Daniel J. Siegel is teaching during Wisdom & Wellbeing Multi-Faculty Week 6: The Promise & Crucible of Relational Life | February 7 – 14, 2026 about the following topic:
The Power of Connection: Exploring Relationships Through the Lens of the PDP
Framework
Join Dr. Dan Siegel for an immersive exploration of how early experiences shape the way we
relate—and how we can transform limiting patterns into deeper, more meaningful connections. Using the Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP) Framework, this session offers practical tools for cultivating presence, integration, and secure, compassionate relationships.
Relationships shape who we are—and yet, many of us find ourselves stuck in patterns that limit our capacity for connection. In this experiential offering, Dr. Dan Siegel—renowned
neuropsychiatrist and pioneer in interpersonal neurobiology—invites us to explore the science
and experience of human relationships through his groundbreaking Personality Palette,
exploring what he and his colleagues have named as the Patterns of Developmental Pathways
(PDP) Framework.
The PDP Framework identifies nine key pathways, inspired initially by the Enneagram of
personality and consistent with academic research into temperament, that can be visualized on a Personality Palette. This view is an array of features revealing the adaptive patterns to our fundamental temperament. The level of adaptive strategy is shaped by our early relational
experiences that influence how we connect, communicate, and regulate emotion throughout life. By understanding and bringing mindful awareness to these patterns, we can begin to shift from reactivity and disconnection we may be imprisoned in to the resilience and integration that arise when that same personality pattern moves to being a playground of possibility in our lives.
Through guided practices, reflective exercises, and accessible science, participants will explore:
- The nine PDP patterns and their impact on relational behavior
- How early and intergenerational experiences shape attachment and identity
- Practices for fostering integration—the foundation of healthy, flexible relationships
- Specific growth-edges for each of the nine personality patterns
- Tools to support presence, compassion, and connection in everyday life
Whether you’re seeking to deepen intimate partnerships, strengthen family dynamics, or enhance
your relationship with yourself, this immersive experience offers a path toward
wholeness—grounded in science, supported by presence, and inspired by the power of
connection.
He will also be leading an Intensive during Week 10 | March 7 – 14 about the following topic:
Unlocking Freedom: A Practical, Science-Based Pathway to Freeing Your Personality by Diving Deeply into Your Innate Temperament and Attachment Stance
“Freud’s theory of the unconscious and Darwin’s model of evolution continue to help us
understand the findings from current research on human behavior…. Daniel Siegel’s theory of
Mindsight—the brain’s capacity for both insight and empathy—offers a similar ‘Aha!” – Daniel
Goleman, Author, Emotional Intelligence
In this immersive, interactive workshop retreat with Dan Siegel, participants will learn about their own lives—clearing their “mindsight lens” to see inside the sea inside with more depth, clarity, and focus. We’ll explore how persistent patterns of emotion, thinking, and behavior—known as “personality”—may have formed, and how to enable those potential prisons to transform into platforms of possibility that, with growth-edge work we’ll explore, can transform into playgrounds in our lives. Using research from the trans-disciplinary field of Interpersonal Neurobiology, we will explore Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDPs). This framework, initially inspired by thousands of narratives of the Enneagram system of personality and later affirmed by independent academic studies into temperament and personality, can help us see the deep neural mechanisms that shape our inner lives and interpersonal relationships. We will practice applying the PDP view of personality in practical, reflective exercises, exploring how attachment experiences may have lead these patterns to more restrictive levels of functioning which can then be freed to become fully experienced at higher, more adaptive levels. This unlocking of freedom in our lives enables us to achieve a sense of wholeness and to cultivate integrative transformation in our personal inner and relational lives as well as in our professional work.
“Dan is a natural storyteller. The lectures are both an accessible guide into understanding the
human mind and an eloquent examination of relationships that are scientifically accurate and
understandable to the lay clinician.” – Mario Cepeda, MFT
The workshop format will involve practical conceptual immersions in the PDP framework
integrated throughout with extensive reflective exercises. These include pattern-specific growth-work and the nine domains of integration, including the Wheel of Awareness—which enables an accessing of the “Plane of Possibility”. These integrative practices each support the accessing of freedom in each of the various Pathways we may experience in our lives and in the lives of those with whom we live and work.
Program Highlights
- Harness the transformative potential of neuroplasticity through the lens of Interpersonal
Neurobiology (IPNB) - Deep exploration of the 9 domains of integration (vertical and lateral integration,
integration of consciousness, memory, narrative, state, interpersonal, temporal, identity) - Practical resilience training techniques, such as the Wheel of Awareness for more focus,
presence, and peace. - Learn from extensive research compiled and published by Dan on Patterns of
Developmental Pathways (PDP) and how this provides a frame for patterns within our
personal lives, interpersonal relationships, and work teams that benefit collaboration. - 3-pillar practice: Strengthen attention, open awareness, and build kind intention.
- Explore the profound connection between the mind and energy, and how embracing this
understanding can reshape our sense of who we are, assist in defining and refining our
personal purpose in life, and expand our perspective on the world
Come join us for a mind-expanding journey of growth together!
Dr. Dan Siegel is the Founder and Director of Education of the Mindsight Institute and founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, where he was also Co-Principal Investigator of the Center for Culture, Brain and Development and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine.
An award-winning educator, Dan is the author of five New York Times bestsellers and over
fifteen other books which have been translated into over forty languages. As the founding editor of the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology (“IPNB”), Dan has overseen the publication of one hundred and fifteen books in the transdisciplinary IPNB framework which focuses on the mind and mental health.
A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dan completed his postgraduate training at UCLA
specializing in pediatrics, and adult, adolescent, and child psychiatry. He was trained in
attachment research and narrative analysis through a National Institute of Mental Health
research training fellowship focusing on how relationships shape our autobiographical ways of making sense of our lives and influence our development across the lifespan.
Learn more about Dr. Siegel at: www.drdansiegel.com | www.mindsightinstitute.com