Mistyping, Subtypes, and the Long Road to Finding Your Real Number, with Beatrice Chestnut (S10-008)
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What happens when the type you've claimed for years turns out to be wrong? Today, I sit down with returning guest Beatrice Chestnut — Enneagram teacher, author, and co-founder of the Chestnut Paes Enneagram Academy — for a wide-ranging conversation on one of the most common (and most human) struggles in Enneagram work: mistyping.
We dig into why mistyping happens, how to hold a hypothesis about someone's type without imposing it, and the subtype distinctions that resolve the Enneagram's trickiest lookalikes — especially Twos vs. Nines and the three very different faces of Type Four and Type Six. Beatrice also opens up about her own evolving growth path, and I share a personal story about the moment a single sentence in one of Beatrice's books changed how I understood myself.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why mistyping is a normal part of the self-discovery journey — not a system failure
How to gently raise a hypothesis about someone's type without playing “Enneagram police”
The key differences between Twos and Nines (emotional expression, image-consciousness, who initiates)
Self-preservation, social, and sexual subtypes of Type Four — the “glad,” “sad,” and “mad” Fours
Why Sixes so often don't recognize their own fear-based motivation until they find the Enneagram
Beatrice's personal reflection on growing from a Four toward Eight-like strength
What it actually feels like when your type finally “lands”
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ABOUT BEATRICE
Beatrice Chestnut, PhD MA is a psychotherapist, coach, and business consultant based in San Francisco. She holds graduate degrees in communication and clinical psychology and is the author of the books, The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge, and The 9 Types of Leadership: Mastering the Art of People in the 21st century Workplace. She was president of the International Enneagram Association in 2006 and 2007. A student of the Enneagram for over 30 years, she currently works with leaders and teams and offers Enneagram workshops internationally through the school she co-founded with Uranio Paes, Chestnut Paes Enneagram Academy. In their work around the world, Beatrice and Uranio focus on using the Enneagram as a tool for personal and professional transformation. Learn more at beatricechestnut.com.