Mindfulness-based Patterns of Development

CPD in Mindfulness-based Patterns of Development

The Mindful Mentoring Course provides an introduction to the nine patterns of development using the Essential Enneagram self-assessment test to analysing the leading patterns you have developed yourself. This is embedded in the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology pioneered by Daniel Siegel which explores how personality relates to wholeness. In turn this can be applied to coaching and counselling support which personalises the patterns and developmental pathways that clients identify as most relevant to themselves.

What are the Nine Patterns of development

The nine patterns of development relate to the fusion of interpersonal neurobiology and a traditional wisdom framework widely known as the Enneagram of Personality. This framework describes a lifespan developmental personality model of nine distinct, key strategies that people use to make sense of and cope with their experiences and interactions with the world. These strategies can be understood as nine Patterns of Developmental Pathways, or PDPs. In the network we also call them patterns of development for short. Meshing with our co-counselling-based peer supervision, clients often seek to explore patterns that are unhelpful and distressful for their wellbeing as well as providing insights into pathways that most make them thrive.

Course Content

The basic training in patterns of development involves 20 hours learning. This  involves a 10 hours taught introduction to the 8 practices, 5 hours asynchronous study and 5 hours co-counselling/peer supervision practice applied to the patterns with a partner at mutually convenient times. This includes one hour of Action Learning in your continuing small peer support group, meeting online four times over the four months.The essential reading facilitates the identification of your own patterns and pathways for development, sometimes called your type or Enneatype. Whilst it is common to have one dominant pattern, the Mindful Mentoring Network recognises that individuals may have a mixture of patterns.

The course is online creating a safe, supportive and inclusive interactive environment. Its main focus is on learning about all nine patterns of development by listening to the narratives of network members and course participants. In between taught sessions using the narrative approach to the enneagram you will work with a coco partner to reflect on your own patterns developmentally.

The training group is required to adopt a set of ground rules including strict confidentiality, supportively listening to other people, not expressing opinions about them, speaking for ourselves, commitment to the course and taking responsibility for your own learning.

As the Client you learn to work mindfully with insight into your own patterns and how they affect your approach to work and interpersonal relationships.

As Mentor you will provide supportive ‘free attention’ listening to the client and will not offer any guidance or information, unless that is specifically requested by the client.

Course Book

The course reading for Exploring Patterns of Development is The Essential Enneagram: The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide by David Daniels MD and Virginia Price. A centuries-old psychological system with roots in sacred tradition, the Enneagram can be an invaluable guide in your journey toward self-understanding and self-development. In this book, Stanford University Medical School clinical professor of psychiatry David Daniels and counseling psychologist Virginia Price offer the only scientifically developed Enneagram test based upon extensive research combined with a self-discovery and personal-development guide.

The most fundamental guide to the Enneagram ever offered, this book features effective self-tests to determine simply and accurately what your personality type is. Daniels and Price provide step-by-step instructions for taking inventory of how you think, what you feel, and what you experience. They then guide you in your discovery of what your type means for your personal well-being and your relationships with others, and they show you how to maximize your inherent strengths. The nine personality types are: Perfectionist, Giver, Performer, Romantic, Observer, Loyal Skeptic, Epicure, Protector, and Mediator. Sometimes they are given numbers 1-9 for short.

A follow-up book by David Daniels is also recommended for those who want to apply the Enneagram to close relationships that may be affecting your overall wellbeing, The Enneagram, Relationships, and Intimacy by David Daniels and Suzanne Dionne.  In particular, the following themes will be of interest:

The 9 Enneagram Types: Multiple descriptions and Tips for Growth

Self-intimacy as the gateway to intimacy with others

Attachment – our first love story

Three centers of intelligence and the three mammalian aversive emotional systems

Gender and the Enneagram, a new look, a compassionate perspective

Learning Outcomes

Knowing what the 9 patterns are and learning experientially about the ones that are closest to your own personality in relation to personal wellbeing and relationships. You will have begun  to explore your own developmental pathways and to support others in their own experiential learning of the patterns of development unique to them.

Course Delivery

Training is delivered by Mindful Mentoring Network trainers online in the evenings

Course Contents

There are many books on the enneagram but the first to be applied scientifically to therapeutic support which we recommend for further reading is Personality and Wholeness in Therapy: Integrating 9 Patterns of Developmental Pathways in Clinical Practice by Daniel Siegel, pioneer of Interpersonal Neurobiology.

This builds on his colleague David Daniel’s pioneering work on the Enneagram by providing a further set of complementary skills to support the nine patterns of developmental pathways.  In particular this book provides mental health practitioners with both a theoretical understanding of PDPs and practical tools for implementing the framework in clinical settings. Readers will find detailed descriptions of the nine core patterns of personality as well as integrative practices specific to each of these patterns that can help people work towards states of well-being and wholeness.

This innovative book has the potential to unlock deep and lasting change in problematic and perplexing patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, transforming personality from a prison to a playground for readers and clients alike.

Systematic Comparison of the Enneagram and the 9 Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP)

 

Further Reading

  • Siegel, D. The Mindful Therapist: A Clinician’s Guide to Mindsight and Neural Integration (New York: WW Norton & Company, 2010)
  • Siegel, D. Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012)
  • Siegel, D. Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain (New York: Penguin Putnam, 2013)
  • Siegel, D. No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind (New York: Bantam, 2014). Co-author with Tina Payne Bryson.
  • Siegel, D. Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human (New York: WW Norton & Company, 2016)
  • Siegel, D. Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence (New York: TarcherPerigee, 2018).
  • Siegel, D. The Developing Mind, Third Edition: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (New York: Guilford Press, 2020).

Our Level 2 training in Patterns of Development takes the form of self-study, seminars and action learning whilst applying learning to co-counselling-based supervision with other course participants.

Course Book

Our guided reading for Level 2 patterns of mindful development is Coaching and Counselling to the Point by Jeanette van Stijn. Jeanette is co-host of the The Narrative Tradition Podcast which focuses on the narrative approach of learning and teaching the Enneagram developed by David Daniels and Helen Palmer. Point is another word for pattern. The book focuses on made to measure support for development work using the Enneagram and uses the EnneaFlow transformative process created by Jeanette. Using the EnneaFlow method, we explore firstly how this might support you yourself as a client in co-counselling/co-coaching and secondly as coach/counsellor guiding clients who request an intensive contact to suggested pathways of mindful development.

Coaching and counselling to the Point is both a useful reference book and a hands-on manual for coaches and counsellors. In particular we focus on the following content:

The EnneaFlow Transformative Process Method to guide your own and clients’ journeys

Point-specific learning objectives, accelerators, stallers, exploring which are most appropriate for ourselves

How to work on the different inner levels of functioning and learning

A suite of exercises and assignments for each of the nine types of clients applied to oneself.

Mindful Mentoring Network affiliated Enneagram Organisations

Dr David Daniels and Dr Dan Siegel

Accredited Enneagram Professional Training in the UK

Enneagram Alive Ethical Guidelines and Code of Ethics

Ethical Guidelines within Enneagram Training

Below are the Ethical Guidelines which form the basis of ethical Enneagram/Mindfulness-based practice work with participants, whether in groups or individually. Spirit Gym adopts these guidelines and requires all its volunteer and paid Enneagram facilitators, coaches, counsellors and participants to sign up to them:

  • We commit to mindful conversation, as best we can, knowing Enneagram work goes deep. It touches our core identity and vulnerability as well as our strengths.
  • The decision about which Type we have is ours alone. We may take advice, but no one else can determine our Type for us.
  • If we talk about another person’s Type, we do so tentatively, in the spirit of humble inquiry.
  • We are more than our Type and we acknowledge the fuller richness of each person’s identity.
  • The Enneagram is ancient wisdom yet an emerging field, so we tread gently and with respect.
  • We do not talk about specific people when explaining about type patterns.
  • We honour our teachers and name our sources.
  • We are welcoming and open-minded, appreciating there are many pathways, perspectives and opinions.

Code of Ethics for those who use the Enneagram with others

The Enneagram is a powerful and complex system that addresses human functioning and growth. As such, it is essential that every person who benefits financially from teaching or working with the Enneagram (e.g. facilitators, coaches, counsellors etc) has a thorough knowledge of the system. And just as Enneagram practitioners should have a high level of knowledge of the Enneagram system, they should only teach Enneagram applications within their areas of expertise.

Below are the key points of ethics that we ask all  Enneagram professionals should sign up to:

  1. I will strive to maintain the highest levels of competence in my work.
  2. I recognise the need for ongoing continuous professional development (CPD) in order to remain professionally competent; and I will undertake regular CPD to ensure competence in my professional activities.
  3. I commit to continue with my own inner work by undertaking regular self-inquiry and self-development in the service of growth, and to using a supervisor if I offer counselling.
  4. I will seek to promote integrity in the study, teaching, practice and development of the Enneagram.
  5. I will show respect for and open-mindedness toward the views of others.
  6. I will strive to present my ideas in a way that is understandable to and appropriate for my audience.
  7. I will remain open to feedback from clients or participants regarding my content and style of delivery.
  8. I will conduct myself in a manner that brings respect and honour to the Enneagram.
  9. If using the Enneagram as a consultant, therapist, teacher, spiritual director, or healer, I will adhere to the standards of my field in my relationships with my clients and students.
  10. I will recognise and acknowledge the limitations of my expertise by referring clients beyond my competence on to appropriate individuals or agencies.
  11. I will show the utmost respect for the rights of privacy of others. I will not violate the confidentiality of clients or students, except where I am required to legally, or where the client/student is at considerable risk to themselves or others.
  12. I will make only such statements and claims in representing my services that are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.
  13. I will not make any statement or claim that gives false information about the services of competitors.
  14. I will not enter into inappropriate* personal or business relationships or behaviour with my clients or students (*Inappropriate behaviour could include: bullying, harassment, sexual harassment or harassment on grounds of for example race, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, civil status, age, family status, religion).

Updated July 2023

© 2025 Mindful Mentoring Network

 Supporting Teacher Wellbeing and Mental Health : Sustaining Mindful Teaching and Leadership : Skillsharing for Peer Supervision and Self-care

CONTACT US

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Sending

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details?