About Me

Lynn Turner, Ph.D., MSW,

Enneagram Teacher and Author 

The Enneagram temperament system has been one of the most helpful tools in my treatment basket as a psychotherapist with couples, singles, children and families over 3 decades. Whether I’m working with a child, misunderstood by her parents, a couple with opposite temperaments, or an individual who’s partner has just left for unknown reason, the Enneagram temperament system has proven instrumental in creating harmony for my clients.

I am writing a book for therapists so my colleagues can understand and use the Enneagram with their clients as well. This Blog website is created both to teach the Enneagram and to be a platform for my proposed book. Therapists, clients, and regular folks can all learn from what the ancients discerned ions ago: that we are each born with a natural temperament. This nature combined with our childhood nurturing forms our personality or the way we show up in the world. Within our innate nature we have both gifts and burdens.

The gift of the 2 GIVER, for instance, is to intuit the needs of others, immediately knowing how to help. The burden/challenge for the 2 GIVER is to notice her own needs. We cannot change our nature, but we can learn how to meet our challenges in a new way and how to use our natural gifts in a way that works for us.

Many therapists are focused on our childhood as the necessary cause of our dilemmas. My therapy sessions begin with the Enneagram as a tool about our nature and then we delve into our nurturing environment, our childhood. How our childhood is informed by our nature and how our nature adjusts to our childhood is one of the discoveries my clients make.

I am a 2 GIVER. My giving and intuiting others’ needs in childhood was a well-honed gift for my family. Neither they nor I were able to notice my needs. Learning my Enneagram challenges and my childhood needs helped me create a meaningful life, not only giving but receiving. Please enjoy these blogs as you discover yourself. I welcome comments on my Work With Me Page, particularly comments for a would be publisher. I will be adding to the therapist and information Blogs as well as others with a periodic newsletter highlighting the additions.