Contemplative Practices & the Enneagram (CPE)
A weekly practice community
where Enneagram wisdom becomes lived experience.
This is not a class.
It is a practice field for awakening.
CPE is the foundational practice space of Evolving Enneagram—a compassionate community where Enneagram wisdom is explored not just intellectually, but through contemplative presence, shared reflection, and lived experience.
Although Evolving Enneagram is based in the United States, participants regularly join from world, gathering in small cohorts to practice noticing the movements of personality, awareness, and instinct in real time—together.
This is not a class.
It is a practice field for awakening.
Participation in CPE begins with a short application so we can help place you in the cohort that best fits your schedule and experience.
What is CPE?
A contemplative practice community rooted in the Enneagram.
CPE stands for Contemplative Practices & the Enneagram. CPE groups are facilitated practice groups for those who already have a basic understanding of the Enneagram and wish to explore it more deeply through contemplative practice and 3-centered awareness.
Each gathering creates space to:
- notice the movements of personality
- bring compassionate attention to instinct and habit
- reflect on weekly contemplative Enneagram teachings
- practice presence in compassionate community
Over time, participants often discover that the Enneagram becomes less of a theory—and more of a living mirror of awareness.
Come As You Are
You do not need to have your Enneagram type perfectly figured out.
You do not need to be experienced in contemplative practice.
What matters most is a willingness to show up honestly and explore your inner life with curiosity and compassion.
In CPE, we practice meeting ourselves—and one another—with presence.
Our guiding mantra in CPE is simple:
Come as you are.
The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is.
— Parker Palmer
Interspiritual & International Community
CPE welcomes participants from diverse spiritual traditions and backgrounds, including those who identify as spiritually open as well as those deconstructing or reconstructing faith.
Each gathering includes 20 minutes of centering prayer or contemplative meditation, along with brief embodied or reflective practices drawn from contemplative wisdom traditions.
Applied Enneagram Wisdom
CPE is not an Enneagram class.
Each week, participants receive a contemplative Enneagram teaching through Sunday lessons, along with questions or practices to explore during the week.
Our gatherings themselves focus on application and embodied awareness rather than theory—bringing compassionate attention to the movements of personality, instinct, and attention as they arise in real time.
Facilitators serve primarily as companions and space-holders, cultivating a field of compassionate awareness where transformation unfolds naturally.
How CPE Works
(Cohort Format)
CPE welcomes participants from diverse spiritual traditions and backgrounds, including those who identify as spiritual but not religious, spiritually curious, or deconstructing and reconstructing faith.
Each gathering includes 20 minutes of centering prayer or contemplative meditation, along with brief embodied or reflective practices drawn from contemplative wisdom traditions around the world.
CPE Sessions in 2026
CPE runs three sessions each year.
Winter Session
January 12 – March 30, 2026
Theme: The House of Three Instinctual Rooms (a contemplative exploration of how instinct shapes attention, vitality, and relationship through the metaphor of three inner rooms)
Spring Session
April 20 – July 6, 2026
Theme: Shadow Work & Enneagram Connecting Lines
Fall Session
September 21 – December 14, 2026
(No meeting Thanksgiving week)
Theme: To be announced
Meet the CPE Team
CPE groups are facilitated by experienced contemplative Enneagram practitioners who have participated in CPE for over a year—and often since these groups began in 2017.
Facilitator Team
Aliyah Richling
Angela Joy
Jill Smith
Kristina Frank
Macha Greenleaf-Maple
Nhien Vuong
Staff
Belle Panganiban
CPE Liaison & Executive Assistant
Edgar Pinto
Tech &
Program Lead
Tuition: Pay-It-Forward / Pay-What-You-Can
The suggested contribution for a 12-week session is:
$240
However, CPE is rooted in a commitment to accessibility.
Participants are welcome to contribute whatever amount feels possible and appropriate.
If you currently have more to give, we invite you to contribute above the suggested amount to help keep these rooms open to seekers around the world.
Please do not let cost prevent you from joining.
Voices from the Community
“Through its marriage of profound Enneagram insight and contemplative practice, Nhien’s work offers an invitation to real and lasting transformation. Her facilitation of contemplative Enneagram groups models the kind of Presence she knows is our birthright.”
— Rachael Barham
Spiritual Formation Director, St. Stephen’s University (Canada)
“Nhien’s contemplative Enneagram work is deeply grounded in presence and compassion. Whether teaching or offering deep listening, she consistently shows up fully present—body, mind, and spirit.”
— Keith Kristich
Founder, Closer Than Breath (New York, USA)
“The deep sharing of fellow group members has helped me understand others and see my own journey more clearly. I have never felt more held than when sharing in this space.”
— Joyce Mosiman, Founding Member (Missouri, USA)
How CPE Began
When Evolving Enneagram founder Rev. Nhien Vuong launched the first CPE group in Kansas City in 2017, the initial commitment was only ten weeks.
At the end of those ten weeks, most participants were still there—and they asked if the group could continue.
Eventually someone asked:
“Can we do this for life?”
Over the years, that small circle has grown into a global contemplative community with multiple facilitators and weekly cohorts.
Participants join for 12 weeks at a time, but many return again and again, discovering that contemplative practice in community becomes not just a program—but a way of life.
