Who I Am
I'm Andrew Bowles (he/him). I am an Accredited Professional with the International Enneagram Association, Certified Narrative Enneagram Teacher, and the founding Vice President of the Enneagram Texas affiliate of the IEA. I've been studying this system for over fifteen years, across the Narrative tradition, Suzanne Stabile, the Riso-Hudson lineage, Awareness to Action, and Sandra Maitri's work, among many others.
Paths to Presence is an Enneagram-informed coaching and teaching practice. I use it to help people see the patterns that have been quietly running their lives, sometimes for decades, and to actually do something differently once they see them.
My focus is not on helping you become a better version of your Enneagram type. I'm interested in helping you notice what's already running on autopilot, create enough space to actually choose your response, and bring a little more intention into your daily life and relationships.
Most of my education happened alongside a full-time career in helping professions: as a pastor, a hospital chaplain, and most recently as a program coordinator building and running peer support programs for healthcare staff dealing with burnout and moral distress. That's where most of what I know about the Enneagram actually got tested. Not in a classroom or board room. In hospital hallways, in the middle of hard conversations, I've seen people go into the grip, that harder, more defended version of a type that shows up under real stress, more times than I can count. I bring that same attentiveness into this work: staying present to what's actually happening in the room, and to what a pattern means underneath the behavior, because those are the two things that keep insight from staying stuck in your head.
Spiritual questions are welcome here, but never assumed. This is Enneagram-informed coaching and teaching, not spiritual direction or psychotherapy. However you show up, whatever tradition or background or identity you bring with you, you'll be met with respect and compassion. If you're not sure this is the right fit, reach out anyway. That conversation costs nothing.
Andrew has been featured on the following podcasts:
The Enneagram Journey with Suzanne Stabile
The Couch Next Door with Candice Fraser
Words from Silence: A Contemplative Podcast with Lindsay O’Connor
Early Access (an Around the Circle Podcast) with Katie Whitlock
“Life is our greatest teacher. Whatever we are doing can be instructive, whether we are at the office, or talking to our spouse, or driving a car on the freeway. If we are present to our experiences, the impressions of our activities will be fresh and alive, and we will always learn something new from them.”
Why I Use The Enneagram?
For the last 15 years, I have consistently returned to using the Enneagram in my personal and professional life. I use the Enneagram because it gives me something most personality systems don't: neutral language for why people do what they do. Other systems tend to focus on behavior, the what. The Enneagram focuses on motivation, the why. And the why is what I find much more interesting.
I say “neutral” because numbers are harder to get defensive about than character judgments. Think about a time you felt misunderstood by someone close to you. Chances are it came down to different perspectives, not bad intentions. There's a real difference between saying "as a Three, I tend to minimize emotions in service of achievement" and saying "you always care more about your goals than how it affects people." Same observation. Completely different conversation. Try it in your own relationships and see how it changes what people are willing to hear.
That shift isn't only about how other people hear you. It happens with yourself, too. Most people already half-suspect why they keep doing the thing they said they wouldn't do again. The Enneagram doesn't tell you something new. It just makes it a lot harder to keep pretending you don't already know.
And once you can see why someone experiences the world differently than you do, blame gets a lot harder to hold onto, theirs or your own. I've watched it happen more times than I can count: someone names a pattern out loud, with curiosity instead of judgment, and something in the room shifts. Multiply that across enough relationships, and I think it's genuinely one small way the world gets more compassionate. For ourselves and for each other.
The Enneagram isn't a magic formula, and it isn't a cure-all. It's a system of nine adaptive strategies we use to get through the world. Sometimes those strategies help. Sometimes they don't. I use the Enneagram, alongside a bit of mindfulness, to help people get clearer on which is which, and bring a little more intentional choice into daily life.
I don't use this system to generate answers for people. I use it to help them notice what's already happening, and respond to it a little more on purpose.
About Our Logo
The Paths to Presence logo comes from a labyrinth. Unlike a maze, a labyrinth only has one path. Keep walking, and you don't get lost. There are real turns along the way, but eventually the path brings you to the center, and then back out again.
That's close to how I think about inner work. It rarely moves in a straight line, and it isn't gentle just because it's slow. Mostly it looks like continuing to show up, noticing where you actually are, and letting the path shape you instead of trying to shortcut it.
At the center is a flame. Some spiritual traditions would call it Essence, Being, Oneness, or Presence: what's left once you loosen your grip on the patterns and defenses you've been running. The name Paths to Presence points at that: not one big arrival, but a practice of coming back to center, over and over, for as long as you're doing this work.
Many thanks to Trail Mix Creative for their assistance and graphic design work.