Home · Samantha Mackay

ENNEAGRAM-INFORMED LIFE COACHING

Even after making big changes, you’re still a to-do list away from enjoying your life.

Enneagram-informed life coaching to move you through the inner resistance standing between you and loving your life.

I help women move through their inner resistance, to create, enjoy, and sustain, the life they want.

HI, I’M SAMANTHA MACKAY, ENNEAGRAM-INFORMED LIFE COACH

I knew what I wanted. Why wasn't I doing it?

For a long time, I thought my life would be perfect when I got the right job.

But after living with chronic pain, illness, and burnout for over a decade, I started to realise my job wasn’t the problem.

The problem was inner resistance.

Deep down, I wanted a more creative life, but I kept limiting what that could look like.

I knew what I wanted. But I was afraid of what might happen if I let myself have it.

Fascinated by why I was blocking myself, I got curious about inner resistance: what it is, how it works, and how we move through it.

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RECOGNISE IT

Not sure if inner resistance is what’s blocking you?

Here are the sneaky ways it shows up, even when you have the best intentions and have done the work in therapy.

You have a hard time giving yourself permission to have what you really want, especially if it might create friction with other people in your life.
You try to say what you need from your partner, boss, friends or family but when you do it creates more tension and confusion.
You keep crashing into burnout, especially after starting your dream job or business.
You have a history of trying to force yourself to conform to other people’s expectations, schedules, or tasks instead of working in a way that honours your body, energy, interests and creativity.
You dream of simplifying your life to focus on what matters: more time with your kids, date nights with real conversations, writing your book, making art, being fully present. You just haven’t been able to make it happen.

WHERE IT COMES FROM

The forces that shape your inner resistance

Living in a culture that trained you (especially those of us raised as girls) to seek permission or approval from others, and taught you that expressing yourself fully leads to rejection.

Not getting emotional support from someone willing to listen to you without judgement or criticism, especially at an early age. Or, worse, having someone react badly when you shared your feelings, or having someone rush to fix your feelings so they wouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable.

Either way, you got the message that your feelings were an inconvenience, and to feel safe and loved, you buried your needs deep.

Developing protective personality patterns that helped you feel safe, accepted or in control as a child, but can become rigid and self-limiting as an adult.

The Enneagram helps reveal these unconscious defences, so you can see why certain patterns keep taking over even when they no longer serve you.

This combination makes it very hard to live in a way that’s true to yourself now!

HOW IT WORKS

Here’s the secret to inner resistance:

You can’t force your way out of the loop, you have to feel safe enough to shift.

This is where I’ve found combining the Enneagram with somatic support to be incredibly effective.

Everything you want is on the other side of resistance.

But to get to there, you have to feel safe enough to make the move.

HOW I WORK WITH IT

I work with the mind and body using the Enneagram and Somatic Support

The Enneagram helps us connect the dots between what you want and how you’re resisting it. It describes nine core patterns that show up in your thoughts, feelings, and body.

Understanding the pattern is only part of the work. Resistance is also held in the body as tension. I work with you to listen to your body, honour what it’s telling you, and support yourself to move through it.

Notice the pattern

See what you want and where resistance keeps getting in the way.

Understand what it protects

Get curious about the fear or discomfort underneath the pattern.

Listen to what’s there

Notice the feelings, tension and signals your body is carrying.

Make space for something new

As resistance softens, a different response becomes possible.

HOW TO START

Ways to work together

START HERE:

The Big Life Troubleshooting Session

A 90 minute video call to get clear on what inner conflicts are standing between you and the life you want to live.

FROM THERE:

3-Month Coaching Package

Recognise the patterns that make reaching your career, financial, and personal goals so much harder than they need to be, understand what holds those patterns in place, and build your capacity to move through that resistance with support.

If you’ve finally made the big leap in your life but you’re still playing out old patterns—let’s talk.

WHAT THIS CAN LOOK LIKE

Big Life Shifts past clients have worked towards:

Starting a business that feels like them. They resisted marketing new services and adding the structure it needed to grow.
Feeling a deeper connection with their partner, but resisting saying what they wanted as their partner does so much.
Needed support to unpack the underlying stress behind their disordered eating so they could see the bigger picture.
Having quality time with their partner and children, but were afraid they’d lose clients if they didn’t work nights and weekends.

Completing personal art projects. They knew they could do it, but every time they tried, phantom pains and anxiety had them doing something else.
A CEO helping her team express their frustration and grief after a big change project, but resisting feeling those softer emotions herself.
Managing finances calmly and intentionally, and either worrying about money too much or too little.
Overcoming an inner story that says rest, play and indulgence are bad, so they can make friends, have hobbies, volunteer, and read for pleasure.