Douglas Rosestone

Before returning to California to teach in 1973, I studied yoga in India for seven years with T.K.V. Desikachar, the son of renowned yogi Krishnamacharya. Back then, when I was building a teaching practice, hardly anyone had heard of the word yoga. In fact, most people could hardly pronounce the word. Today, yoga is practiced in America by millions on a daily basis.

What I discovered as a yoga teacher was that despite my excellent training, yoga did not adequately address the difficult psychological problems that most of my students brought to me. In my own case, yoga was a wonderful discipline for my physical health, but not the right tool for developing the psychological strength that I needed for my own self-recovery and spiritual healing. For many years, I continued to search for what I sensed was missing in my understanding of myself. My search ended when I found the Enneagram, a groundbreaking, new discovery about human character, and its basic operations.

As making a living as a Yoga teacher was very difficult in the 70’s, and I had a growing family to support, I decided to go into business. I helped to create a successful computer business, Sun-Flex Company, (Inc. Magazine’s 26th fastest growing company, 1984). Eventually, my partners and I sold Sun-Flex, which provided me, and my wife, Olivia, the time and resources to delve into archetypal psychology in general, and the Enneagram in particular. In 1992, we began a ten-year process of developing Relationship Renaissance; a unique interactive method of life coaching that utilizes Enneagram wisdom in a unique and very accessible way.

Founding Relationship Renaissance has been an extraordinary journey. I discovered that the human psyche has structure, and that I possessed an eye, not only for seeing that structure in myself, but also in people I knew, and in public figures. Developing this ability rounded out my quest to find a Western Yoga, one that would help to renew the Ancient way, and serve the psycho-spiritual needs of modern people.

When I began developing Relationship Renaissance, life coaching as a credible discipline had not yet appeared on the scene, nor had the idea that working with the psyche could, and should, be a practice, rather than a therapy. I wanted my clients to actively practice ways of being true to themselves, rather than passively succumbing to therapeutic discussions that led to little in the way of change. As a life coach, I very much wanted to make the Eastern notion of practice, or the path to personal wholeness, Western.

The more I have integrated my understanding of the Enneagram with important elements of life coaching, the more I have realized my vision. My background as a student of both Eastern disciplines and Western psychology, and as a successful businessman, husband, and father has provided me with a very unique perspective about being a life coach. I always strive to bring out the best, both in myself, and my clients, which furthers me on my personal quest. As I first discovered with Yoga, and now practice as a life coach, this quest leads to the capacity to be one’s self under all circumstances.

Olivia Rosestone

In 1974, I moved to California from the East Coast, in part to find myself through my artistic creativity, and also through the ever-growing human potential movement. After many years of study with outstanding teachers such as Martha Graham and modern dance, Karl Lindemann and opera, and David Hardy and classical painting, neither my training or performing experience adequately answered the question, "Who am I, really?" I was looking for a way to understand myself that would guide me to grow regardless of the obstacles. If I was feeling overwhelmed by my life, I wanted to be able to do something about it. The Enneagram discovery provided me with the keys I so needed to find.

As a stay at home mom, I had continuous opportunities for self-reflection, mostly when my children were napping or at school. The work that I did on myself created a window of perception for me to understand other people who were also struggling to find themselves. These days, I believe that most people are looking to integrate both the inner and outer dimensions of their lives, even if they don’t know how to put their needs fully into words. This is where I come in.

When I first begin to coach a client, my goal is to make the process I have discovered available, while supporting his or her individual needs. I, myself, have come from a very troubled family. In my own recovery, I have worked through a full spectrum of issues. The insights I offer to my clients support them to find their own answers, which they absolutely have. I non-invasively coach each person to release negative patterns of anger, shame, confusion, etc., so they can move forward with their lives. For me, there is no more rewarding work. I learn as much from my clients as they learn from me.

Working with Douglas, I have brought my artistic abilities to help him illustrate the entire Enneagram system with film clips from Hollywood’s classic period. Working intensely together, we created Contemplate the Stars, the world’s first visually illustrated typology. In our coaching practice, we provide our clients with a visual reflection of their behavior that is both entertaining and memorable. Our film approach takes the "sting" out of facing difficult life issues. If Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart serve as mirrors of our behavior, how difficult can it be to face what we are up to, and change ourselves for the better? As your life coach, I will guide you not only to find out more about yourself, but also what you may have in common with some of your favorite movie characters. I look forward to hearing from you.

Our New Book

Our forthcoming book, What You Want is Screwing Up Your Life/How to Stop Giving Your Power Away by Really Knowing Yourself ( © 2006), readers will first learn to recognize and then to reflect upon their particular archetypal relational style. To make each person’s journey of self-discovery as easy, memorable, and entertaining as possible, we have illustrated each of the nine relational styles with an important Hollywood film.

Once readers recognize their particular relational style through a specific character in a particular film, they will see themselves in a completely new light. They will also see how that character’s behavior mirrors the workings of their individual make-up or archetypal story to them. Even more importantly, they will learn to reflect upon their relational style in order to know themselves more fully, and to create lasting happiness in their lives.

As readers understand behavioral patterns that may have seemed impossible to perceive, much less change for the better, they will develop a far greater mastery of life issues that concern them, or undermine their well being. The authentic guidance about human nature revealed in What You Want is Screwing Up Your Life will support readers to become whole as individuals, and to reaffirm the bonds that they share with others, both psychologically and spiritually.

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