Speaking at Enneagram Europe: Using Trauma-Informed Care to Reveal Resilience and True Type

I'm honored to be speaking at Enneagram Summer School 2025, hosted by Enneagram Europe, July 11–13 in the Transformative Tradition.

My session focuses on a deeply personal and professional passion: Trauma and the Enneagram.

In my 25+ years of trauma work, I’ve seen how unresolved trauma can obscure a person’s ability to discover their true type. Why? Because trauma often shapes personality adaptations and keeps us in fight, flight, fawn or freeze modes. When we operate from a place of unprocessed pain, we're likely to misidentify with survival coping mechanisms rather than core motivation.

That’s why addressing trauma as psychological first aid is essential before, or alongside, any Enneagram typing process.

When we begin with healing—validating the nervous system, tending to early attachment wounds, and naming the impact of personal and collective trauma—we create a more accurate and compassionate path to type discovery.

From there, the Enneagram becomes not just a map for understanding, but a source of resilience. Each type holds unique capacities for healing, connection, and recovery. When trauma is acknowledged first, those gifts come online more naturally and sustainably.

If you're a therapist, coach, or seeker wanting to use the Enneagram through a trauma-informed lens, I’d love to see you there. Let's deepen our work and walk together toward healing, type clarity, and embodied resilience.