For this episode, Adam Klein is joined by Susan Olesek, founder of the Enneagram Prison Project. In it, they delve into the distinction between personality and essence, what power actually means, and how the Enneagram can help us shed ego and access the truth of who we are.

Susan shares how this work has impacted people who are behind bars and what she has learned from them.

Here are some of the topics covered in the Stepping In podcast episode Prison of Personality:

The importance of addressing personal growth, community well-being, and global stewardship through coaching.
An overview of the Enneagram and its role in revealing patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that form an individual’s personality.
How the unique environment of prisons and how it impacts learning and personal growth.
The concept of personal power is alignment with one’s true self and connecting oneself to purpose
Preconceived negative views about themselves based on past experiences or societal judgments and seeing beyond these limitations and embrace their full potential.
Stories of transformation from the prison and work done in the prison project.

The Enneagram Prison Project continues to foster personal growth, self-acceptance, and deeper self-understanding through the Enneagram. They aim to create supportive communities where individuals can recognize their strengths, express themselves, and tap into their inner wisdom.

About Susan Olesek
By the time she entered Occidental College to study sociology, Susan’s resolve to contribute to the world was embedded in who she was becoming.

This determination percolated while she raised three boys and began to study the Enneagram, a process that took her deeply into herself and a life-changing trauma suffered in her own childhood when her mother took her own life.

What started small, teaching Enneagram to 100 residents in a prison outside of Houston, Texas, changed her personal and professional life forever. With a burgeoning career that moved her from HR to teaching this fascinating system to “any and everyone brave enough to admit to having a personality”.

About Adam Klein
Adam is dedicated to creating a more just, sustainable, creative, and loving world. Before joining New Ventures West, he helped create a first-in-class business solution to combat global slavery and relaunch a San Francisco Bay Area center for integral spiritual formation.

Adam has a Master’s degree in Engineering from Santa Clara University. Some time ago he entered the world of Ironman triathlons and ultra-running as a means to further understand the importance of the body and the deep, integral nature of being human.

Adam focuses on integrating NVW’s purpose and bringing it to fruition. He oversees strategy, tech, and the flow of various internal work streams, as well as supporting graduates and ensuring ICF compliance.

He regularly leads the Professional Coaching Course, hosts our orientation events in San Francisco, is the creator and host of the NVW podcast Stepping In, and has his own business coaching leaders and individuals.

About the Stepping In
Stepping In is a podcast of bold inquiry into life’s biggest challenges with one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished coaching schools, New Ventures West.

In a spirit of curiosity, compassion, and honesty, we delve into how Integral Coaching can address some of the most pressing issues we face as individuals, communities, and stewards of our planet.

In the Stepping In Podcast, we explore what it takes to develop the sensitivity and capacity required to live and thrive in an increasingly complex world.

About New Ventures West
From its humble beginnings to one of the top accredited coaching schools in the world, New Ventures West pioneered one of the deepest, most transformative forms of human development available for coaches, leaders, and anyone looking to bring people alive in possibility.

Further Exploration
New Ventures West: https://www.newventureswest.com/
Getting Started with Integral Coaching: https://www.newventureswest.com/get-s…
Free and paid Integral Coaching events: https://www.newventureswest.com/class..

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and overview of the Enneagram
02:25 Formation of personality patterns
03:52 Misunderstanding of personality
04:21 Enneagram as a system
05:17 Incisiveness of the Enneagram
06:34 Care in using the enneagram
07:58 Enneagram prison project
10:16 Experience in prisons
12:54 Differences in teaching enneagram
13:06 Personal empowerment
14:49 Alignment to self
17:17 Ego’s influence
18:19 San Quentin
20:40 Prisoners are still people
22:28 The addiction of personality
23:47 Our true self
26:37 Feeding our knowledge
29:47 Shift in perception
30:31 Positive self-appreciation
31:48 Personal growth and self-understanding
37:09 Transformation and emancipation
35:04 Community support and connection
45:41 Recognition of dignity and autonomy
42:46 Encouragement for expression
43:53 Realization of inner wisdom

Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed used with permission
License 1504673862 Date 4/30/24
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