Using the Enneagram and MBTI to Understand Yourself and Enhance Mental Health

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Understanding why you think the way you think and act the way you act can be eye-opening in the world of mental health and personal growth. But, self-reflection and comprehending your full personality can be more difficult than it may seem. Thankfully, two popular tools called the Enneagram test and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test can help you with this! In this blog, we’ll explore how these tests work, and how they can help you understand your personality to enhance your mental well-being. 

What is the Enneagram Test?

The Enneagram is a personality typing system that identifies nine core personality types. Each type contains its own set of traits, motivations, and fears. You take this test by answering a series of questions or ranking how likely a series of statements is to define you. For example, you may be asked to rate yourself on a scale of 1-5 on how well the statement, “I work hard to help others,” defines you, with 1 being “not at all” and 5 being “absolutely.” There are multiple versions of the test out there, but all questions or statements are used for a common goal: to help “classify” your personality as one of the 9 types. 

The 9 Enneagram Types: 

• Type 1: “The Reformer” — logical and perfectionistic, they strive for integrity and improvement. 

• Type 2: “The Helper” — caring and supportive, they aim to meet the needs of others, even if at the expense of their own. 

• Type 3: “The Achiever” — ambitious and driven, they want to excel and seek validation for accomplishments. 

• Type 4: “The Individualist” — sensitive and often introverted, they often feel misunderstood or “different” for their quirks. 

• Type 5: “The Investigator” — curious and rational, they crave to understand the world around them and its ideas.   

• Type 6: “The Loyalist” — responsible and trustworthy, they value security and support. 

• Type 7: “The Enthusiast” — optimistic and spontaneous, they crave adventure and joy. 

• Type 8: “The Challenger” — assertive and strong-willed, they strive to seek control and independence.
• Type 9: “The Peacemaker” — accepting and non-confronting, they yearn for inner and outer peace.

What is the MBTI Test? 

The MBTI test has a similar goal: to categorize people into 16 personality types through a series of questions. This test, however, categorizes people based on four divisions: 

• Introversion (I) vs Extroversion (E)
• Sensing (S) vs Intuition (N)
• Thinking (T) vs Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) vs Perceiving (P)

For instance, a person who is more likely to be introverted, intuitive, feeling-oriented, and perceptive is an INFP! This doesn’t mean you have none of the other traits — it just means your personality tends to veer towards these ends in most situations. 

How Personality Tests Can Help You

Not only is learning about yourself and your personality fun, but it can also help strengthen your mental health and sense of self! These personality tests may help you: 

• Discover your core motivations. Knowing your personality type — whether Enneagram, MBTI, or both — can reveal why you may behave the way you do. For example, if you are a Type 3, The Achiever, you may realize you are highly motivated by success and validation. Knowing this about yourself can help you recognize when you may be overworking yourself or striving for success in an unhealthy way. This can help protect your mental well-being. 

• Identify areas for growth. Each personality type has areas for improvement. A Type 9, or the Peacemaker, may avoid conflict and overlook their own needs for the comfort of others. Type 1, or the Perfectionist, may become preoccupied with rules and order in their lives to the point of stress and anxiety. Recognizing what your type is and learning about areas you may want to grow in can encourage you to confront issues directly and work on yourself. 

• Improve relationships. One of the greatest things about personality tests is that they are fun to share! If you have a loved one who is also interested in learning more about themselves, you can have them take the test and share results with each other. Understanding each other’s personalities, behavioral patterns, and key motivations could be insightful for learning about your loved ones. It may make you realize why they are so spontaneous, logical, caring, orderly, etc. 

• Understand your preferences. Personality tests help you gain insight into the ways in which you prefer to interact with the world. For example, you may learn that because you have an E in your MBTI type, you thrive in social settings, or that because you have an T in your type, you make decisions through logic and factual information.
• Gain career insight. Personality tests can help guide your career choices. For instance, an Enneagram Type 2, or The Helper, may thrive in a therapy or social work role, because of their natural inclination to help and care for others. You can use your personality strengths to search for a role you’ll excel in!

Practical Tips for These Tests

Sure, taking these tests is easy. But, to get the most accurate results and for these results to really mean something for your mental health, try the following: 

• Take the tests honestly. Answer the questions based on your true feelings, not on how you wish to be perceived. Remember, only you are seeing your answers. So, if a question asks if you care a lot about people admiring you, don’t feel embarrassed for answering “absolutely.” There is no judgment here! If you don’t answer honestly, your results won’t reflect your true personality and will be useless. 

• Reflect regularly. Set aside time to reflect on your results. You may benefit from keeping a journal or a list on your notes app on how your type’s traits play out in your daily life. 

• Avoid over-identifying. While you may resonate strongly with your results, remember that these tools are frameworks, not definitive labels. Try not to let your results put you into a box and deter you from changing. People’s personality type results change over the years, and this is often a good thing! Everyone is multifaceted, and personal growth involves evolving based on your changing environment and life. 

• Share your insights. Engage with friends and family about your results. Share your type and talk about what you resonate vs don’t resonate with. This can help identify mutual understanding, and can also just be plain interesting! 

• Celebrate your uniqueness. Whatever qualities you have in your personality are what make you, you! 

Using the insights you gain about your personality from the Enneagram test and the MBTI test may help you evolve and improve your well-being. When you have some time, take the tests, and see what you find out!

To discuss how therapy could help you during this season of your life, please contact me or schedule your free 15 minute consultation.

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