Sandra Maitri was a member of the first group in which the Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo introduced the Enneagram in the United States. This group also included A.H. Almaas, who later became her spiritual teacher and founded the Ridhwan School, which works essentially with the spiritual dimension of the Enneagram. Sandra Maitri also became a teacher at the Ridhwan School and is widely known as one of the most profound and thorough authors and teachers of the Enneagram, which she has now been working with for three and a half decades. She lives, writes and paints in Marin County, California.