Using the Enneagram to Work with Youth

“Creating understanding for a more harmonious future”

By: Marco Nieuwenhuize and Joanne Majewski

Joanne: jomajewski@yahoo.com

Marco: marconieuwenhuize@planet.nl 

Copyright Marco Nieuwenhuize and Joanne Majewski, 2010

Material by Elizabeth Wagele printed with her permission

Merlin
The Netherlands
Website: www.enneagram.nl

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD OUR BOOK AS PDF BY CLICKING HERE

About This Guide

This workbook blends together the Enneagram personality system, and practical ways of working with youth.  There is not a lot of published writing about how kids and adolescents display different Enneagram types, so this workbook pulls together existing information and our own observations from working with children and teenagers.

We are dedicated to working with kids, and to helping people better understand youth in today's society.  We are constantly looking for ways to help kids live happy and healthy lives.

We want to thank Elizabeth Wagele who wrote an excellent book about how to use the Enneagram with children (The Enneagram of Parenting).  She gave us permission to use her work; her descriptions are foundation of this paper.

We are also using material from Enneagram writers Helen Palmer, Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, and Kathy Hurley and Theodore Donson.  Books of these teachers are The Enneagram by Helen Palmer, The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, and My Best Self by Kathy Hurley and Theodorre Donson.  Other used material is mentioned in the bibliography.

From Marco

The children of these times receive many more impulses. For example, television, computer games, internet, mobile phone, and the stress from our surroundings cause the children to react differently than 20 year ago.

My work with the Enneagram and children is aimed at creating understanding with parents, teachers, and others for why certain children become more active, why certain children withdraw, and why others just keep on following the rules. Using the simple tools we teach has proven to be very effectively in creating an environment that gives children the right discipline, right attention, and right structure. Children love these tools and become much more centered when they have it.

From Joanne

I have been working with and facilitating youth groups for six years, but most of my current perspectives come from my experience at the Sprite Program.  Sprite is an experiential education program for teen boys and girls who are in prison.  If the kids graduate the month long program, which consists of five segments (orientation, rock climbing, expedition, community service, and urban), then they get released from prison, and can go home.  It is not an easy program to graduate from, so the kids have to truly prove that they are ready to be released into the community.

I have learned so much from the program, the staff, and of course, the teens.  The program is excellent, and I can see how it helps gives kids the life tools that they need to be successful.  I want to thank the staff, who are incredibly experienced in working with youth, and their pure investment is what makes Sprite a successful program.

I am fortunate enough to be able to work with these kids.  From their stories, I can learn about their past and how their environment affected their lives, but I can also see how they have decided to make some changes in their life due to being incarcerated.  These boys and girls experienced extremely stressful situations and living environments, and they made some bad decisions.  Now, after having a lot of time in prison to think about their lives, many of them have a good understanding of themselves and their unhealthy patterns, and are ready to make a change.  Their names have been changed in the stories that I use.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD OUR BOOK AS PDF BY CLICKING HERE

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