The Enneagram and Marriage Podcast, hosted by Christa Hardin, MA, is rooted in her 18+ years of experience counseling and coaching couples. On top of her expert marriage advice, Christa uses the Enneagram to add in another layer of understanding as to how we work as individuals and gives us deeper i…
The Enneagram and Marriage podcast is truly a game changer when it comes to understanding yourself, your spouse, and all other relationships in your life. This podcast delves into the world of the enneagram and how it can transform your understanding of why you think, feel, and behave the way you do. Host Christa has a remarkable gift for sharing her knowledge of the enneagram and marriage in a way that is both entertaining and impactful. She carefully selects guests for each episode and asks deep, meaningful questions that delve into the intricacies of relationships.
One of the best aspects of this podcast is its ability to normalize certain experiences within relationships. It addresses topics such as vaginismus, which are often not openly discussed or understood. By bringing light to these issues, the podcast helps couples realize they are not alone in their struggles and points them towards valuable resources. Additionally, the podcast provides invaluable insights into different enneagram types and how they interact in relationships. Listeners gain a better understanding of their own motivations and tendencies as well as those of their partners.
While The Enneagram and Marriage podcast offers tremendous value, there are some minor areas for improvement. At times, the delivery may lack perfection or polish. However, this only adds to the authenticity of the show, making it relatable on a deeper level. Additionally, while Christa frames many topics from a Christian perspective, she maintains professionalism by also approaching them pragmatically as a therapist would.
In conclusion, The Enneagram and Marriage podcast is an absolute must-listen for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of themselves and their relationships. Whether you are new to the enneagram or already obsessed with it like many others are, this podcast will provide invaluable insights that can be applied to all areas of life. The combination of Christa's knowledge as a counselor and her ability to balance statistics with emotional connection makes this podcast an indispensable tool for personal growth. The Enneagram and Marriage podcast has the power to transform relationships and bring about a greater sense of empathy and understanding in the world.
Seduction inside a long marriage sounds like a contradiction, and Dr. Anna Elton is here to tell us it is anything but. In this rich conversation, Christa welcomes Dr. Elton to unpack her framework for what she calls the desire equilibrium, the idea that desire is not one thing but three: desiring yourself, desiring your partner, and letting yourself feel wanted. Most couples pour all their energy into the middle one and wonder why nothing shifts. Dr. Elton explains why self-desire is the least threatening place to begin and also the most skipped, why receiving desire is genuinely harder than giving it, and how we quietly push love away the moment it arrives by downplaying a compliment, deflecting with humor, or changing the subject before the feeling has time to land. She also makes the case that context changes everything, that the very same loving gesture can feel inviting in one moment and invasive in the next, and that timing, mental load, and emotional transition often matter far more than the gesture itself. This episode offers a real path back, one that begins not with technique but with learning your own worth, and not being afraid to truly focus on the magic you can create together once again or for the very first time! Watch on YouTube! Read Dr. Anna Elton's book, The Formula of Desire, here! https://a.co/d/0hc3qCLe Visit her website here! https://annaelton.com/ Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Take the E + M Quiz at www.QuizforCouples.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
As a special invitation in the middle of our summer exploring desire and intimacy in marriage, Christa pauses to learn from and to share an experience with a soulful friend, welcoming Meredith Hite Estevez, a Juilliard-trained oboist, writer, creative coach, and Enneagram Type 4 married to a Type 7, for a conversation about her beautiful new book, Art Is How God Loves Us. Meredith reframes art not as a measure of talent but as something available to every one of us, a way God speaks, heals, and draws us close. Together they explore how beauty and brokenness alike become places of divine connection, why creativity is a form of communion, and what it means to see yourself as a work of art, beloved, unfinished, and held by a Creator who has not stopped creating you. This is an invitation to dig in personally, not just as a couple, but just you and God! Read Art is How God Loves Us here! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G6TGQDVX?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback www.ArtistsforJoy.com Listen to Meredith's award-winning podcast here! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/artists-for-joy/id1509742324 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Take the E + M Quiz at www.QuizforCouples.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today, Christa reveals the surprising other half of the connection coin when it comes to sexual intimacy: desire does not only need safety, it needs aliveness. Christa names the play deficit that creeps into long marriages as we become expert co-managers of a household and forget how to delight in each other, and shares Amy Muise's fascinating research on self-expansion, the finding that novel, creative activities done together are directly linked to higher sexual desire in long-term couples, even for those genuinely struggling with low desire. Come learn about play as the neurological fuel for wanting, a kind of foreplay that lowers the brake and presses the accelerator at once! Watch on YouTube! Get the Awakening Intimacy Journal here! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Take the E + M Quiz at www.QuizforCouples.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why do so many couples feel stuck in the bedroom even after decades of marriage? Christa goes straight at the real reason in this episode, the armor we put on to avoid being truly seen. Being physically intimate with your spouse asks something genuinely brave of us, to be seen not just in body but in our wanting, our desire, our reaching, and most of us have gotten very good at hiding those tender parts. She unpacks why being fully known is the very thing that lets the body open, why emotional safety and physical desire are never actually separate, and how protecting what is tender, including offering a kind but firm no when you need one, keeps intimacy safe enough to thrive. If you have ever felt unseen or guarded with the person who loves you most, this one is for you. Get the Awakening Intimacy Journal here! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Take the E + M Quiz at www.QuizforCouples.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
We tend to think of physical intimacy as a moment, here and then gone. But the research reveals it is actually a window, a lingering afterglow that lasts up to forty-eight hours, and what happens inside that window may matter even more than the moment itself. In this episode Christa unpacks Andrea Meltzer's fascinating research on sexual afterglow, the finding that satisfaction stays elevated for about two days after intimacy and quietly predicts relationship happiness months later. She also does something most teachers skip: she checks whether the finding holds beyond newlyweds, and shares the honest answer, that it has since been replicated in married and committed couples across a range of relationship lengths, so this is not just a honeymoon-phase sparkle. Rather than framing intimacy as a chore, she reveals it as a catalyst, a rolling buffer of goodwill that softens conflict and helps you see your spouse more generously. She connects it to positive and negative sentiment override, why stress quietly tilts us toward reading our partner negatively, and how the healthiest couples catch that tilt in themselves, and names why the sting of rejection lingers even longer than the glow, which is why tender repair matters so much. Warm, freeing, and grounded in real science. Watch on YouTube! Get the Awakening Intimacy Journal here! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Take the E + M Quiz at www.QuizforCouples.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Almost every couple navigates it, and almost nobody talks about it openly: the vulnerable dance of initiation. Who reaches for whom, who tends to pull back, and the quiet hurt that builds around it over the years. In this tender and practical episode, Christa brings one of the most unspoken dynamics in marriage into the light. She explains why the lower-initiating partner is so often not less interested but more wounded, how the pursuer-distancer cycle plays out painfully around physical intimacy, and why it is almost never about frequency but about the meaning each reach and pull-back has come to carry. She shows how your Enneagram type and especially your instincts shape who reaches and who waits, why a self-preservation-led spouse may need to feel settled before desire comes online, and why a sexual-instinct-led spouse may feel the lack more acutely. Then she offers a clear, gentle path to change the dance: naming the pattern without blame, separating a no to this moment from a no to you, and making reaching feel safe again for both people. If initiation has become a sore place in your marriage, this episode will help you understand that you are not broken, your spouse is not broken, and the pattern can change. Plus, the Awakening Intimacy course is open and on sale now, one hundred dollars off, with this tender work woven right in. Watch on YouTube! Show notes: Get the Awakening Intimacy Journal here! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Take the E + M Quiz at www.QuizforCouples.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today we open the July series on sexual intimacy, and there's no better week for lighting the (safe but sexy) fireworks. Not the ones in the sky, the ones in your marriage. Christa dismantles the myth that real passion just strikes like lightning and reveals what the thriving couples actually know: fireworks are built, not stumbled upon, and synthesizes her decades of experience of working with couples to the often-misunderstood Enneagram sexual instinct, reminding listeners that the sexual instinct involves not only the foundational intimacy that we covered in June, but also novelty, intensity, and creative aliveness, not just one-to-one bonding. You'll learn why that matters for your spark, helping you to dissolve years of, sadness, shame and confusion around this area. Warm, honest, faith-friendly, and genuinely freeing, this episode is for you! Watch on YouTube! Get the Awakening Intimacy Journal here! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Take the E + M Quiz at www.QuizforCouples.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This is the turning point of the Summer of Intimacy, the bridge from everything we have built in June into the sexual intimacy series beginning in July. But this episode names something deeper that has been happening all along. All month, Christa has not been teaching you to try harder at your marriage, she has been guiding you toward second-order change, a concept from family systems work that means transforming the actual rules and patterns of your relationship rather than just doing more of the same. In this episode she unpacks the difference between first-order change, pressing the gas in a car stuck in the mud, and second-order change, getting out of the mud entirely, and shows how learning to bear witness, build love maps, and put safety before closeness are not just techniques, they were a rewiring of the whole system. Then we land in the research on desire, why for healthy people, desire is responsive and flows out of emotional connection rather than appearing on its own. This is the groundwork we lay before the fireworks. Watch on YouTube! Get the Awakening Intimacy Journal here! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Take the E + M Quiz at www.QuizforCouples.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this crowning summer episode every listener needs to lean in for, Christa unpacks the two paths back to each other: connection, the path of being deeply known, grounded in John Gottman's research on love maps and turning toward bids, and joy, the path of shared aliveness, grounded in Arthur Aron's self-expansion studies on novelty and lasting passion. You will learn why you and your spouse may reach in different directions, why that mismatch causes so much hurt, and why the thriving couples learn to walk through both doors. Christa closes with a simple reflection to help you name which path your marriage is hungry for this season you don't want to miss. Plus, the Awakening Intimacy course is open and on sale right now with two tracks built around exactly this. Watch on YouTube! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Show notes: Sign up for the Awakening Intimacy Intensive 5 week courses now (Awakening Connection or Awakening Joy) now!! Get your E + M Love Map Questions Freebie here! OPEN for Registration! The E + M Summer Intensives, Awakening Connection (Track 1) and Awakening Adventure (Track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Click here! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today Christa talks through 25 years of marriage to Wes - and instead of a typical teaching episode, we're reflecting on the story arc of marriages that thrive. Christa shares a lessonn about her own parents and their 25th, that didn't go the way she expected, what her dad unwittingly taught her about really seeing the person you love, and what 25 years has shown her about intimacy. She also shares a few practical tips through the lens of the three desires - SP, SO, SX - and the story behind The Three Desires book cover (releasing Feb 2, 2027), featuring the breathtaking Antelope Canyon. If you're newlywed, in the trenches, or approaching your own milestone anniversary with thoughtfulness and a desire to genuinely grow in character, this one is dedicated to you. Show notes: Sign up for the Awakening Intimacy Intensive 5 week courses now (Awakening Connection or Awakening Joy) now!! Get your E + M Love Map Questions Freebie here! OPEN for Registration! The E + M Summer Intensives, Awakening Connection (Track 1) and Awakening Adventure (Track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Click here! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This week's deep dive is FREE for everyone, and we mean everyone. Whether you're a longtime Collective member or brand new here, this one's a gift. We're going deeper into emotional processing containers, but this time we're breaking it down by Enneagram type. We cover every type in marriage: what backfires for each, what container works best, and how to create emotional safety with your specific spouse in your specific dynamic. This is the most practical, type-by-type episode we've done in the Summer of Intimacy series - and we wanted every listener to have access to it. No subscription required this week, t's a topic everyone desperately needs. Show notes: Get on the waitlist so you can get info about our Awakening Intimacy Intensive! Get your E + M Love Map Questions Freebie here! Stay tuned for our Summer Intensives, Awakening Intimacy (track 1) and Awakening Adventure (track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
When you finally open up and say the vulnerable thing that needed to be said and shared, what next? Often, your spouse gets defensive, shuts down, or fires back, and now you're less likely to ever share again. This is one of the most common and heartbreaking cycles in marriage: vulnerability that backfires actually creates MORE hiding, not less. In this episode of the Summer of Intimacy series, Christa introduces the concept of emotional processing containers - structures that protect vulnerability so that sharing actually leads to connection instead of more hurt, so you can create a marriage where both of you feel safe enough to keep showing up and delighting in your live and shared light. For every Enneagram type, in every season of marriage, this episode will give you practical tools to make vulnerability work, even after a hard start. Listen here to this hope-filled message! Watch on YouTube! Show notes: Get on the waitlist so you can get info about our Awakening Intimacy Intensive! Get your E + M Love Map Questions Freebie here! Stay tuned for our Summer Intensives, Awakening Intimacy (track 1) and Awakening Adventure (track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Do you tell your spouse every sip of coffee, every flirt at the grocery store, every small moment of frustration? Probably not, and that is not automatically a problem. But there is a real difference between healthy discretion and quiet hiding, and when we do the latter, it costs us more than we realize. This week we are opening up the question of what we share, what we keep to ourselves, and why. We will look at what faith and the research says about secrets and disclosure in marriage, and how our Enneagram centers shape our own particular flavor of hiding. Grab your coffee and settle in, this one gets personal but also has some lovely and light moments so you can connect with safety and fun, too! Watch on YouTube! Show notes: Get on the waitlist so you can get info about our Awakening Intimacy Intensive! Get your E + M Love Map Questions Freebie here! Stay tuned for our Summer Intensives, Awakening Intimacy (track 1) and Awakening Adventure (track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What if the thing that determines whether your marriage thrives or slowly fades isn't the big fights or the grand gestures, but the hundred tiny moments in between? In this episode, Christa unpacks one of Gottman's most important and least-talked-about discoveries: emotional bids. Every day your spouse is making small, quiet requests for connection, and you're either turning toward them, away from them, or against them without even realizing it. Learn what bids actually look like (they almost never announce themselves), why partners with the same love language can still miss each other constantly, and the one shift that changes the entire relational climate in your home. This episode is part of the Summer of Intimacy series. Show notes: Get on the waitlist so you can get info about our Awakening Intimacy Intensive! Get your E + M Love Map Questions Freebie here! Stay tuned for our Summer Intensives, Awakening Intimacy (track 1) and Awakening Adventure (track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What if the distance you feel in your marriage isn't about love at all, but about a bank account that has quietly run low? In episode three of the Summer of Intimacy series, Christa dives into one of Gottman's most powerful research findings, positive sentiment override, and the hidden force that erodes it faster than almost anything else: mental load. If you have been quicker to snap, quicker to assume the worst, or quicker to feel alone even when your spouse is right there, this episode will give you the language for what is actually happening and a way back toward each other. Plus, Christa shares how she and Wes put last week's love maps questions into practice on a real date this week, and how you can do the same. The Awakening Intimacy waitlist is now open, link in show notes. Show notes: Get on the waitlist so you can get info about our Awakening Intimacy Intensive! Get your E + M Love Map Questions Freebie here! Stay tuned for our Summer Intensives, Awakening Intimacy (track 1) and Awakening Adventure (track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The couples who drift apart are rarely the ones fighting the most, they are the ones who simply stopped being curious. In this episode, Christa unpacks the love maps research and then hands you the exact questions each Enneagram type secretly longs to be asked, the kind of conversation starters made for a porch swing, a long summer drive, or those quiet few minutes at the end of the day. She also walks through the part that matters most, what to do after you ask, and the difference between hearing an answer and truly staying for it. Plus there is a free grab-and-go resource so you can take these questions straight to your next date night. Emotional intimacy is the foundation that every other kind of intimacy is built on, and this episode is where the whole summer begins. Listen with your love here! Listen on YouTube! Show notes: Get your E + M Love Map Questions Freebie here! Stay tuned for our Summer Intensives, Awakening Intimacy (track 1) and Awakening Adventure (track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
As we reflect on what irt really takes to create long-lasting, satisfying love, this summer season, we're coming into a place of focus, and this kickstarter episode launches the Summer of Intimacy, sixteen episodes across June and July covering every layer of what it means to be truly known and truly chosen by your spouse. June goes deep into emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and playful intimacy, everything that comes before the bedroom and matters just as much. July goes into desire, the body, and physical intimacy in full. Don't skip ahead. You can't have true physical intimacy without defining what intimacy really is on an emotional level as we discover what it means to truly know and love each other. Start here and stay all summer. Watch on YouTube! Show notes: Stay tuned for our Summer Intensives, Awakening Intimacy (track 1) and Awakening Adventure (track 2) beginning the week of July 13! Scroll down on our podcast page to find episodes on intimacy here! https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/pod Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meet author, New York Times viral writer, and wife/mom Amanda McCracken, the woman who sat beside Katie Couric and was told she had 'fairytale princess syndrome' as she dreamed of romantic love. This comment launched a ten year research journey that became the book, When Longing Becomes Your Lover: Breaking from Infatuation, Rejection, and Perfectionism to Find Authentic Love, that we're talking about today on the brand new pod. Discover how limerence - obsessive romantic rumination - became both self-protection, avoidance, and self-sabotage all in one, not delivering and yet keeping thousands of individuals (married or single) from the healthy relationship they desired. Learn about the intersection of personality and limerent patterns, the science behind why we get addicted to unavailable people, and most, practical steps toward authentic love. Watch on YouTube! Show links: Get Amanda McCracken's book, "When Longing Becomes Your Lover" here! Learn more about Amanda and her writing here! Follow Amanda on Instagram here! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
After a car accident sent her on a deeply personal journey into bodywork and healing, Dr. Cathleen Gerenge, Type 7, discovered that the path to thriving was not just clinical but deeply embodied, and that lesson changed the way she practices and the way she lives, and she brings her brilliance to us about thyroid, specific hormones, and taking care of us, just as she too found results and also the energy back for community in the Vietnamese beauty and wellness industry, winning Ms. Vietnamese Florida after age fifty! In this conversation we talk about every decade of a man and woman's life across hormones, what's happening with thyroid, progesterone, testosterone, and more, the hormonal connection to irritability and disconnection and lost desire in marriage, and what it actually looks like to take your health and your marriage back at any stage. This is a holiday weekend, which means food and gatherings and all the joy of being together, and it also means a beautiful moment to pause and ask: am I taking care of the body my marriage lives inside? Dr. Gerenger is warm, brilliant, and refreshingly honest about her own journey. This one is going to stay with you. Watch on YouTube! Follow her wildly helpful Instagram here ~ https://www.instagram.com/dr_cathleen/ Find Dr. Cathleen's Comprehensive Lab Checklist here and get on her list to learn more about her services! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
As we learn more about what relationship science says, we learn that not only was your brain designed for continued new learning, but fascinatingly, your marriage was designed to benefit from it, too. Researcher Arthur Aron has spent decades studying what keeps couples not just together but genuinely in love, and what he found might surprise you: novel shared experiences do not just make a marriage more fun, they actually restore the feeling of falling in love all over again, sometimes surpassing even the honeymoon stage. In this episode, Christa brings the research to life, weaving together Aron's self-expansion theory, the neuroscience of dopamine and creativity, and what nervous system regulation has to do with whether you and your spouse can actually play together anymore. This episode is practical, research-backed, and full of the kind of insight that makes you want to go try something new with your person as soon as possible! Watch on YouTube! Want even more? Listen to an even deeper dive on Apple here with the subscriber series! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Kelly Chase, the breakout star of Love Is Blind, Season 1, brings something to this conversation that goes far deeper than what the world got to see when she said "no" at the altar. As a Type 3. we get to talk about the inside of the life of a type 3, as Kelly talks about both sides of the Performer personality, the side that performs to others and abandons self, and the version of herself that was slowly disappearing in the effort to keep everyone else comfortable, and the side that finally knows more and more who she is and what she needs to do for a healthy and balanced, authentic life. This conversation goes into nervous system regulation, rejection wounds, chemistry versus true compatibility, and what it looks like when a heart type finally stops performing her way through life and starts actually feeling it instead, plus ways for YOU to be coached and dialed in with your own business! Watch on YouTube! Here's the website! https://www.chaselifewithkelly.com/ Kelly's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chaselifewithkelly/?hl=en Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Milana Vayntrub is an actress, comedian, and activist born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who came to prominence as Lily Adams in AT&T commercials — and in 2026 she stepped into something entirely new, playing Olesya Ilyukhina, a Russian engineer and cosmonaut in the blockbuster film Project Hail Mary alongside Ryan Gosling. But this conversation goes somewhere the red carpet does not. Milana is a Type 7 with real threads of 3 and 8 running through her — and one of the most honest things she brings to this conversation is what it actually took to stop hoarding time. The 7 who is always planning the next thing, always keeping an escape route open, always making sure the calendar stays full enough to outrun the feelings — that is the pattern she names out loud. We go deep on what rest means for a type that treats stillness like a threat, what it looks like to actually be present in your own life and your own marriage, her co-founding of Can't Do Nothing, the organization she built to spotlight the refugee crisis, and what Project Hail Mary taught her about the kind of connection that makes survival possible. Warm, funny, and more honest than you might expect. Get your Date Your Spouse kit for 90% off for a limited time here! https://shop.dateyourspouse.com/products/marriage-bundle-2026?sca_ref=6272364.4hv7IY3580 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
There are times in life when you're exhausted, foggy, perhaps having headaches or gaining weight, and running on empty in your energy, and thus your marriage, and yet it's hard to explain why, since your habits haven't changed much. Dr. Alicia Newsome joins us today to talk about all of this and more as a physician who specializes in root-cause hormone care, and she is here to tell you that what is happening in your body is absolutely affecting what is happening in your relationship. In this conversation we talk about hormonal shifts, what blood panels you should actually be asking for, the role of rest as a clinical non-negotiable, and what it looks like to stop settling for a body that is just surviving. If you have ever felt like something is off but nobody has been able to tell you what, this episode is your starting point. Watch on YouTube!! Find Dr. Alicia Newsome here! https://www.dralicianewsome.com/ Follow Dr. Alicia on Instagram here! https://www.instagram.com/dr.alicianewsome/ Get your Date Your Spouse kit for 90% off for a limited time here! https://shop.dateyourspouse.com/products/marriage-bundle-2026?sca_ref=6272364.4hv7IY3580 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It is Maycember and everyone is running on empty, and your marriage still needs you. Not the leftover version. The actual you. In this episode, Christa makes the connection nobody talks about: taking care of yourself is not separate from loving your spouse, it is what makes you capable of the most generous thing a marriage asks of you. Bearing witness. Staying in the dark with your person without fixing, reframing, or rushing toward the light. This one is going to name something you have been feeling but haven't had words for yet. Listen on YouTube! Get your Date Your Spouse kit for 90% off for a limited time here! https://shop.dateyourspouse.com/products/marriage-bundle-2026?sca_ref=6272364.4hv7IY3580 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
We are kicking off a new month of Enneagram and Marriage on health and wellness in marriage, and we are starting it in the deeps, in the heart of physical suffering. Today Christa interviews Sydney Anne Bennett, author, military wive, and storyteller with over 300K followers who became disabled two weeks after her honeymoon. Diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder, a condition where the brain misfires its signals to the body, she now lives with daily seizures, chronic pain, and mobility loss. What she built inside of that is something I could not stop thinking about. Her new book Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken is part memoir, part survival guide, and entirely honest about what it looks like to fight for faith when your body, your world, and sometimes your church are not cooperating. If you are walking through anything chronic, physical, mental, emotional, relational, this conversation is for you. Watch on YouTube! Show Links: Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken: Fighting for Faith When You're Falling Apart, Get Sydney's brand new book here! https://a.co/0cnmhIBE Follow Sydney on Instagram here! https://www.instagram.com/the.annegirl/ Get your Date Your Spouse kit for 90% off for a limited time here! https://shop.dateyourspouse.com/products/marriage-bundle-2026?sca_ref=6272364.4hv7IY3580 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today's guests are #1 high-level ICF-trained (top 2% of coaches) Jamie Slingerland, MCC and Ruthie Perez Slingerland, MCC married coaches, Enneagram mentors, and business partners who, brick by brick, have built a healthy communication pattern across years, even with opposite though both joyful personalities. Listen as we chat with Jamie and Ruthie Slingerland (7-9 pairing), and what happened when and why their previous dynamic finally had to change, and what it took to find a healthy voice for both of them. If you've been living in a similar dynamic, but haven't had words for it yet, or you'd like to learn more about becoming an ICF coach under their academy, this episode is for you! Watch on YouTube! Find Jamie and Ruthie's Coaching Academy for an ICF Credential here: www.CatalystCoachAcademy.com To get coaching with Jamie or Ruthie, visit www.FreedomLifeJourney.com Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Russ Hudson, co-founder of the Enneagram Institute and author of The Wisdom of the Enneagram, joins Christa for a masterclass on conflict. This isn't just "here's what your type does wrong", Russ breaks down the deeper architecture of how we fight: shock points (the places where we get triggered and can't think), harmonic groups (the patterns underneath how we process conflict), and the instincts (how self-preservation, sexual, and social show up when we're wounded). He explains why understanding these frameworks changes everything. This episode is the capstone that ties it our work together all month, theoretically, practically, and full of heart and hope for you both! Watch on YouTube! Get connected with ALL Russ is doing in NYC, Cali, and all over the world! www.RussHudson.com Learn about your type and his work at www.EnneagramInstitute.com Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Christa sits down with Jason VanRuler (type 2), therapist and author who specializes in communication and relationships, for a conversation about why couples can walk away from the same conversation with completely different experiences. Jason breaks down the PATHS Assessment he developed to help couples understand their communication types and why what you say isn't always what your partner hears. They discuss how your family system growing up shapes the way you communicate now, the five communication types and how they show up in conflict, and what to do when you think you're aligned but your spouse is somewhere else entirely. If you've ever had a conversation where you thought everything was fine only to discover later it absolutely was not, this episode will show you exactly what's happening and how to bridge the gap. Watch YouTube! Show links: Jason VanRuler's new book: https://www.jasonvr.com/book/ Jason's website to get on the list! https://www.jasonvr.com/ Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Christa sits down with Dr. Dan Allender and Dr. Steve Call, longtime therapists, professors, relationship theorists and practitioners, and authors of The Deep-Rooted Marriage: Cultivating Intimacy, Healing, and Delight, for a powerful conversation about trauma-informed couples therapy through the lens of The Narrative Focused Trauma Care® (NFTC) Model Dan Allender created. Here in this juicy and deep diving episode, Dan and Steve explain how the stories of our past drift into the present and create friction in our marriages - and why not stuffing the stories, but understanding those stories is the key to transformation. They break down why we fight the way we fight, how to address past trauma with courage and compassion, and how to disrupt cycles of conflict based on shame, judgment, and resentment, even those in place since childhood. With over 70 years of combined therapeutic experience, Dan and Steve offer hope that marriage can be more than just "getting along" - it can be a place of healing, intimacy, and genuine delight - their truest motivation for sharing with us. If you're stuck in repeating patterns, wondering why the same fights keep happening, or looking for a way to write a new story for your marriage, this conversation will meet you exactly where you are. Watch on YouTube!! Find Steve and Dan's work on Narrative Focused Trauma Care at Allender Center here! https://theallendercenter.org/about/nftc/ Find Steve and Lisa's couples intensive work at the Reconnect Institute here! https://www.thereconnectinstitute.com/ Find the book, Deep-Rooted Marriage here! https://online.theallendercenter.org/courses/growing-in-marriage-series?coupon=GROWING30 Find the $99 course mentioned on the pod here! Use the code enneagram30 if the discount does not appear! https://online.theallendercenter.org/courses/growing-in-marriage-series?coupon=GROWING30 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Christa sits down with Jessica Claire Bond, founder of the wildly influential Instagram account Salt & Light Collective, for a conversation about learning to love and forgive one another even when it's hard. Jessica shares how her Type 3 gift for truth-telling - balanced by her 9 arrow - helps her navigate divisiveness with grace and bring people back to the example of Christ in a chaotic world. They discuss what it looks like to forgive when you've been deeply hurt, how to hold truth and love together without compromising either, and why forgiveness isn't weakness but the hardest form of strength. Jessica's work inspires thousands to choose love over division, and this episode will challenge you to do the same in your marriage and relationships. If you've been struggling to forgive someone or wondering how to speak truth without creating more division, this conversation will meet you right where you are. Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this pivotal conflict solution focused episode, Christa breaks down the 4-step apology framework that actually works (spoiler: it's not just saying "I'm sorry") and shows how each Enneagram type sabotages repair when they're stuck in their stress pattern. Together we joyfully walk through where each type goes under stress during conflict, from various caves and caverns on the mountain, we get ourselves stuck in as we're drowning in our stress numbers. This episode teaches you how to turn your stress arrow into your secondary growth arrow of sorts so conflict becomes reparative instead of destructive. If you've ever wondered why the same fight keeps happening or why your apologies don't land, this episode will show you exactly what's blocking repair and how to fix it. Plus, Christa gets personal about being a 7 who goes to 1 in stress and what she's learned about climbing out of idealism continually. Don't miss! Watch on YouTube! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More often than not, couples are just tired - there is so much to do, plus so much conflict to work through. What do you do when you and your spouse are too emotionally drained for another big conversation? Discover simple repair moves, easy, low-hanging fruit solutions, and permission to take breaks from heavy processing. Learn one quick tip for each Enneagram type plus five easy ways to reconnect when you're running on empty. This is an E + M mini you don't want to miss! Watch on YouTube! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today, we get practical with Type 8 counselor duo Chris Bruno and Tracy Johnson from ReStory Counseling and the Thrive Marriage Lab Podcast to talk about marriage conflict. Chris is a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in men and masculinity, sexual addiction, trauma, and abuse, while Tracy is a storywork coach who sits with people in their untold stories, specializing in trauma, abuse, sexuality, marriage issues, and pregnancy loss. Together, they help couples discover the why behind the what in their marriage, and here they discuss the levels of conflict, why communication issues often stem from deeper emotional stories, how conflict reveals the landscape of your heart, and why understanding your narratives can enhance your marital connection. Chris and Tracy explain their ReStory approach: they don't settle for external behavior change or hand out tips and techniques. Instead, they hold out hope for true life-change that comes from heart-change. This conversation is about moving beyond surface-level communication problems to understand what your conflict is really revealing about your story, your wounds, and the restoration God wants to bring to your marriage. Find out more about ReStory here! Use the code ENNEAGRAMMARRIAGE for $20 EVERY Month of the Monthly Membership Group here! https://www.restory.life/thrive Restory for Men, Women, and Couples, https://www.restory.life/ Find the Thrive Marriage Lab Podcast here! https://thrivemarriage.transistor.fm/ Restory for Churches https://www.restory.life/restory-for-churches Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this month's new series, we're talking about conflict all month, and we're going to work at it together! Here today, we can discover together how the three Enneagram harmony groups approach conflict differently in terms of their worldview on a bigger picture scope before we get more granular. Learn how 147 Idealists can critically fight from their lofty principles, how 258 Relational/Rejection/Intensity types battle from the emotional middle ground, and how 369 Resourcing/Grounded types get caught up in the practical chaos as they try to resource everyone well. This episode is critical as a baseline for understanding your spouse's conflict style and finding your way to healthier disagreements. Take the Enneagram & Marriage quiz for COUPLES together here: QuizForCouples.com Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Christa sits down with Randi Zuckerberg, entrepreneur, Social 7, and elite ultrarunner who recently set an FKT on the 82-mile Baja Sur trail and finished the wildly difficult 250-mile Cocodona race. Randi opens up on this month's final family systems episode about being more than "Mark Zuckerberg's sister", "Brent's wife", and mom, and becoming unapologetically and authentically her own person. As she moved from just type 7 encourager sideline energy to digging deep for her own purposes and goals too (she also has some 3), she also shares the deep threads of joy and empowerment that were released for her and her family as she's stepped fully into her own identity, strength, and path. Christa and Randi discuss the types that encourage Randi along the way (hello side character power!), what she'd say to parents who think their own life is over after kids, how she transitioned from corporate life at Facebook with all men to finding her (winning) path, and so much more! Randi also shares her hardest setback with injuries, how she works through challenges without losing joy (hello pivots!), what balance looks like across seasons, and what she hopes her kids learn from watching her do hard, seemingly impossible things. This conversation is about identity, growth, energy, becoming a solid person even as a 7 who is learning to finish things, and becoming more fully who you are. As Christa wraps up the Family Systems series this month, Randi's story offers a real and hopeful example of waking up to your own gifts even when the world already has a label for you, and is perfect for anyone who has ever been labeled in a family system who needs a fresh spark and encouragement. Watch on YouTube! Follow Randi's adventures here on Threads and Instagram! @RandiZuckerberg on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/randizuckerberg/?hl=en @RandiZuckerberg on Threads https://www.threads.com/@randizuckerberg Take the Enneagram & Marriage quiz for COUPLES together here: QuizForCouples.com Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What happens when you realize your family's version of "normal" wasn't actually healthy? Whether conflict meant someone stormed out and didn't speak for days or big emotions were shut down with "you're fine" or "stop crying, or even that maybe family problems were swept under the rug and never discussed, today we're talking about how you're looking at your own children and engaging with them around healthy communication in the family system. This episode is for the cycle breakers (you!) - the parents who are determined to create the family culture they wished they'd grown up in. Learn practical strategies for teaching emotional regulation when you didn't learn it yourself, how to validate your children's feelings when yours were dismissed, and simple daily shifts that rewrite (or build upon if you had a great upbringing) your family's legacy story as you get tools to actually break the patterns and give your kids what you never had. Watch here on YouTube! Take the Enneagram & Marriage quiz for COUPLES together here: QuizForCouples.com Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Christa has a special guest fave on the show today, her husband Wes, Enneagram Type 1 as she dives into something new she and the E + M team created together: a couples Enneagram quiz. Today Christa and Wes share some of their inherent differences they saw on the fun DC E + M adventure they just took, and discuss how they compassionately dealt with them too, as they applied family systems differentiation and Enneagram to their relationship aspirations as well. This quiz will help you learn about how your types correlate and connect, too! Built specifically for relationships, you can take this Enneagram test FREE at QuizForCouples.com Your results tell you your type AND your spouse's type, gives you personalized strengthening areas for your couple dynamic, and we would LOVE your feedback as you take it. Christa uploaded her most clarifying E+M content to build the system, using language from her community and focusing on deep motivations rather than surface behaviors and we invite listeners to take the quiz together at the same time, first one and then the other! CONTEST WINNERS: Congrats also to our two contest winners: Dana from the E+M contest and Melanie from Supper Sleuths!! Watch the episode on YouTube here! Take the Enneagram & Marriage quiz for COUPLES together here: QuizForCouples.com Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today, Christa helps you explore the crucial difference between the family systems concepts of emotional cutoff and healthy boundaries in family relationships. Learn why going completely silent often creates more problems than it solves, how cutoff patterns affect your marriage, and when boundaries might be a better (and even better for your nervous system) solution! Discover a simple repair framework for addressing family conflict without resorting to low blows, but also discern when cutoff might actually be necessary for safety! Listen here to this do-not-miss episode!! Watch on YouTube here! Show notes: CONTEST ALERT: We're doing a St. Patrick's Day week contest, too! Email your fave St. Patrick's day story to melody@enneagramandmarriage.com for a chance to win a FREE copy of The Enneagram in Marriage or another of Christa's books! The Allender Center is offering a whopping 50% discount to our community! Your team can learn more about their Narrative Triaing NFTC Level I training here and apply using the code nftcEM by May 31 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Listener-favorite and couples therapist Shane Birkel (host of The Couple Therapist Couch podcast) is back! Though last time Shane talked about how men can be strong but soft, this episode tackles the other side of the #1 issue Christa is seeing with couples these days: women who have learned to use their voice but how now she is coming across abrasively in a way that hurts versus helps in their marriage. This is specifically about tone, delivery, and how empowerment can accidentally create new imbalances. Shane shares the techniques he uses with his couples to help wives recalibrate without going back to silence, and husbands re-engage without shutting down. We cover personal anecdotes, family systems dynamics between husband and wife, and practical tools for finding the healthy path between silenced and too strong. If you've been told you're "too much" or if your spouse has shut down since you found your voice, this episode is for you. Watch on YouTube here! Show links: Find Shane on his podcast, the Couples Therapist Couch Podcast here https://www.couplestherapistcouch.com/ The Allender Center is offering a whopping 50% discount to our community! Your team can learn more about their Narrative Triaing NFTC Level I training here and apply using the code nftcEM by May 31 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ever wonder why your body still tenses around certain family members even after years of therapy or spiritual formation? Today we explore a topic Christa works on as well, and explore the difference between cognitive safety and somatic safety - why your nervous system keeps reacting even when your mind has moved on. Learn three simple body-based practices you can use before, during, and after family interactions, plus quick nervous system tips specific to your Enneagram type. Discover why proximity affects your nervous system regardless of forgiveness, and get permission to love someone from a healthy distance. Watch on YouTube! Show links: The Allender Center is offering a whopping 50% discount to our community! Your team can learn more about their Narrative Triaing NFTC Level I training here and apply using the code nftcEM by May 31 Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Christa sits down with Andrea Clark, marriage and family therapist with 28 years of experience helping thousands of women reignite spark, polarity, and devotion in their marriages. Andrea breaks down the overfunctioning-underfunctioning dynamic that kills attraction and explains how it's deeply connected to masculine and feminine polarity. They discuss why women often take on masculine energy in their marriages (managing, controlling, doing everything), how this creates distance and resentment, and what it looks like to create space for your husband to step up. Andrea offers practical guidance on how to stop overfunctioning without becoming passive, how to access your feminine energy without losing yourself, and why polarity matters for desire and connection. If you're exhausted from carrying the mental load and wondering why the spark is gone, this conversation will help you understand the deeper pattern at play. Watch on YouTube here! https://www.instagram.com/andrea.clark.mft/ Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Have you ever caught yourself thinking, "I didn't get affection as a kid, so I'm going to make sure my kids get it" and then noticed you overwhelm them just a tad? Or maybe, "My parents never helped me, so I'm going to do for mine what I didn't get", but then your spouse gets your leftovers? That's the family ledger at work, an invisible accounting system tracking what you got, what you didn't get, and what you think you're owed. In this episode, Christa unpacks how this ledger from your family of origin often has so much to do with marriages right now (in the Contextual Family Systems Therapy frame), and how to finally put it down and build something new. Learn about the "revolving slate" (over-giving what you didn't get), destructive entitlement (withholding because you're "owed"), and the path to building merit instead of collecting debts. Practical homework prompts are included to help you and your spouse break free from ledger-keeping and choose love and light over scorekeeping. Watch on YouTube here! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Christa sits down with listener fave Jay Stringer, therapist and author of his brand new book Desire: The Longing Inside Us and the New Science of How We Love, Heal, and Grow, for a conversation that bridges family systems, differentiation, and sexual intimacy in marriage. Jay breaks down how your family of origin shapes not just your attachment style but your sexual desire, why differentiation is essential for healthy intimacy, and how couples can stop triangulating their kids into their marriage. They discuss the family systems work that transforms your relationship in and out of the bedroom, how to work through attachment issues together as a couple, and why understanding where your desire comes from is key to healing and growth. If you've been doing family systems work and wondering how it connects to your sexual relationship with your spouse, this episode is a must-listen. Jay offers practical, research-backed insight into how we can grow in desire by doing the deeper work on our family patterns. Watch on YouTube! Get Jay's book and workbook here! https://a.co/d/00mubz6x Follow Jay on Instagram here! https://www.instagram.com/jay_stringer_/?hl=en Find Jay's website with his courses, The Journey, and more that Christa refers to in the episode! https://jay-stringer.com/ Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this special listener-requested episode, the tables turn! Christa's daughter Hannah (the graphic designer behind Enneagram and Marriage) takes over as host to interview Christa about the questions you've been asking AND to share special E + M family news as another MFT in training gets added to the family: Hannah asks questions, What was her childhood like? What does she wish she'd known before marriage? Why does she love family systems theory so much? How does she regulate her nervous system after hard therapy days? Hannah asks the personal questions, from Christa's favorite thing about Wes, book talk, and more! This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at the person behind the podcast and a perfect bridge from the attachment series into March's family systems focus. Christa shares how her family of origin shaped her attachment style, what she's intentionally done differently as a parent, and what she hopes her kids remember about their family when they're adults. Whether you're a longtime listener or new here, this conversation will help you understand why Christa does this work, and maybe inspire you to look at your own story with fresh eyes. Watch on YouTube! Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this final episode of the attachment series, Christa sits down with another Enneagram expert, Jeff Cook, Enneagram Type 1, philosopher, former pastor, and co-host of the popular Around the Circle Enneagram podcast, as we talk about attachment and how couples can process conflict. We also talk about his new book Around the Circle: An Enneagram Book (June 2025). Unlike most Enneagram books that profile types individually, Jeff's book explores nine essential questions everyone faces (like "How do I solve my problems?") and answers them for all nine types, creating a richer, more nuanced understanding. Jeff brings a Christian philosophical lens to the Enneagram, reminding us of the fact that relationships are all we bring with us into eternity, so it's important to grow here as an individual, and we try to answer what it means to be our healthiest selves. They discuss the power of naming our motives, why the Enneagram isn't about "putting people in boxes," the Harmonic groups (Positive Outlook: 2, 7, 9 who reframe; Competency: 1, 3, 5 who problem-solve; Reactive: 4, 6, 8 who intensify emotions). Whether you're new to the Enneagram or a seasoned student, this conversation will deepen your understanding and help you see yourself and your spouse more clearly. Watch on YouTube! Important Show Notes from the Allender Center's Marriage Class Marriage class coming up! Get live teaching from The Allender Center 's prolific teachers Dan and Becky Allender across three dates, starting tomorrow (or watch over Zoom) and use the code enneagram30 to get $30 off the course here! Growing in Marriage: A Guided Journey with Dan & Becky Allender. Jeff's Exciting Around the Circle Materials! Get Jeff's book here! https://www.amazon.com/Around-Circle-Enneagram-Jeff-Cook/dp/B0FD46YT16 Listen to the Around the Circle pod here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/around-the-circle-an-enneagram-channel/id1466446583 Visit the entire Around the Circle crew on their website as well! www.AroundtheCircle.org Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today we're diving into what we're all working toward: secure attachment. What does it actually look like when both partners feel safe, seen, and able to be themselves? We'll explore the markers of secure attachment in marriage, how to recognize it, and most importantly - how to build it even if you didn't start there. Secure attachment isn't about being perfect; it's about repair, trust, and showing up consistently. Whether you're anxiously attached, avoidantly attached, or somewhere in between, this episode will show you the path toward greater security in your relationship. Because earned security is possible - and it changes everything. Watch on YouTube! Happening This Week! Sign up for the FREE EnneaSummit here! https://www.tylerzach.com/mh26/enneasummit?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tylerzach.com%2Fa%2F2148228842%2FLS2nNmzL The Enneagram and Marriage Coaching & Certification Masterclass course begins again February 12, use code COACH for discount here or at https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/the-e-m-coaching-masterclass Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode, Christa sits down with Alli Patterson, type 8 (8-1 pairing), teaching Pastor at Crossroads Church, author of Blueprint for Belonging and How to Stay Standing, and founder of the Ignite Conference to talk about the five types of relationships we all need to thrive: your core, circle, comrades, community, and crowd. Alli, who holds a seminary degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and just also released Spirit-Led Bible Study in February 2026 (this month!), breaks down how loneliness isn't about the quantity of relationships but the quality and variety of connection. Join us as we discuss how understanding these five relationship types can transform your marriage, friendships, and sense of belonging, and why so many of us are drowning in loneliness despite having more ways to connect than ever before. Christa also shares exciting updates and contests. Plus, we're giving away 5 copies of Alli's book Blueprint for Belonging. Follow Alli on social media Instagram account below (or on another social) and let us know at melody@enneagramandmarriage.com that you did for a chance to win one of them! This conversation is for anyone who's ever felt lonely in a crowded room or wondered if their relationships are truly satisfying their soul. Alli reminds us: your relationships are the key to a thriving life and healthy attachment, don't settle for lonely. Watch on YouTube! Follow Alli Patterson on Instagram and enter the contest for a copy of her book, Blueprint for Belonging, here! https://www.instagram.com/theallipatterson/ Find Alli's books, The Spirit Led Bible Study and Blueprint for Belonging here on her website! https://www.allipatterson.com/ Need mental health tips in this time? Sign up for the FREE EnneaSummit here! https://www.tylerzach.com/mh26/enneasummit?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tylerzach.com%2Fa%2F2148228842%2FLS2nNmzL The Enneagram and Marriage Coaching & Certification Masterclass course begins again February 12, use code COACH for discount here or at https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/the-e-m-coaching-masterclass Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode, Christa continues the February series on Attachment Styles Meets Enneagram by walking through all nine types and exploring two critical questions: How do you attach well to yourself, and how do you attach well to your partner? She opens by acknowledging the need for God and self-regulation (and five fun Valentine's Dates!), and then we breaks down each type's unique attachment challenges and growth narratives together. Christa makes it clear that secure attachment starts internally, but you cannot give your partner what you haven't given yourself. Listen now! ❤️ We also give a final call for your chance to join the E + M Coaching Certification & Masterclass Course starting February 12th (last day for $250 off with code COACH). This episode is practical, compassionate, and grounded in the truth that real intimacy requires showing up fully, with God, with yourself, and with your spouse as we celebrate our love and marriage this month of love ❤️. Watch on YouTube! Need mental health tips in this time? Sign up for the FREE EnneaSummit here! https://www.tylerzach.com/mh26/enneasummit?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tylerzach.com%2Fa%2F2148228842%2FLS2nNmzL The Enneagram and Marriage Coaching & Certification Masterclass course begins again February 12, use code COACH for discount here or at https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/the-e-m-coaching-masterclass Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this conversation, Christa sits down with Kendall Mariah, author of the brand-new book This Little Fire of Mine: How Flickers of Doubt Can Spark a Bolder, Brighter Faith, to explore what happens when you stop performing faith and start living it authentically, especially in marriage. Kendall Mariah, 3, an adoptive mom, Army wife, and founder of Unapologetic Ministry, invites us to embrace holy discomfort, lean into doubt, and ask the hard questions we've been told to avoid. In this episode, they discuss how doubt can lead to discernment, why good friction is healthy in relationships, how to navigate different faith journeys with your spouse, and what it means to pursue an integrated life where your words and actions reflect the full truth of Scripture, not just on Sundays, but in your actual day-to-day marriage. Kendall says her book is about finding "a deeper, truer version of your soul," and Christa believes that when you find that truer version of yourself, you also find a truer version of your marriage. If you've ever felt the disconnect between your beliefs and your lived experiences, or if you're navigating faith questions alongside your spouse, this conversation will give you permission to embrace the journey and discover a bolder, brighter faith together as we work on deepening attachment all month long here on the pod! Watch on YouTube! Get your copy of Kendall's brand new book here! https://www.amazon.com/This-Little-Fire-Mine-Flickers/dp/1400251672 Learn about Kendall here on her website! https://kendallmariah.com/ Get connected with Kendall on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendallmariah/ Need mental health tips in this time? Sign up for the FREE EnneaSummit here! https://www.tylerzach.com/mh26/enneasummit?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tylerzach.com%2Fa%2F2148228842%2FLS2nNmzL The Enneagram and Marriage Coaching & Certification Masterclass course begins again February 12, use code COACH for discount here or at https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/the-e-m-coaching-masterclass Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this mini but important episode, Christa tackles the most common, and most painful, dynamic in marriage: the anxious-avoidant pairing. If you've ever felt like you're constantly chasing your spouse for connection while they pull away, or if you feel overwhelmed by a partner who won't give you breathing room, this episode will help you understand why these attachment styles are magnetically drawn to each other and how the pursue-withdraw cycle keeps you stuck. In this intro episode, Christa gives practical steps each partner needs to take to break the cycle and move toward earned secure attachment. The key insight: Your Enneagram type is the engine, your attachment style is the steering, understanding both is where real change begins. Whether you're anxious, avoidant, or somewhere in between, this episode gives you language for what's happening and hope that change is possible. Listen right here or watch on YouTube! Need mental health tips in this time? Sign up for the FREE EnneaSummit here! https://www.tylerzach.com/mh26/enneasummit?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tylerzach.com%2Fa%2F2148228842%2FLS2nNmzL The Enneagram and Marriage Coaching & Certification Masterclass course begins again February 12, use code COACH for discount here or at https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/the-e-m-coaching-masterclass Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What if the real reason marriages fail isn't a lack of connection but years of staying silent and avoiding conflict? Licensed marriage and family therapist Colette Jane Fehr joins us in an attachment-based discussion to discuss her new book The Cost of Quiet: How to Have the Hard Conversations That Create Secure, Lasting Love (releases February 3, 2026). As a Type 7, Colette shares how even optimistic, future-focused types can fall into avoidant patterns, sidestepping day-to-day disputes and brushing problems under the rug to "keep the peace." We explore how silence (as well as to damaging reactivity) often lead to emotional disconnection, self-abandonment, and essentially "quiet quitting" your marriage. Drawing from attachment science and evidence-based therapies, Colette gives us tools to approach our spouse with openness, honesty, and vulnerability. Whether you're the one staying silent or living with someone who won't speak up, this conversation will show you why a good relationship is worth fighting for—and how to start having the hard conversations that create secure, lasting love. Find The Cost of Quiet wherever books are sold starting February 3rd. Watch on YouTube! Get Colette's book here! https://a.co/d/5HMlsJh Get on her email list here! https://www.colettejanefehr.com/ Visit Colette here on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/colettejanefehr/ Need mental health tips in this time? Sign up for the FREE EnneaSummit here! https://www.tylerzach.com/mh26/enneasummit?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tylerzach.com%2Fa%2F2148228842%2FLS2nNmzL The Enneagram and Marriage Coaching & Certification Masterclass course begins again February 12, use code COACH for discount here or at https://www.enneagramandmarriage.com/the-e-m-coaching-masterclass Find more about your type, the pod, freebies, and SO much more at our website right here! www.EnneagramandMarriage.com Love what you're learning on E + M? Make sure you leave us a podcast review so others can find us, too here! Get Christa's Best-Selling Book, The Enneagram in Marriage, here! https://a.co/d/df8SxVx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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