Enneagram Prison Project

08/17/2026

Are you interested in becoming an EPP Guide?

The first step on the training pathway starts with 9PrisonsONEKey.

The next cohort of 9P1K starts September 11. Live sessions meet via zoom from 8 - 10/11 am PT. More details and link to register below.

The next cohort of 9PrisonsONEKey will run weekly on Fridays from September 11 through October 30 8:00am - 11 am Pacific Time

08/12/2026

Thanks to the Garrison Institute for hosting EPP Founder Susan Olesek, Human Potentialist and EPP Ambassador Alex Senegal on Episode 25 of the Inner Works podcast! Listen now to hear Susan and Alex in conversation with Gretchen Steidel about EPP, the values that guide us, and how 'The Work' works.

Episode 25

07/13/2026

EPP Ambassadors are the heart of our project. They teach us about freedom, compassion, and transformation. Through their lived experience, they are shining a light to illuminate a path for others to step onto themselves.

The EPP Ambassador Fund is a designated fund to provide direct support to Ambassadors as they navigate their lives after incarceration.

A gift to the CAMP
EPP fundraiser is a gift to support the EPP Ambassador fund. It is a gift to directly support the immediate and unexpected needs that ambassadors face through small grants and loans. Funds are distributed by ambassadors to support ambassadors.

Will you give a one time or monthly gift of $5 today to directly support our ambassador community?

https://give.enneagramprisonproject.org/give/764287 #!/donation/checkout

04/07/2026

When he was little, Dustin didn’t dream of being a gang member or a menace to his community. He never imagined what it would be like to be a crystal m**h addict, or an absent dad, and he had no fantasies of spending his twenties or thirties going in and out of county jail and prison.

When Dustin was little, he ran around in his shorts and cowboy boots, wearing a red Superman cape and a little six-shooter cap gun on his hip. “Little Dustin,” imbued himself with all the supernatural powers a child’s imagination could muster. He then climbed onto his grandparents’ old wooden picnic table, got a running start, and leaped into imaginary battles against evil. He was the invincible, adorable hero, and always one of the good guys.

To continue reading, follow the link in the comments below.

03/31/2026

Falling in love with all of the Enneagram Types, one EPP Ambassador at a time.

After 26 years of incarceration, a Type 9 comes to teach the rest of us about what it means to belong to yourself.

01/30/2026

Freedom—an inside job.

The men in our Board of Parole preparedness course at San Quentin are collectively serving a sentence of 509 years. There are eight of them. I’d invite you to do the math, but I know it doesn’t add up. A few have fixed sentences: 75 years, or 40 years. The rest fall within ranges like “25 to life.” They call themselves “Lifers.” I call them courageous.

Another man, a Type Seven, is doing 305 years to life. He said his sentence was “justifiable.” The irony is uncomfortable because Sevens are the ones who come to teach the rest of us about freedom. It’s not because Sevens are fun; they are, I’m married to one, but that’s not what freedom means when it comes to the Enneagram. It’s one thing for the justice system to condemn someone to life; it’s quite another when we do that to ourselves. Personality is a distortion of what’s essentially right in us. Our Seven has forgotten som**hing essential about himself—sometimes we have to learn the hard way that freedom is an inside job.

See comments for a link to my full posting on my blog.

01/27/2026

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” —Albert Camus

I recently asked our newly forming class in San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, “Why are you here?”

To be clear, I’m not asking what anyone did to end up in prison. I ask everyone I work with the same question—whether they’re a CEO or behind bars. I know why I’m there. I’m there because working with the Enneagram compels me to look more deeply into why I do the things I do; every time I work with it. Other personality tools show patterns in behavior; I’m interested in what drives people—the why before the what.

Over the years, the depth of self-inquiry I’ve witnessed in prisons using the Enneagram has convinced me that a compassionate approach is the most effective one. Going gently begets the kind of honesty I think inner work requires. Folks are terrified of their unconscious. I want people to experience me as a guide, not a judge or critic— they already have one or both of those.

My work on the inside inspired me to found Enneagram Prison Project (EPP) in 2012. Our vision is to free people from the prisons of our minds.

It’s working.

Alan is the first one to answer my question. He clears his throat and says, “I did 49 years in prison...

See comments for a link to the complete post on my blog.