Getting Started

There is no upper age limit for working with the Enneagram; however, younger participants need sufficient cognitive development to engage in the program safely and effectively. YEP utilizes the work of the late Dr. David Daniels, a founding father of the modern Enneagram, and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Dr. Daniels used Jean Piaget and his associates’ work to establish an appropriate age for working with the Enneagram.

The fourth and final stage of Piaget’s theory – the Formal Operational Period, defined as an age range of 11-15 – is where we place our focus.

YEP deems ages 14 and up as ideal for program participation.

Critical capacities that emerge during the Formal Operational Period of ages 11-15 include the ability to:

• Use deductive logic and reasoning

• Understand abstract ideas

• See multiple potential solutions to problems

• Reason about hypothetical problems

• Think about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning

• Systematically plan for the future

• Understand others in the analysis of self.

What participants need to bring:

a. A desire to learn about yourself.

b. A willingness to be open minded and receptive.

c. A wish for change for a better life.

d. A determination to empower yourself by taking responsibility and accountability for your own life.

The initial one-on-one meeting will be the embarking point for youth to a systematic process to introduce them to the Enneagram, discover their Enneagram type, learn how to go beyond type to discover their unique gifts and potentialities, and ultimately, to start them on their journey of becoming the very best version of themselves that they were always meant to be.

The purpose of each learning objective is to inform participants what they can anticipate learning and mastering throughout the program.

Objective 1. What is the Enneagram and where did it come from?

Objective 2. Learning the Enneagram of Personality fundamentals.

Objective 3. Answering the question: Who am I?

Objective 4. Answering the question: What is the Whole self and why is it important?

Objective 5. Using the Enneagram to integrate my personality (ego) and my Core self.

Objective 6. Learning the Nine Types.

Objective 7. Recognizing that we have more than one brain. We are three-brained beings: Head brain, Heart brain, and Gut brain. To be whole necessitates integrating all three brains.

Objective 8. Recognizing our needs, our fixations, and our passions.

Objective 9. Recognizing the higher aspects of self.

Objective 10. Acknowledging that we are here for a reason.

Objective 11. Learning to look within for direction, purpose, and freedom.