This cruel insight changed my relationship to everything by illuminating the nature of my own bias. It helped me to understand, how without self-awareness, I was thinking I understood, while in actuality, I was only imagining what others were thinking and feeling.

This answered the question: Why am I suffering so? It allowed me to be more present and loving. And since we teach what we need to learn the most, it has become the basis of my work with others. For more than thirty years now, it has been my great pleasure to share with others what I treasure most: The art and practice of honest and loving communication.

To schedule an appointment for a private phone or in-person session, or to set up a workshop-presentation, lecture or book talk please leave a message here.

The earliest Enneagram teachings described a natural tension within each type between the sexual and the spiritual. This polarity is central to the development of type. Each type approaches that tension with its own predilections, yearnings and astonishment. Our question is: Given the scientific and experiential evidence that women and men differ, mentally, emotionally and physically, how do these differences show up within the same type?

In this presentation, we'll explore the contrasts between men and women of each type, through the framework of the Enneagram. Drawing on exemplars, we'll listen to gender stories of each type and each sex, and as always with the Enneagram, enhance our ability to make conscious, skillful, and authentic choices with grace, compassion and an open heart.

This study group is, at its core, an active exploration of presence. It is designed to help coaches, who are already working with the Enneagram, deepen their understanding and enhance their effectiveness with clients. This Ennea-Somatic study will include various self-observations and practices to strengthen unbiased presence in all three centers of perception, as well as, powerful somatic exercises that help to clarify type and support an on-going sense of embodiment. Case consultations will also be part of this study group.

There will be time for questions and personal work.
Coaches will be able to:

• Design the most effective centering/healing practices for each type.
• Become acquainted with transference and counter-transference issues of each type as they apply to coaching.
• Recognize the unnatural body postures typically associated with each type.
• Employ body practices that work best to break the cycle of each fixation/passion.
• Distinguish between healthy emotional expression and each of the passions of the Enneagram.
• Troubleshoot for the most common errors coaches are likely to make in diagnosing type.
• Identify the most common look-a-like types.

Johanna offers a basic introductory class to both the Enneagram system and Somatics that is based on her book, Senses Wide Open: The Art and Practice of Living in Your Body. She also offers an insightful class for those already familiar with the Enneagram. It is described as follows:

No matter how old you are, how much you weigh, what gender you are, what color you are, or what Enneagram type you identify with, you live in an absolute miracle of nature, your very own human body! Unfortunately the civilizing process often pits mind against matter, teaching us at an early age to suppress the call of instinct. When we don’t know how to understand the difference between the instinctive messages of the body and correct civilized behavior, we end up distorting the posture of natural design. When a person spends a lifetime holding back expression, feeling ashamed of excitement or anger or hunger, the body gets literally tied up in knots.

Each of the Enneagram types has a particular somatic signature. Through simple somatic exercises, you will explore the pattern of holding associated with your type. Using slides of great art we’ll see how the great masters understood this point.

Both experiential and didactic, this presentation invites participants to investigate the differences between deluded versus centered thinking, feeling, sensing and moving. We will engage the body's wordless language, improve posture, and explore how Enneagram type shows up in the body. But most importantly: Even enneagramers unacquainted with their body will find this class fun and interesting.