
Hosted by Christa Hardin, MA · EN

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