Foreword
BY RUSS HUDSON
The popular Enneagram has become familiar to millions of
people, and it is no longer a surprise to learn that a new
friend or acquaintance knows his or her Enneagram type. Many
are reading online threads and watching podcasts to learn their
“number.” But even as the popularity of the Enneagram expands,
the understanding of its true purpose and intent often becomes
diluted and vague. The question of what we can learn from our
type, and how we can use this knowledge for our development
and healing, is not always present. The origins of the system come
from spiritual, contemplative traditions, and the whole point of
learning one’s type was not to make a definitive statement about a
person’s identity but to reveal to them a central pattern or distortion
that drove most of their problematic behaviors. To understand the
Enneagram on this level takes years of learning and practice and is
not something acquired through short-term study. Of course, we
all have to start somewhere, and learning our core Enneagram type
can be a marvelous launch into a journey of self-knowledge and
maturation. But we would be wise to realize that such a journey is
measured in years, not weeks, and it requires lifelong dedication
to a transformation of our lifestyle.
The same could be said for the process of recovery from addiction.
While the basic tenets of recovery and of Alcohol Anonymous’s
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions seem straightforward enough,
knowing how to navigate the many traps and potential pitfalls along
the way requires a great deal of experience and wisdom derived from
that experience. Breaking the grip of an addiction is not merely the
act of refraining from the addictive substance or behavior. There is
a process of understanding and healing the underlying emotional
issues that drove the person toward addictive behaviors in the first
place. Knowing how to be with one’s underlying suffering, and later,
how to help others navigate their early traumas and challenges, is
no small feat and goes well beyond comforting clichés and sayings.
I cannot guide you somewhere I have not been.
This is where Michael Naylor’s work comes in. You are holding
in your hand what is, to my knowledge, the first significant book
on using the Enneagram in the treatment of addiction. While it
might be surprising that no such book has appeared before this, it
is good to consider that this work is the result of two major fields
of understanding: the Enneagram itself and the various methods
of treating and healing addictions. As we have seen, both fields
of endeavor appear to be basic and fairly straightforward; that is,
“addicts just need to toughen up and stop taking their drug of
choice,” and “the Enneagram is just a description of nine types of
people. Which one are you?” In fact, understanding either field is a
vast undertaking that requires years of learning and experience. We
are fortunate to have this book, as The Alchemy of the Enneagram in
Transforming Addiction is born from Michael’s long and profound
apprenticeship in both fields.
I have known Michael for many years, and I can tell you that
he has the needed learning and experience to tackle this huge
subject. He has been studying the Enneagram for decades and
has become a masterful teacher and guide for those seeking to
understand this amazing tool in greater depth.
He went through the entire training program that Don Richard Riso and I offered
through the Enneagram Institute and familiarized himself wit
other Enneagram approaches as well. Both Don and I were struck
by his passion for learning, his integrity, and his sincere wish to
help others. So, when we were looking for some potential teachers
to join us in the journey of bringing a more comprehensive and
healing approach to the Enneagram to the world, we chose Michael
as one of the people we felt could convey the essence of what this
work was truly about. He taught with us and on our behalf for
well over a decade and has subsequently become one of the most
trusted and experienced teachers in the field. Never one to rest on
his laurels, Michael has continued to learn about the system, to
revisit assumptions, and to find better ways to communicate the
core teachings of the work connected with the Enneagram.
There are few people on the planet who know the work that Don
Riso and I did as well as Michael. He knows our teachings inside
and out and is particularly skillful in conveying the meaning and
purpose of Don’s “Levels of Development,” which are key to using
the Enneagram for psychological healing and growth. This book
presents these ideas with clarity and compassion, and as such, The
Alchemy of the Enneagram in Transforming Addiction is an excellent
primer on our work. Beyond this, Michael has customized the
teachings, changing some of the language and emphasis, to use these
tools more precisely for the work of recovery. I find his changes
helpful, and they will no doubt make the work more accessible.
Make no mistake, this book is a hands-on, direct, and much needed
exploration of this topic. I am certain it will become a
standard text for counselors of people in recovery as well as for
those on their own journey to sobriety and freedom. While the
focus here is a practical look at how the deeper inner work of the
Enneagram can be of invaluable assistance to the process of recovery,
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the implications of this work pertain to everyone. We could say
that the fixations of each of the nine Enneagram types represent
core patterns of addiction, playing themselves out endlessly and
in a variety of ways.
The Enneagram, in its original sense, was never about putting
people into categories or boxes but rather was a teaching to facilitate
the observation of the core of human suffering in each person that
drives their more compulsive behaviors. Coming from spiritual and
contemplative traditions, a central idea behind the Enneagram is
that people are in a lot more suffering than they realize and that
our ego is a product largely of the attempt to manage that suffering.
It was originally a study of the ways in which we become caught
up in habitual patterns of thinking, emotion, and behavior that are
essentially defensive in nature—a way of numbing us from our core
distress. It is not an enormous leap from that perspective to seeing
the implications of this approach for the treatment of addictions.
Part of the great gift of this book is that Michael helps us
see the relationship between various addictive behaviors and the
underlying suffering that is driving them. He further shows us that
not only do the nine Enneagram types offer insights and methods
for addressing this core suffering but also that different types are
helped by different methods. He methodically takes us through
the nine types, offering tips for recovery, potential pitfalls, and
scenarios that can lead to relapse, and showing that while there
are some universal principles to the recovery process, there are also
significant differences in what helps each type stay on track with
their healing.
In this respect, Michael’s long experience as an addiction
counselor is evident and of great benefit. For each of the nine
types he describes both inner and outer processes, illuminates some
of the challenges in the early stages of recovery, describes some
of the most likely causes of relapse, offers exercises and practices,
and provides suggestions for counselors or loved ones to support
a person of each particular type in recovery. Of particular value
are his suggestions for each type in reframing ways of thinking
and feeling that led to addictions and show another way forward.
Further, he explains the nature of the “inner critic” patterns for each
of the nine types and describes ways to counteract its negative and
discouraging influence.
Part of the power of this book is that Michael Naylor knows
this process from the inside out. He has been in recovery himself
and explored a variety of methods and teachings to continue the
process and to support his ongoing sobriety. In this respect, he
comes across here as a wise older friend—someone who “knows
the ropes” and is utterly free of judgment about any part of the
journey. While some of the material might be seen as technical, he
conveys it with lucidity and warmth, and the reader may well feel
that they have a good traveling companion at their side. Nothing
feels abstract because this work was born “in the trenches” and has
been tested in real-life experiences.
On a personal note, I can share that when I was first involved
in working with the Enneagram, I, too, was battling addictive
tendencies and was engaged in twelve-step practices as part of
my journey. When I met Don Riso, we drew great inspiration
from the Steps and were surprised to learn that there are common
roots between the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions
and the teachings behind the Enneagram. We shared our own
journeys of healing with each other and educated ourselves about
the work of recovery both in the twelve steps and in the broader
psychotherapeutic community. All of this influenced our work with
the Enneagram, and our early book Enneagram Transformations
arose from our own grappling with the fourth step, often viewed
The Alchemy of the Enneagram in Transforming Addiction
as one of the most difficult parts of the twelve-step journey: “Made
a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” We realized
that this was exactly what work with the Enneagram asked of us,
and we explored the ways in which knowing our Enneagram type
pattern might help fellow travelers in the work of recovery meet
this challenging step.
In this sense, The Alchemy of the Enneagram in Transforming
Addiction feels like the early work Don and I did coming full circle
through Michael’s brilliance and dedication. Much of what we did
in those early days grew out of our own struggles and our wish to
be truly free. We sensed then, and I still feel, that human beings
are capable of so much more than we usually allow for ourselves. In
the Enneagram tradition, we learn that beyond the painful patterns
of personality lies our essential nature—the ground of our soul and
spirit—and that we are in this world to grow and mature this deeper
layer of our humanity. This is the source of our wisdom, compassion,
courage, love, and many other qualities. We also learn that a person
who has been through the fires of transformation is, in a sense,
reborn as a person of virtues, a person capable of living spiritual
values here in the world and contributing something healing and
evolutionary to the human species.
For many of us, the idea of becoming an awakened person of
kindness and virtue is of great appeal, but the journey begins with
addressing our distress and the ways we have learned to numb
ourselves to that pain. This is the heart of the recovery process, and
it is also the heart of the Enneagram journey of transformation. It is
all fundamentally the process of becoming what George Gurdjieff,
the man who brought the Enneagram symbol to the attention of the
modern world, referred to as a human being without quotation marks.
I know personally that Michael Naylor has been on that journey
most of his life. He knows it well and has learned how to convey
it to others. He has been through the fires of inner work and has
guided many others through crucial elements of this process. At
long last, he has put the wisdom and hope of that journey down
in writing and is sharing it with the world, and with you. I trust
this book will become a good friend to you and that you will come
to appreciate Michael’s wisdom and great heart as much as I do.
Many blessings on your journey of recovery, whatever its nature.
Russ Hudson
Copenhagen, Denmark
September 27, 2022
