Somatic Enneagram & Inner Work
Many people who’ve explored the Enneagram know it as a tool for personality typing—what’s often called the “Enneagram of Personality.” It’s the version you’ve heard about at a dinner party or in an HR training—the one where we identify our type, learn our strengths and weaknesses, and maybe try to manage our quirks a little better. That’s helpful—but it’s just the beginning.
The deeper work of the Enneagram isn’t about labeling ourselves or others. It’s not about becoming a “better version” of your type. It’s about recognizing that these patterns—your type structure—are not who you truly are. They are well-worn strategies your system has used to survive, to succeed, and to stay safe.
Through Somatic Enneagram work, especially using the Marion Gilbert Method, we go beyond mental understanding. We bring the body into the conversation. Your nervous system, your breath, your posture—these all carry the imprints of your Enneagram type. When we learn to sense and feel these patterns in real time, we gain the ability to soften them. To release them.
This work isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about building a new kind of presence: grounded, awake, and deeply aligned with your true self. Over time, you’ll begin to live with more clarity, compassion, and choice—not just reacting from old habits, but responding from a place of freedom and peace.
Yes, there will be resistance. That’s part of the journey. But with support, practice, and intention, transformation is not only possible—it’s deeply life-giving. If you’re ready to move beyond self-awareness into true inner work, I’d be honored to walk with you.
Three Truths About Transforming Your Inner Life
The body holds what the mind alone cannot access.
The Somatic Enneagram work recognizes that our type patterns live not just in our thoughts and behaviors, but also in our nervous systems and physical bodies. By tuning into bodily sensations, postures, and energetic patterns, we gain access to unconscious material that can’t be reached through thinking alone. This opens the door to deeper healing and embodied transformation.
Transformation begins with awareness, not effort.
Rather than trying to fix ourselves or force change, the Somatic Enneagram invites us to bring compassionate attention to our automatic patterns. As we notice and feel what’s happening in the present moment—without judgment—we create space for new possibilities to emerge. Lasting transformation grows from presence, not pressure.
True freedom comes from integration, not escape.
The work isn’t about rising above our personality or abandoning our humanity—it’s about becoming more fully ourselves. Through spiritual inquiry and somatic awareness, we begin to integrate all parts of who we are: body, heart, and mind. This integrated presence allows us to live with more authenticity, connection, and spiritual depth.
Go Beyond Knowing Your Type
Many people first encounter the Enneagram as a way of understanding personality. We discover our type, recognize our strengths and struggles, and suddenly have language for patterns we've experienced throughout our lives. That recognition can be incredibly helpful, but I believe it is only the beginning of what the Enneagram offers us.
The deeper work begins when we stop asking, "What does my type do?" and begin noticing, "What is happening in me right now?"
Our Enneagram patterns are more than ideas or personality traits. They are deeply practiced ways of navigating the world. They show up in our attention, our relationships, our emotions, and our bodies. Over time, these patterns can become so familiar that we mistake them for who we are.
In my one-on-one work, I use the Somatic Enneagram and the Marion Gilbert Method to help you encounter these patterns as they are actually happening. Rather than simply talking about your type, we slow things down enough to notice what is happening in your body, your breath, your attention, and your internal experience.
This changes the Enneagram from something you understand into something you can practice.
What One-on-One Work Looks Like
There isn't a formula for these sessions because you aren't a formula.
We begin with what is actually happening in your life. It might be a relationship, a transition, a recurring emotional pattern, a difficult decision, a place where you feel stuck, or simply the sense that something in your life is asking for deeper attention.
Together, we slow down and become curious about what is happening beneath the story. I may invite you to notice a sensation in your body, stay with an emotion, become aware of where your attention goes, or recognize an automatic response as it begins to emerge.
Sometimes we talk. Sometimes we pause. Sometimes the most important thing that happens is simply learning to stay present to an experience that you would normally move away from.
The Enneagram gives us a map, but the map is not the work. You are the work.
From Understanding to Experience
There is a moment that often comes in Enneagram work when knowing more stops being enough.
You may understand exactly why you respond the way you do. You may know your type, your subtype, your patterns, your defenses, and your growth path. You might even be able to recognize the pattern while it is happening and still feel unable to do anything differently.
That is because insight and transformation are not the same thing.
Our patterns live not only in our thoughts but in our bodies and nervous systems. They can happen before we've had time to think about them. Somatic work helps us become present at that level of experience.
Instead of asking only, "Why do I do this?" we begin asking, "Can I notice this while it is happening?"
That small shift opens a very different kind of possibility.
Creating Space for Choice
One of the things I value most about this work is that we are not trying to fight against your patterns.
They developed for a reason. At some point they helped you navigate relationships, find belonging, protect yourself, accomplish what needed to be accomplished, or make sense of the world around you. We can approach those strategies with compassion while also recognizing that they may no longer need to organize your life in the same way.
The practice is to create a little more space.
Space between what happens and how you respond. Space between an emotion and the story you immediately tell about it. Space between the familiar impulse and what you actually choose to do.
That space is where something new becomes possible.
Over time, the work becomes less about managing your Enneagram type and more about developing the capacity to remain present to your life with greater freedom.
You Don't Need to Be an Enneagram Expert
You do not need years of Enneagram study to begin this work. Some people come to me knowing their type and having studied the Enneagram for years. Others know very little and are simply curious about why certain patterns continue to appear in their lives.
We can begin wherever you are.
This work may be particularly helpful if you find yourself in a season of transition, noticing recurring patterns in relationships, wanting to deepen your inner or spiritual life, or realizing that understanding yourself intellectually has only taken you so far.
My role is not to tell you who you are. It is to help create the conditions in which you can become more present to your own experience and discover what becomes possible from there.
If you are interested in exploring this work together, we can begin with a conversation about where you are and what is drawing your attention.
Learn More About Your Facilitator:
Aaron Manes is a Certified Teacher and Faculty Member for the Marion Gilbert Method of the Somatic Enneagram as well as an Accredited Professional with the International Enneagram Association. Aaron is a Spiritual Director, healer, and maker of room for new faith expression. He is a speaker and panelist for new and emerging spaces among multiple denominations and is a preferred Spiritual Director for many non-profits who pursue growth for their members; specifically organizations with a LGBTQ+, Faith Deconstruction and Emerging Leadership emphasis.
Explore Working Together
If something here resonates with where you are in your own life, I invite you to schedule a free first conversation. This is simply a chance for us to meet, talk about what is bringing you to this work, and explore whether working together feels like a good fit. There is no commitment or expectation, just space to begin a conversation.