The Three Instincts (Subtypes) Understanding Our Instinctual Drives

The Three Instincts (subtypes) Workshop

Authorized Enneagram Institute® Workshop
Taught by Anne Geary

Dates:
Friday, April 17 - 6.00pm - 9:00pm

Saturday, April 18 - 9:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday, April 19 - 9:00am – 4:00pm

Location:
The Caswell
210 South Caswell Road, Charlotte, NC

Our instinctual nature is one of the most powerful forces in our decision-making, relationships, lifestyle choices, and orientation to daily reality — and yet it is rarely understood. In many spiritual traditions, instincts are overlooked or treated as a distortion to be eliminated. In truth, without a conscious relationship to this aspect of ourselves, it becomes extremely difficult to maintain a grounded and integrated spiritual path.

The Enneagram addresses this dimension directly through the Three Instincts:

• Self-Preservation
• Social (Adaptation)
• Sexual / Attraction

These instinctual drives shape how we allocate our life-energy, how we prioritize needs, and how our type pattern expresses itself. Many students discover that understanding their instinctual bias is as transformative as discovering their type itself.

In this immersive workshop, we will clarify and deepen your understanding of the Instincts by exploring how they operate in real time within your personal experience. We will examine your particular instinctual “stack” — the habitual pattern that keeps your life organized around over-developed needs while neglecting others. This imbalance is one of the most powerful contributors to personality fixation.

Recognizing how we give energy to certain needs while ignoring others brings balance and helps us integrate the deeper experiences of Essence and Being. Without this inner work, even profound experiences of Spirit and Oneness cannot take root in daily life.

• How the Three Instincts shape perception, attention, and behavior
• How your dominant instinct combines with your type to create your core personality structure
• How your instinctual “stack” determines blind spots, strengths, and relational patterns
• How instinctual imbalance keeps type fixation active
• How to recognize instinctual reactivity in real time
• Practical tools for balancing your instinctual drives
• How to cultivate presence as a stabilizing force across all three instincts

This workshop uses the Insight Approach®, the experiential method developed by Don Riso and Russ Hudson over more than two decades. It emphasizes:

• Guided meditations
• Sensing and presence-based awareness practices
• Experiential dyads and triads
• Movement and somatic work
• Music and imagery
• Panels and lived experience
• A relaxed, conversational, grounded teaching style

The Insight Approach helps participants see instinctual patterns in real time and learn how to relax them so new possibilities and deeper balance can emerge.

Anne Geary is an authorized Enneagram Institute® workshop teacher and an IEA Accredited Professional. She has trained extensively in the Riso–Hudson tradition and is among a small group of instructors certified to teach these Enneagram Institute workshops. In addition to her work with The Enneagram Institute, Anne is also trained and certified with first-generation teachers through The Narrative Enneagram, Enneagram Spectrum, and Enneagram in Business.

Her teaching is rooted in presence, clarity, and grounded experiential practice, offering participants a steady, attuned, and supportive learning environment.

Although the curriculum is identical to the official online versions taught by authorized teachers, the in-person format offers benefits that cannot be replicated digitally:

The room is designed for presence — quiet, grounded, and free from distractions.

Being in the room together supports attunement, resonance, and transformational depth.

Dyads, triads, sensing, meditation, embodied work, and live panels.

Participants step out of daily life and into a structured, supportive environment.

Support, clarification, and personalized guidance available throughout the weekend.

• Individuals seeking deeper balance, presence, and inner clarity
• People wanting to understand their instinctual stack and how it drives their life
• Therapists, coaches, spiritual directors, and facilitators
• Couples or friends wanting to understand their instinctual differences
• Anyone committed to personal growth, healing, or spiritual development

No prior experience is required.
However, it is highly recommended that participants familiarize themselves with:

• (Riso & Hudson)
• The Riso–Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI)
• The Enneagram Institute website

Yes. This workshop fulfills a core requirement within The Enneagram Approach Professional Training Program taught by Anne Geary.

It also provides educational hours toward becoming an IEA Accredited Professional.

Participants wishing to explore professional development may receive individualized guidance on appropriate next steps within The Enneagram Approach™ or with other first-generation teachers.

The workshop is held at The Caswell, a beautifully restored 100-year-old building intentionally designed for inner work, reflection, and presence.
The teaching room is quiet, spacious, and held as an attuned environment for deep work.

To support this depth:

• Snacks, coffee, and meals are enjoyed in the lounge area
• Fresh bottled water is provided
• There are restaurants within walking distance
• We take:
  • a 2-hour lunch break on Saturday
  • a 1-hour lunch break on Sunday

The atmosphere is warm, grounded, and welcoming — designed to help you settle, slow down, and fully engage the work.

• Early Bird: $325
• Returning Students (any weekend workshop): $295
• Standard Registration: $375

• Full refund up to 30 days prior
• 50% refund up to 7 days prior
• No refunds within 7 days of the event

Charlotte Douglas Airport CLT

Airbnb:

Look at Myers Park, Dilworth, South End and Elizabeth

Hotels:

Courtyard by Marriott at Southpark

AC Hotel by Marriot at Southpark

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Also check out other Workshops in Charlotte, Health & Wellness events in Charlotte.