The Enneagram, Relationships, and Intimacy

David Daniels, MD (August 30, 1934–May 26, 2017) was a world-renowned teacher in Enneagram studies, self-help, and personal development and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. He was a leading developer of the Enneagram system of nine personality types and authored the best-selling book The Essential Enneagram, featuring the only scientifically validated Enneagram personality test. Over his forty-year private practice, David taught the Enneagram to thousands worldwide, integrating it into clinical practice, workplaces, and rehabilitation settings with compassion. Alongside Helen Palmer, he co-founded The Narrative Enneagram (originally, the Palmer-Daniels Enneagram Professional Training Program), and he was an instrumental co-founder of the International Enneagram Association. Believing deeply in personal liberation through self-discovery, he developed many simple daily personal development methods, including the Universal Growth Process or 5As for personal transformation and self-mastery. In collaboration with Suzanne Dion, David devoted his final years to writing The Enneagram, Relationships, and Intimacy. David’s great hope was that this insightful book would serve as a guide to understanding personality types, leading to personal, relationship, and global healing. Suzanne Dion, an Enneagram-informed transformational coach and trainer, works with individuals, couples, teens, families, and small companies. Suzanne certified as a teacher with the Palmer-Daniels Enneagram Professional Training School (now The Narrative Enneagram), completed the Advanced Coaching 2.0 program with The Enneagram in Business, and trained with Life Centered Therapy. Suzanne is an Enneagram consultant at the Deep Coaching Institute and the creative director for Marion Gilbert’s Somatic Enneagram™ Training School. She also co-founded The Attuned Parent Program—Parenting to Heal the World. A founding board member of the Enneagram Prison Project (2012–2017), Suzanne developed and taught trauma-informed, addiction-informed Enneagram courses to incarcerated individuals in Northern California jails and the San Quentin State Prison.  She co-authored The Enneagram, Relationships, and Intimacy with her mentor David Daniels, MD to join the ancient wisdom of the Enneagram and Daniels’s years of experience with Dr. Daniel J. Siegel’s science-based thinking on mindful awareness, attachment, and interpersonal neurobiology. Suzanne currently resides in California.