Your Enneagram Type is How You Cope with Trauma
The Enneagram and Trauma
Written by Hanna B. Woody, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and certified Enneagram Teacher
Hypervigilance and constantly scanning for threats
Perfectionism and deep shame for making mistakes
Guarding against vulnerability and never asking for help
Intense anxiety when someone is mad at you
Avoidance and attempting to not “rock the boat”
Sound familiar? These are all common experiences for specific Enneagram types and common responses to trauma. If you thought of certain Enneagram personality types as you read that, here’s why: Our Enneagram type informs how our trauma shows up AND how we try to cope with it. An Enneagram type 6 who has experienced trauma will try to cope by relying even more on their mind to scan for threats. An 8 will guard themselves even more from vulnerability and protect their hearts. A 3 will ignore their body's cues of exhaustion and work even harder to perform and climb because that’s what feels safe. Your Enneagram personality type is both how you respond to trauma and how you try to cope with it.
What is trauma? Trauma is an event or series of events that exceeds a person’s capacity to healthfully cope and feel safe in their environment. There are all kinds of experiences that can lead to trauma. Experiencing abuse, witnessing violence, and experiencing emotional neglect as a child can all result in trauma. In my work, I focus mostly on the long-term trauma caused by family of origin dynamics, childhood abuse, and adverse childhood experiences. When someone experiences trauma in their childhood, particularly if it’s ongoing, it has a huge impact on how they develop. It impacts the development of the brain, the body, and the personality. While we are born with our Enneagram types, life experience impacts how our type's patterns manifest throughout life.
Whether or not traumatic events or relationships are still occurring, trauma makes you feel unsafe in the world. We use our Enneagram personality types as a strategy of coping and seeking safety. It’s a way to conceptualize and navigate life in an attempt to get your needs met. You may relate to everything outlined in your type’s response to trauma or only some. Keep in mind that all of the Enneagram types are on a spectrum and that what I’ve outlined here is only part of your Enneagram type. There are so many gifts and strengths that each type brings. The Enneagram is a self-growth tool. The whole point is to change and release the things that are not serving you. It’s to learn what gets in the way of you experiencing the kind of love, connection, and genuine relationships that you want in your life.
When my clients use the Enneagram challenging themselves to do the work of their type, their healing accelerates. It is a powerful tool for cycle breakers as they unpack their childhoods and begin to embrace what serves them and leave behind what doesn’t. Many of us were born into really difficult situations where we didn’t get our needs met. Most trauma symptoms are meant to help us survive. We don’t have control over the past, but we do have control over the choices we make now that will impact how the rest of our lives pan out.
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How Your Enneagram Type Responds to Trauma
Type 1: Seeks Safety Through Predictability and Order
High adherence to following the “right” rules
Safety is in the system of following the rules, not necessarily in the rules themselves
A sense of security comes from understanding and predicting things in a black and white way
Gray areas and the loosening of the rules doesn’t just feel uncomfortable, it may feel downright unsafe
Resistance to frivolousness, high judgment of self or others
Frivolousness can feel like having no control and feel unsafe
High anxiety when things don’t go as planned
High level of self-punishment when a mistake is made
Self-criticism and self-judgment can bring substantial pain
Feeling an unrealistic level of responsibility for what happens (feeling responsible for things that they couldn’t possibly control)
Carrying a substantial burden of responsibility “If I don’t do it, who will?"
Letting loose, playing, or allowing silliness can trigger deep shame and fear
Words of affirmation and kindness from others may feel untrue and impossible to believe
Feelings of being a terrible person, deep shame when a mistake is made or when they lose control
Feeling that they don’t deserve kindness, grace, or forgiveness
Deep shame and holding a core belief that they are a mistake
Type 2: Seeks Safety Through Relationships and Being Needed
Trying very hard to not disappoint others or make them mad
Being likable and intently focusing on what others need and how they can meet those needs
People pleasing to the point of self-abandonment
Attempts to find security and safety through being needed and being useful
Struggle with automatically saying yes to others requests. Just the idea of saying no can bring great fear
Inability to receive from others without substantial guilt followed by taking action to pay back or give a gift of equal or more value
Taking care of self and admitting to having needs can trigger deep shame and fear of abandonment (especially if that means having to disappoint others)
Preserving connections and relationships at all costs, even if they are being harmed by them
Substantial guilt if they focus “too much” on themselves
Can get caught up in a cycle of giving away their power and autonomy, then experiencing rage in an attempt to regain power and get their needs heard
Directly communicating needs and vulnerabilities can bring such great shame, they can avoid direct communication and attempt to get needs met through manipulation
Attempts to win love through being needed and being helpful to others
Deep shame and holding a core belief that they are unlovable
Type 3: Seeks Safety Through Being What Others Want Them To Be
Attention is externally focused on identifying what is seen as valuable to others and becoming that
Masking true self and true desires
Becoming what others want them to be, even if it’s not good for them
Performing and tirelessly working to achieve success
Ignores signs of exhaustion and works tirelessly to meet goals
Exhaustion from having to be “on” all of the time
Pursuit of goals and focusing on forward movement can shield from feelings of shame and provide a feeling of security through structure, momentum, and achievement
Hyperfocus on achievement and efficiency
Can cut off emotions and live life as if they were a machine or a robot
Vulnerability and being witnessed in their shame can feel unbearable and downright unsafe
Success is tied to worth and failure triggers deep shame
Deceiving others and themselves in the pursuit of reaching goals and avoiding vulnerability
Slowing down and relaxing can cause big anxiety and may even lead to panic
Attempts to win love through being successful and becoming the best at what they do
Deep shame and holding a core belief that their authentic self is not valuable
Type 4: Seeks Safety Through Othering Themselves
Believe that they are less capable of love and belonging
Believe that they are different and defective
Compares self to others and experiences deep pain for what they don’t have
Shame leads to isolation and disconnection in order to self-soothe or ‘lick the wounds’
The fakeness and inauthenticity of other people can feel downright unsafe, as opposed to just unsavory
Experiences moodiness and being overtaken by emotions. When emotions are rooted in trauma this can feel substantially destabilizing
OR experiences strong emotional repression resulting in stoicism. This 4 (self-preservation 4) is extremely tough and can get through anything. Others may be impressed at how “resilient” they are. This 4 may appear unaffected by trauma
Simultaneously experiences deep pain for being misunderstood and feels safer in isolation
Not taking action towards goals and desires, choosing to live in fantasies, and accepting that they’ll never have what they want
Deep fear that if others see their full selves and darkness that they wouldn’t be lovable
Deep feelings of pain and sadness for being “different” and feeling as though everyone else has access to the love and belonging they deeply desire, but they feel they’ll never have it
Experiencing boredom and a mundane, “normal” life can bring substantial fear that they are in fact boring and unremarkable
Attempts to win love through being unique, different, and special
Deep shame and holding a core belief that they are without significance, not worthy of belonging
Type 5: Seeks Safety Through Escaping Into The Mind
Withdraws and chooses quiet observation rather than participation
Deep fear of getting overtaken, depleted, or engulfed by others' needs
Fear being the core emotion for 5’s, traumatized 5’s lean on withdrawal and escape into the mind to protect themselves
Minimizes needs and tries to get by with less (food, water, material needs, connection)
Escapes into the mind into a vivid fantasy world
Embraces scarcity and may hoard resources
Embraces boundaries as a way to keep others out and maintain a sense of security by taking refuge into the mind
Invests in ideas, research, and intellectual pursuits instead of human relationships because it feels safer and more controlled
Hoarding of knowledge, hoarding of self, hoarding of resources to conserve
Neglect of basic needs and self-care
Disconnection from the body and emotions. Traumatized 5’s may experience extreme fear and distress when they feel feelings in their bodies. The lack of control can feel very unsafe
Moving into emotion and connection with others may create a deep fear of being depleted and feel vastly unsafe
Holding a core belief that they aren’t sufficiently resourced to handle life. Life and connection to others takes and depletes. It does not give back and they fear their resources will not be replenished.
Type 6: Seeks Safety Through Analysis and Risk Assessment
Consistently hypervigilant and alert
Predicts the risk of things going wrong in an effort to mitigate risk and avoid crisis OR does it anyway to face fear
“Unsafe” scenarios could be natural disasters, everyday occurrences, or relationships
May feel very anxious about making others mad and go to a lot of effort to avoid upsetting others
OR may intentionally poke at others to make them mad or get them riled up
Extreme self-doubt and second guessing. May lead to increased susceptibility to gaslighting
OR substantial level of distrust in others and great suspicion of hidden agendas or incompetency
Overly trusting people, even if they are causing harm, OR trusting no one except themselves even in safer relationships
Expectations of disaster and the inability to feel calm and secure
Trauma increases fear or numbs it. Increased fear can lead to not ever taking risks and avoiding important life tasks or desires.
Numbed fear can lead to impulsivity and unsafe risk taking to prove that fear does not have control over them
Holding a core belief that it is not safe to trust. It can feel extremely unsafe to have trust in self or trust in others
Type 7: Seeks Safety Through Intellectual Problem Solving and Avoiding Negative Emotions
Retreating into activities that help maximize positive feelings and excitement
Vigilant adherence to avoiding feelings and situations that may trigger a feeling of being trapped
May lead a life where they never have to “come down” from positivity or slow down
Reliance on the mind and quickly solving problems to minimize experiencing negative feelings
Disconnection from the body and emotions
Pain avoidance is both physical and emotional
May avoid or not feel the body’s signs of pain and over-extension leading to physical injuries
Downplay traumatic experiences and not realize the full impact of abuse. “It wasn’t that bad.” “It was a long time ago, surely it’s not impacting me now.”
Expectations of self and others to move through problems quickly and without much pain. When trauma makes this nearly impossible, 7’s deep fear of being trapped will ignite and may feel terrifying
Fear of being trapped can lead to literally running away
Pain avoidance combined with maximizing pleasure can make 7’s more susceptible to emotional and spiritual bypassing
Holding a core belief that not taking action to remain positive and avoid pain will lead to forever getting trapped in pain. The fear is that the terrible feeling will never pass and they will be overtaken by suffering
Type 8: Seeks Safety Through Self-Reliance and Avoiding Vulnerability
Believe that they are the only ones who will keep themselves and others safe
Abandoning self-care needs and living in intensity all of the time
Coping with trauma could look like fighting for and seeking out people or causes that need protecting and intensely overworking to protect or advocate to the point of self-abandonment
Working too much, never resting, and never taking breaks. May create more intensity on planned breaks instead of focusing on rest and restoring
Living so much in the present moment that choices are made without consideration for future consequences
Impulsivity, intensity, and thrill seeking. Living life on the edge without consideration of impact on self and others
Rely on crassness, bravado, and control to avoid vulnerability and feelings of weakness
Practicing vulnerability feels downright unsafe
Letting their guard down is like opening up to being attacked with your belly shown
Showing weakness or vulnerability is avoided at all costs
Engaging in dominating and controlling behavior to avoid vulnerability
Isolates, withdraws, and may cut off contact with others when the demands are too much
Can feel at war with the world and rally themselves and others to be tougher
Holding a core belief that others might try to control them if they let their guard down
Type 9: Seeks Safety Through Disappearing
“It’s better to get along and not rock the boat.”
9’s naturally focus on seeking harmony and avoiding intensity
Trauma destroys a sense of balance and harmony and creates a feeling of intense chaos
Seeks safety through trying to re-establish harmony and calm by mediating, soothing, downplaying, or outright avoiding conflict
Cope with trauma by being really “easy” and not causing problems or taking up space
Being very agreeable and going along with what others want
Escape intensity by numbing out and avoiding
Avoid feeling anger in themselves even if it means they have to completely suppress their desires, opinions, and needs
Anger can feel extremely dangerous, especially if trauma was caused by anger harming others in a violent or emotionally unsafe way
9’s can experience outbursts of anger when they are suppressing it, and these outbursts can lead to substantial feelings of fear and shame making them want to avoid anger even more
Simultaneously feel safer because others don’t see them and experience deep pain and grief for not being seen
Holding a core belief that they don’t matter
Working with a Trauma Informed Enneagram Therapist
You don’t have to do this work all by yourself. Working with a trauma informed Enneagram specialist can help you get clarity and heal. My goal is for my clients to walk away from sessions feeling more in touch with their self-worth and more confident in their ability to give themselves what they need. I offer trauma informed therapy and Enneagram coaching.
Learn more about Enneagram therapy:
Learn more about Enneagram coaching:
Hanna Woody is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in Asheville, North Carolina. She has over 12 years of professional counseling experience and specializes in breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma, childhood trauma, and the Enneagram. Certified in the Embodiment Tradition, she has over 150 hours of training and teaching experience. Hanna is in private practice and provides online mental health therapy, Enneagram coaching, and Enneagram training.