ALSO - Registration is now live for Tyler Zach's newest Enneagram summit! Jeff and...

We continue our dive into each of the types and their relationships with their Heart Center, spending most of our time on 9s, 2s, 6s, and 1s.

Sign up for a Memebership : HERE

Find all our material on Dr. Siegel's Book : HERE

In this episode, Jeff Cook sits down with Danielle Fuller (Scientific Enneagram) for a deep conversation on Dr. Daniel Siegel’s Personality and Wholeness in Therapy—the book many are calling the most important scientific contribution to Enneagram theory in years. Together they unpack the book’s core framework around agency, bonding, certainty, emotional regulation, and developmental pathways while wrestling with both its strengths and frustrations.

Jeff and Danielle explore where Siegel’s work reframes the Enneagram for therapists and skeptics, where the language becomes...

In this episode of Rewired, Jeff Cook and Katie Whitlock explore the shared space between neighboring Enneagram types through the lens of wings, relationships, posture, and emotional overlap.

Rather than treating wings as a way to narrow identity, they ask a different question: what do adjacent types share?

The conversation begins with Ones and Twos, unpacking themes like sacrifice, servant-heartedness, grief, judgment, and the pressure to care for the world around them. From there, they move into the shared emotional world of Twos and Threes, exploring image crafting, externalized shame, relational performance, and the difficulty...

These podcasts are getting bigger and bigger! Today I welcome TWO sisters and their mom to talk about more mother-daughter relationship dynamics. We chat about the similarities between 2s and 9s, and what it's like to give your children space to grow and be themselves.

Follow me on Instagram to get updates on new episodes and classes

Join our Patreon to get exclusive episodes and access to our monthly workshops

Mistyping Monday returns!

If you want to connect with us on workshops or one-on-ones like this, sign up for a membership at : www.aroundthecircle.org

From our Movie Typing podcast , this is the full 4 episode discussion of Enneagram eights, heroism, politics, and the movement into villainy with our friend Steve Morris.

You can find, Steve's work: HERE

My extended family gets featured this week! I am joined by my cousin and my aunt to talk about the dynamics between a 7 mother & a 1 daughter. Their family also includes three younger siblings (triplets!) so we get to talk about sibling dynamics and how a 1 survives being the oldest sister.

Follow me on Instagram to get updates on future podcast episodes and classes.

A conversation about the body center, instinct, anger, boundaries, and what it means to be present. In this episode of the Morning Show, Jeff, Kristin, Jackie, and TJ explore how each Enneagram center experiences the world through the body—whether through instinct, physicality, control, fear, affection, movement, autonomy, or anger.

The discussion moves from tattoos and touch to chronic pain, flow states, repression, emotional regulation, and the complicated relationship each type has with anger and physical presence.

Along the way, the group wrestles with questions like: What is healthy anger? What does it mean to tr...

In this final session of the series, Jeff and Katie wrap up their exploration of the shadow work of the Enneagram by focusing on Type Six and Type Seven.

We unpack the fear, holy ideas and heart’s messages connected to each type, and ask what actually helps move people toward courage, temperance, and greater wholeness.

The discussion moves beyond stereotypes and into the lived experience of Sixes and Sevens — how Sixes seek certainty and support, how Sevens navigate fear of deprivation and being trapped, and how both types wrestle with trust, vulnerability, and control.

This is our final post on Processing Center and Jeff gets to interview Katie Whitlock (3), Kristin Messegee (6), and TJ WIlson (9) about how their types move around the circle.

In this episode of The Morning Show, Jeff Cook, Kristin Messegee, and Jackie Contessa explore the three centers of intelligence in the Enneagram—head, heart, and body—but with a broader lens than usual. Instead of focusing only on dominant or repressed centers, the conversation examines how each person relates to all three, and what balance across them might actually look like.

They break down each center: the body as presence, boundaries, and action; the heart as identity, connection, and significance; and the head as discernment, strategy, and anticipation of the future. Along the way, they connect thes...

Connect with us : HERE

In this episode of Rewired, we wrap our discussion on the thinking triad by focusing on Enneagram Sevens and Nines. The conversation challenges common assumptions about these types—especially the idea that they are less mentally engaged—and instead highlights how active and complex their inner processing really is.

We explore how Sevens use reframing, anticipation, and possibility to navigate their experience, often thinking far ahead of their actions. Then we turn to Nines, examining how their thinking supports stability, connection, and ease—often by holding multiple perspectives at once.

Katie Whitlock is joined by her mom, Sara, with Jeff Cook stepping in as guest interviewer for a conversation about their relationship.

As a Type Two and a Type Three , they explore how their motivations shape connection, attention, and emotional needs within their family. They talk through family dynamics, parenting styles, and what it looked like to grow up in a household with strong relational energy but very different ways of expressing it.

The conversation also moves into more personal territory, reflecting on Sara’s cancer diagnosis, how it impacted the family, and how both of...

Connect with us at : www.aroundthecircle.org

A conversation on recovery—what it is, how it happens, and why most of us only find it after burnout. The group explores the difference between recovery and renewal, the role of daily habits, and how Enneagram type shapes what “rest” actually looks like. From naming excess and admitting powerlessness to rebuilding balance across the centers, this episode moves through both the theory and the lived reality of getting unstuck.

They also wrestle with deeper questions: Are we trying to get back to something, or move forward into someth...

Join us on Tuesday Nights : HERE

In this episode, Jeff works through the opening section of Chapter Four of "Personality and Wholeness in Therapy," by Dr. Daniel Siegel, focusing on how personality forms through automatic processes beneath awareness. The discussion centers on Siegel’s framework of three core motivations—agency, bonding, and certainty—and how these map onto the Enneagram’s centers.

Jeff walks through each of the nine types using Siegel’s categories of “experience and express,” “contain and channel,” and “reframe and redirect,” translating dense neuroscience into practical Enneagram language. Along the way, he offers critiques, c...

Jeff and Katie step into the final triad—Head types—and the conversation sharpens immediately. Drawing from Joey Schewee's work, they wrestle with what “thinking processing” actually is, pushing past surface definitions into something more precise: the ability to step back, hold multiple conclusions, and move toward the path of least resistance.

Along the way, they contrast this with the urgency and emotional weight of other centers, unpacking how Fives (and their Head counterparts) relate to ideas, energy, and the world itself. The result is a conversation that feels both analytical and grounded—less about abstract theory and more a...

We had a stellar discussion with Melissa Kircher, Josiah Goff and Nadia Brackett. This is a highly informed, self aware conversation about Five-ness, the Fives relationship with their heart and body, and what it looks like to see the world from their center.

If you want to connect with our guests, they can be found below:

https://www.instagram.com/nadiaraebrackett/

https://www.instagram.com/josiahgoff/

https://www.instagram.com/enneagrampaths/

Katie is joined by Kelly Cook (Enneagram 3) and her son Becket (Enneagram 5) for a candid conversation about what it was like to parent—and be parented—across different personality styles.

They talk through real-life moments: learning how to communicate clearly, navigating boundaries, and discovering what each person actually needs.

Burnout isn’t just about doing too much—it’s about getting stuck.

In this episode of The Morning Show, Jeff Cook, TJ Wilson, Kristin Messegee, and Jackie Contessa explore burnout through the lens of the Enneagram, reframing it as the result of unprocessed emotional cycles, internal imbalance, and living out of alignment with oneself. Rather than a simple crash after overwork, burnout shows up as emotional exhaustion, disconnection, and a loss of meaning—often driven by patterns we don’t see in ourselves.

The conversation moves from theory into lived reality: parenting, work, identity, and the we...