Enneagram Prison Project

Dr. Hilary Stokes and Dr. Kim Ward (together known as the Authenticity Associates) are Certified Enneagram Coaches and Guides. They have a coaching and counseling practice in San Diego, CA specializing in mind-body psychology. They met while working in an organization dedicated to raising global consciousness. Based on their own personal and professional work they have found an ideal healing approach integrates holistic psychology, neuroscience, wisdom traditions and traditional psychology. The Enneagram has been an invaluable resource on this journey of personal and professional development. They discovered the Enneagram in the late 90’s and they find it so dynamic and universal that they use it daily.

Upon introduction to the Enneagram Prison Project (EPP) they felt an instant connection to the team, mission and vision. The EPP is a non profit organization using the power of the Enneagram as a tool for self awareness, self regulation and self compassion. The EPP program is currently being offered to men and women in correctional facilities, high school students and beyond.

According to Enneagram theory, personality type is based on how we survived our early development. Both nature and nurture play a role in personality development. Each type has foundational qualities that are inherently good and pure in nature. These are known as the true essence and divine spark within us all. The environment we grew up in, degree of secure attachment and level of trauma we experienced during our early years play a large role in the coping strategies of our personality type. To this end, our personality stems from the strategies we used to meet our basic needs for love, safety and belonging. When we do not have a secure attachment we disconnect from our true essence in favor of survival. We develop relatively predictable habits of thinking, feeling and acting that can be healthy, average or unhealthy depending on the degree of safe and secure holding and attachment from our environment and those around us.

The Enneagram outlines predictable strategies for coping, motivations, world views, strengths, challenges, avoidance patterns, fears, desires and solutions to find our way back to our true, divine nature. Once these predictable coping mechanisms are brought to light, it can have infinite benefits as it reveals the patterns of our behavior that are limiting and even self sabotaging to ourselves and those around us.

Enneagram type can be determined by taking an Enneagram personality test and/or working with an Enneagram coach. Although we share qualities of each of the nine types, one type is considered to be our home base throughout our life.

EPP offers in-depth programs for beginners and advanced students. The program consists of group-facilitated classes stressing the benefit of groups for connection, collaboration and community. ‘We do the work together’ is the EPP motto.

The United States has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world, with no country even rivaling our figures. The amount of money the US spends on prisons (inmates, correction centers, etc.) is in the tens of billions of dollars and growing every year. Unfortunately recidivism rates are also unparalleled and rehabilitative programs are not generally prioritized.

The Enneagram is a transformative, life-changing and invaluable self-awareness tool that helps us understand the underlying drives and motivations in virtually everything we do. We can all benefit from the psychological system of the Enneagram. The EPP is freeing people “from the prisons of our own making”.