Christa Hardin, MA

---

---

After nearly two decades of working with couples, I started Enneagram + Marriage to share my love of marriage work with the world through social media and my podcast! It’s amazing to have a dream come true and I don’t take that lightly. I continue to be inspired by the brave couples and individuals who I am privileged to work with and love helping them to cross the finish line of their dreams again and again.

I continue to learn from and integrate practice from the very best places in the world of family systems thinkers, brain research, and marriage and wellness research at large. I take my inspiration and wisdom in most all I do from Christ and from the amazing researchers, therapists, and teachers I have been privileged to sit under at Wheaton for my Clinical Psych MA, Eastern Michigan University for my BA in both Communications and Psychology, and my AACC coach training!

Out of my training and experience from working with couples came my R & R Marriage Method program, the 45 Enneagram Glow Pairing Guides, and the E + M Certification Course. In essence as a practitioner, I don’t diagnose or condemn others for their flaws (we are all growing!), but instead, I become a student of both their strengths and areas for growth and find creative and strategic ways to help them to thrive as both individuals and as couples (for those in a relationship). I have poured my research and passion into my programs and podcast to restore love and safety and to bring fun and results-oriented tools!

Many of my clients have worked with me via individual a-la-carte sessions. If you’re looking for a good fit for your personality (totally important), personally, I am warm, friendly, nurturing and creative, a 7w6 who loves teaching and inspiring passionately with practical, life-giving tools. I love laughing and being silly but also love going deep with people. I am sporty and real, not fancy so I warn anyone looking for fake that you will not find that with me in your session but you will find real, authentic care and strategy! In many of my couples sessions, my clients reflect on their deepest joys and sorrows, recognize their unhealthy patterns, and commit to trying out the new ideas we come up with together. Sometimes they pair their coaching with counseling locally. The simple patterns I aim to follow allow for trusted growth with every step.
​
If you prefer reading, check out my books, RELATE: A Guide to Marriage and Relationship Repair and RELEASE: A Couple’s Growth Workbook, Just Your Type, my mother’s devotional Messy Buns and Cartwheels, and, for individuals, my e-book, The Overflowing Life: A Life Hack for the Overwhelmed & Overloaded.

Who am I behind the scenes? Well, I grew up in Detroit with three loving older siblings. My father, an 8, had an MA in English Lit and instilled in me a love for writing and the classics. My mother, a 9(ish) was an elementary teacher (and stay at home mother later), doing an awesome job in everything she did, even while dealing with mental health issues. Her strength and recovery, along with their marriage, inspired me to get into this field, to reduce stigma and to lend hope where there is none.

I am a huge Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien lover and I love reading these authors again and again to glean from their incredible human studies and characterization. With my husband and friends, I love having intellectual and philosophical conversations but relationships and laughter are at the top of the list too, of course! My guilty pleasure is to read classic children’s books for fun, and even as a 7, reading is one area I don’t need new books. I read the same ones again and again! All three of my kids have middle names from classic English literature characters 🙂

For the day-to-day life, aside from relationship study, I love teaching my kids and writing, as well as date nights with my husband, Wes, an Enneagram 1 whom I’ve been married to for twenty years this June 2021.

Although I love living in the SoFla ‘burbs I call “the Shire” near the beach with my family for the sake of regularity, I’m a major city girl at heart! A day in New York or Chicago is always welcome in my books–but don’t get me started on how much I love the mountains or Michigan in the Fall! I work hard at being present where I am too – I have my own ongoing work to do as well! 🙂

Well, now that you know all about me, I’d be honored to learn more about YOU! Feel free to write in any time. While I don’t have the ability to coach you personally unless you’re a client, I always enjoy hearing about your life.

Looking forward to living life intentionally with you!

Christa

PS: For a more formal bio, keep scrolling!

Christa Hardin, MA grew up in the Detroit suburbs. passionate about relationships and families from a very young age. As a college student, she majored in both Communications and Psychology, publishing a research paper with her Communications professor about shifting family system dynamics and working full time as a community director at a local apartment community. She then married her high school sweetheart, Wes, and the two of them went on for MA degrees at Wheaton College in Chicagoland. Wes got an MA in Theology and Christa got one in Clinical Psychology, finding her first official Marriage and Family Therapy internship at the Evangelical Child and Family Agency (ECFA) in Wheaton, IL where she worked with couples, families, individuals, and children in play therapy.

Christa then moved home to Detroit to help her mother who had a stroke and to start a family and she meanwhile began to see her first private practice clients at Access Christian Counseling (ACC) in Southfield, MI under the then CAPS (Christian Association for Psychological Studies) president Connie Ratliffe, PhD. Christa revamped the structure and clinical policies and procedures at ACC and led the team to CARF accreditation, also conducting psychological assessments as a MA-level psychologist in MI.

After Wes completed medical school for PA studies, the family moved to Southwest Florida where Christa opened her own private practice, Reflections Counseling Center, LLC, almost a decade ago and wrote her R & R marriage series of books, which she and her staff still use today to help couples find their way back to marriage health. She still runs this practice of counselors and coaches today, and she and her team work with people of all faith backgrounds with the desire to reflect Christ to those they serve.

Christa herself transitioned from therapy into relationship coaching, training at the AACC, and later using the Enneagram in her practice after learning about it from the advice of a dear Wheaton friend and gifted therapist (a type 4!).

Christa added Enneagram to practice in basic ways and she noticed her clients were shifting in ways she had never seen before, even couples with deeply rooted issues. When her own marriage began to shift in healthy ways as well, Christa began to study it passionately (She’s a 7 wing 6) and became known in her local community for this enthusiasm as well. In 2019 she began researching couples on social media with the Enneagram and began her Enneagram and Marriage podcast as well. In 2020, Christa conceptualized the Enneagram Glow, after working with many couples of the same pairing type who had similar gifts and struggles. She also noted that they had a unique way of sharing their light with the world, and along with Alaina Pompa of Ray of Light Design, she created forty-five Enneagram Glow pairing guides so couples of each particular pairing could learn better ways to communicate, to increase sexual intimacy satisfaction, and to enhance their couple, family, and world impact together. In 2021, Christa trained 14 Enneagram + Marriage coaching students with her 350+ page Enneagram and Marriage curriculum she developed with the exquisite help of editor Julia Relyea, MA.

Christa continues to study the Enneagram while researching her audience and from various tools, including the ongoing CP Enneagram masterclass, integrating her faith and family systems, assessment, and communications training as well to help couples and families to thrive with both self-care and relationally.

---

Life Improvement Radio Hosts