The Enneagram is a remarkable way to wake up. Mr. Gurdjief would talk about waking up or self-remembering. To remember our deeper selves. Or at least that there is a deeper self in there. It may take some work to get to it. But to use the Enneagram to understand our patterns of personality.
Interview with Peter O’Hanrahan
Flemming Christensen interviews Peter O’Hanrahan in Enneagram Insights podcast.
Peter is an IEA accredited Professional with Distinction and a renowned Enneagram teacher.
Peter O’Hanrahan is a core faculty member of The Narrative Enneagram. He has been working with the Enneagram for more than 45 years and has combined it with his practice in counseling and body therapy.
He was part of the original American wave of students at Berkeley who learned about the Enneagram intensively and started applying it to their lives and teachings.
Peter O’Hanrahan relates to type 8.
He teaches workshops on the Instinctual Subtypes, the Embodied Enneagram, and the Defense Systems in US, Europe and China.
Podcast content
Listen to this conversation to hear more about:
✔️ How the Enneagram is a remarkable way for us to wake up and remember our deeper selves. And to understand and be aware of our patterns of personality
✔️ The teaching of the Enneagram in the late 1970´s at Berkeley with teachers such as Helen Palmer from the lineage of George Gurdjief and Claudio Naranjo
✔️ Why to use somatic methods as part of a holistic approach in working with the Enneagram type structure. Involving body psychotherapy, temperament, neurobiology and psychology
✔️ About being an Enneagram generalist and having a holistic approach
Peter O’Hanrahan quotes
In Enneagram Insights Peter says:
“I think that the Enneagram is a remarkable way to wake up, so to speak.
Mr. Gurdjief would talk about waking up or self-remembering. To remember our deeper selves.
Or at least that there is a deeper self in there. It may take some work to get to it. You know, it’s not just going to like pop out when we open the door. But to use the Enneagram to understand our patterns. Of personality.
To not be negative towards them. We need personalities in this life. But to be able to know that we’re more than our personalities. And that sometimes we can actually pause before the pattern takes over.
We can pause and take a breath. And into that space, there’s some choice. And we can, sometimes the choice is just to pause and take a breath. And that changes things. And sometimes it’s to say, you know, I could do a little less of this.
Or I could put a better feeling tone with this communication. Or I could mediate my response or my reactivity in some way. And this is huge help for both ourselves and also for being with other people.
So what works for us in the deep sense, kind of like being interested in our true path in life, also shows up in terms of our being just friendlier in relationships.
So we’re not just in relationships with people. We’re not simply acting out our type.”
More information
Peter O’Hanrahan and the Narrative Enneagram
Peter O’Hanrahan and the Enneagram at Work