Personality and Wholeness in Therapy: Integrating 9 Patterns of Developmental Pathways in Clinical Practice (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

Book excerpt: A new way to consider patterns of personality, with the combined application of neurobiology and traditional wisdom. Personality and Wholeness in Psychotherapy applies the perspective of interpersonal neurobiology to 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. 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.