About

“What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?”

Thomas Merton

Barbara Whiteside

Barbara has been living, digesting, and integrating the deeper teachings of the traditions and modalities she has studied and practiced for many years. As a psycho-spiritual guide with a reservoir of knowledge and understanding that has been culled over three decades, Barbara’s mission is to support others in awakening to their higher self or truer nature, in turn giving meaning and purpose to their lives, with a rippling effect in the world.

The Work…

At the core of all the modalities and traditions Barbara works with – presently the Enneagram, Family Constellations, and Breathwork – is the shared understanding that for true transformation to occur, teachings must integrate the head, heart, body, and soul-spirit. For this reason, she teaches the philosophy of the tradition to engage the mind, methods to open the heart, somatic practices to ground the teachings in the body, and meditation and/or prayer practices to access the soul-spirit’s wisdom.

In the safe and welcoming environment of her home, long established as an informal center for personal growth and transformational work, laughter and tears flow freely as old habits are released and people are liberated to find their own true north.

Barbara began her career as a Parent Educator in 1987, after certifying with clinical psychologist Thomas Gordon in Parent Effectiveness Training. She began teaching workshops in her home and speaking at schools, developing a client base that to this day seeks out her expertise. While raising her own teens, a few years later she developed Parenting Your Adolescent, her most popular parenting workshop which she taught for many years. Sought after as a parenting coach, she started a private practice in 1994, facilitating parents, teens, and children in overcoming difficulties and creating more harmonious family relationships.
After doing this parenting work for several years, Barbara began to see how personalities within the family impact the family dynamic. With her interest piqued, Barbara certified as a trainer in DiSC Dimensions of Behavior and began teaching that system in 1995. She then studied the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and soon began her investigation of the Enneagram, studying with various teachers before deciding to pursue certification.
In 2000, Barbara certified with David Daniels, MD, and Helen Palmer as an Enneagram Teacher in the Narrative Tradition. Since then Barbara has taught a wide variety of workshops in the Enneagram to hundreds of people who have come through her door, including the Enneagram Panel Series, Instinctual Subtypes of the Enneagram, Enneagram of Parenting, Enneagram of Relationship, Enneagram of Transformation, Enneagram Defense Mechanisms, Enneagram for Therapists and Coaches (with David Daniels), and more.

Now Barbara’s work reflects her deepening wisdom of the Enneagram as much more than a personality typology.

Her growing mastery of engaging the Enneagram as a Map of Consciousness, and of Transformational Process, is bringing to her door those intermediate and advanced students of the Enneagram who are looking for something more.

Always seeking to grow, Barbara completed her certification as a Family Constellation therapist in June of 2018 and she has been working for over two years to wed this remarkable body of work with the Enneagram. She is now offering Family Constellation workshops because of the profound benefit this work has to offer.

In addition, she and her husband are now beginning the process of becoming facilitators of Breathwork and other modalities, sometimes inviting friends to share their expertise as well.

Now into her fourth decade of teaching and facilitating workshops, her groups are largely composed of participants who are committed to deep, transformational work.

Barbara is a long time meditator, certifying in 1974 in Transcendental Meditation and later in Vipassana (Buddhist) meditation, as well as becoming a practitioner of Centering Prayer, and Sufi chanting. Barbara believes that spiritual practices can help us work with our own psychological challenges and open us to a soul dimension within ourselves that is often obscured by our personality type. She works with people from all spiritual traditions. She speaks to the spiritual dimension to those who are interested, while maintaining deep respect for those who are not.

Barbara is the mother of three adult daughters who work and live with their partners and children in the Bay Area. She plays an active role in their lives, including regular time with her five grandchildren. Barbara remarried in 2006, and is the step-mother to two adult step-daughters. She loves to spend time with her husband and family as well as time in solitude to meditate and write. Barbara and her husband support and volunteer with grass-root causes they believe in. They also enjoy skiing, meals and fun with friends, seeing films and live music, reading, traveling, and hiking in the natural beauty of Northern California.

Her ongoing practice is open-hearted presence with all of life, and of being of service in her work and wherever she can. She bows in gratitude to those teachers who have supported her in finding her own true north, and in deep reverence to Divine Being for lighting the way.

“She works like a talented and seasoned surgeon…
connecting me back to my own wholeness.”

“Besides being one of the most gifted, talented, and insightful healers I know, what has always stood out to me is Barbara’s genuine openness, warmth and compassion. She is kind, comforting, and accepting. But most of all, she is real, which is why when disarmed, feeling completely alone, vulnerable, and naked in front of complete strangers, she works like a talented, seasoned surgeon, who takes me apart and puts me back together, connecting me back to my own wholeness. In Barbara’s last workshop, I was given the tools, time and space to heal, and to resume my journey to wholeness with a sense of peace, confidence, and authenticity.”

 

David Lometti

Certifications & Accreditations

  • 2018 – Began Breathwork Training
  • 2016-18 – Certified as Family Constellation Therapist
  • 2010-14 – Presented at IEA and AETNT Conferences
  • 2008-13 – Published articles in IEA Journal, Nine Point Bulletin, TALK, & Enneagram Monthly
  • 2010 – International Enneagram Association Accredited Teacher Certification
  • 2008 – Trained in Centering (Contemplative) Prayer
  • 2006 – Trained in the “Wisdom of your Dreams”
  • 2004 – Trained in NVC (Non-Violent Communication)
  • 2000 – Certified Enneagram Teacher in the Narrative Tradition
  • 1995 – Trained in Meyers-Briggs
  • 1995 – Certified DiSC Dimensions of Behavior Consultant
  • 1993 – Trained as Mediator with Northern California Mediation Center
  • 1990 – Trained in Vipassana Meditation
  • 1988 – Certified Effectiveness Training for Women
  • 1988 – Certified Effectiveness Training for Personal & Professional Development
  • 1987 – Certified Parent Effectiveness Training (PET)
  • 1981 – Breathwork: Course in Rebirthing
  • 1980 – Apprenticed as Homebirth Midwife for one year
  • 1974  – Lewis and Clark College
  • 1973 – Certified in Transcendental Meditation

“I no longer try to change outer things.
They are simply a reflection.
I change my inner perception and the outer reveals the beauty so long obscured by my own attitude. I concentrate on my inner vision and find my outer vision transformed. I find myself attuned to the grandeur of life and in unison with the perfect order of the universe.”

 

The Daily WorD
[/db_pb_signup]