Podcast
Enneagram and Marriage
Hosted by Christa Hardin, MA · EN
The Enneagram and Marriage Podcast, hosted by Christa Hardin, MA, is rooted in two decades of experience counseling and coaching couples. On top of her expert marriage advice, Christa uses the Enneagram to add another layer of understanding in how we work as individuals and gives us deeper insight into how we connect and shine together in marriage and relationships across the collective community.
49episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
25 Years In: What I've Learned About Intimacy
3d ago00:24:45Tap to summarizeToday 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
Transcribe →Subscriber Series: The Container Method - Emotional Safety for Every Type in Marriage (Free to All This Week!)
1w ago00:19:46Tap to summarizeThis 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, it'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
Transcribe →What to Do When Sharing Backfires: Emotional Processing Containers
1w ago00:16:29Tap to summarizeWhen 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
Transcribe →Hiding in Your Marriage: What It's Quietly Costing Your Connection
1w ago00:23:30Tap to summarizeDo 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
Transcribe →The Tiny Moments That Make or Break Your Marriage: Emotional Bids
2w ago00:22:40Tap to summarizeWhat 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
Transcribe →How to Stop Assuming the Worst About Your Spouse: Positive Sentiment Override
2w ago00:20:14Tap to summarizeWhat 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
Transcribe →The Emotional Intimacy Secret Behind Couples Who Last
3w ago00:18:04Tap to summarizeThe 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
Transcribe →The Summer of Intimacy Starter Special
3w ago00:18:12Tap to summarizeAs 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
Transcribe →Limerence Uncovered: When Romantic Obsession Replaces Real Love w/Author Amanda McCracken
4w ago00:47:35Tap to summarizeMeet 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
Transcribe →Hormones, Marriage, and Shifting Desire: Dr. Cathleen Gerenger, 7, on Thriving When Everything Changes
May 2500:45:03Tap to summarizeAfter 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
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