The Enneagram and NLP Presuppositions

I coach using both the Enneagram and NLP. They are different systems which work well together in a complement-ary way. The Enneagram helps us to understand who we are and why we do the things we do, and with NLP we can replace patterns of self-defeating behaviour with more productive ones. To do this, it helps to understand what the purpose of the original behaviour was, and what benefits if any it is still giving us. The Enneagram can help us to quickly get to the roots of that behaviour.

One of the great things about the Enneagram is the realisation it brings home that people can see the world in very different ways. It can help us to understand where they are coming from and communicate with them better. It can also help us to see where the limits of our own point of view are.

This can be achieved in NLP using the presuppositions. You take a presupposition, such as "there is no failure, only feedback" and look at your situation bearing in mind the truth of the statement.

It occurred to me recently that some presuppositions fit well with the mindsets of certain Enneagram types: they are things that this type already knows to be true. Although you never become a different type, it can be useful to see the world through their eyes.

With this in mind I plan to do a series of blog posts looking at presuppositions through the eyes of different Enneagram types.