The Real Life of the HD Centers

A co-authored Human Design series with 10 voices & 9 Human Design Centers

There is no shortage of Human Design content. Books, courses, programs, each one offering its own language for understanding your design. And there’s real value in all of it.

But the lived expression? That’s the void.

This is what I’ve been craving. And for those that know me, have heard me talk about... or maybe I’ve been trying to persuade you to write a book like this (you know who you are - LOL). It’s the the lived stories that’s missing.

The kind of thing you get from reading a biography or watching a biopic. Where you see your own reflection through someone else’s life. Noticing what matches, what doesn’t, and learning from both.

That’s what this series is. Over the next 12 weeks, ten of us are going to move through each of the nine Human Design centers. Each week we’ll be sharing real experiences of what it looks like to live with a defined, undefined, or open center.

We are different types, different designs, different lives. Stories you couldn’t get from any one person writing alone. I’m so honored that everyone said yes to coming together on this.

~ Tricia

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This week…
We start by introducing ourselves.

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Charlotte Webb

3/5 Projector - Triple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m Charlotte, a legacy mentor for women rewriting the rules of power and prosperity. After a career in academia and creative tech activism, I had a spiritual awakening and re- wrote my own life. I trained in crystal healing, the Akashic records and coaching and am on a mission to have fun guiding women to be in their element, doing work they love.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Studying my centres has shown me who I am in a completely new way. Understanding my defined throat centre with lots of activations made sense of the power of my voice and unlocked a lot of energy! Having emotional definition has also revealed a huge amount - especially around waiting for emotional waves to pass before making decisions.

Substack Publication: CEO With a Singing Bowl

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Erica Voell

5/1 Generator - Single Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m a Decision Mentor and Inner-Trust Guide. I work with women in midlife untangle from their life patterns of shapeshifting and keeping everyone else happy. No one comes to me saying “I’m terrible at making decisions” and it’s often the root of the work we do together.

My work helps my clients understand their families, and coworkers better, therefore shifting relationship dynamics that have felt hard. I love the aha moments of “this makes so much sense” or “that’s why I do this.”

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Studying my centers has completely shifted how I see myself. It helped me understand why I’ve felt the need to prove my worth my entire life. I learned that I need to sleep on my decisions after making decision after decision that I regretted throughout my life. It also helped me understand my unique voice and how I’m designed to communicate. And a huge aha was that I don’t need to take on every idea that comes into my mind. All of this explained why I burned out at 48, and it was a huge part of my healing.

Substack Publication: Unfolding: Letters from the Middle of Becoming

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Jamie Siv Rognstad

2/4 Projector - Triple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

Sometimes it feels easier to say who I am not than to say who I am. I’m a creative rebel and free-spirited thinker, author, singer/songwriter, photographer, communication lover, and business coach. I am strongly convinced that everything of value and sustainability comes from within, and that we need to come out and say it as we see it. I’m not a big fan of a sharp niche. It’s totally okay to be many things, and talk about them too. If everything is crystal clear, most people can handle multiple messages.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

I’m a Projector, and something I’ve been told often is “You need to rest a lot”. I could never understand it until I found out that I have three of the four motor centers defined: Root, Solar Plexus, and Heart/Will centers. If there is something I want, I just go for it. I can work 12 hours a day if I want it enough. I have lots of drive and stamina, lots of passion, and the will to go through with it. Learning about my completely open communication center was probably what changed most for me. All of a sudden, it made sense why people always come to me when they don’t know what to say and want clear advice. I also learned that I have a triple split, and learning to bridge three sets of centers has been a true game-changer for me.

Substack Publication: Jamie🖤Sum1s Weird Productions

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Jo Ellicott-Barr

4/6 Generator - Single Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I blend science and spirituality to facilitate healing and empowerment by helping people connect to their body and gifts through their Human Design, Gene Keys, functional and somatic breathwork, yoga and holistic coaching.

The body holds the somatic memory; the breath builds the bridge and when we learn to connect to ourselves again – transformative magic can happen.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

My background is in yoga and the Hindu chakra system, so when I learned the Centres in Human Design were based on the chakras, I had to delve in.

Working with the Centres has given me another route to understand and balance my energy and when you have a completely open centre, as I do with three of mine, that is valuable information to work with - personally and professionally.

Substack Publication: Follow the Sun

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Kelly Quiney

5/1 Manifesting Generator - Simple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m Kelly Quiney. I write, coach and host conversations for people who have reached a point where the life they’ve built no longer feels like their own. After burnout forced me to question everything, I’ve become fascinated by what happens when we stop pushing so hard, slow down enough to hear ourselves again and get curious about what else might be possible.

In a fast world, I am learning to trust the wisdom of slowing down.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Studying my centres shifted Human Design from an interesting system into a lived experience. It helped me see where I consistently seek certainty, where I absorb pressure from others and where my own wisdom naturally emerges. I had spent so long working out what my underlying patterns were but that only got me so far. Seeing it laid bare on paper in my centres gave me the self-compassion I had been seeking for years. Understanding my centres hasn't given me answers so much as permission to trust how I'm already designed to move through life.

Substack Publication: Kelly Quiney - The Slow Coach

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Leanne Chesser

5/1 Manifesting Generator - Single Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m Leanne Chesser, relationship coach and creator of Connection for Couples and the Connected Relationship Method.

I help couples and individuals in relationships move from disconnected roommate energy into deeper connection, better communication, emotional safety and lasting intimacy.

My work blends relationship coaching, Human Design, self-awareness, communication tools and deeper pattern work. I care about the real stuff that actually creates change.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Studying my centers, especially my Ajna, Throat, G, Solar Plexus and Spleen, has given me confirmation of things I knew about myself as well as deep awareness into significant challenges, core strengths, fears, how and what I speak in the world and identity. I’ve had many, “Oh, that’s why” and “that makes sense” moments of self-understanding as well as insights about my potential that I’m working to become.

Substack Publication: The Connected Relationship

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Michele Marie Neyers

2/4 Generator - Simple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

Hello, I’m Michele! I’m the creator of The Sacred Art of Becoming HER and HER Front Porch on Substack – a quiet and spacious place for the woman who is ready to consciously tend to her becoming.

I believe we are forever becoming — not as a single event, but an ongoing evolutionary spiral. The most interesting question isn’t what will I do next — but who am I consciously becoming? I write for the woman in the sacred liminal space between who she believed she was and who she is now becoming. I help her navigate this threshold with grace, love, and compassion.

With love & front porch vibes, Michele

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

The Centers are my favorite aspect of Human Design to study — perhaps because of my love of frequency and energy flow. Discovering that my biggest life lessons live in my undefined centers gave me a curriculum uniquely my own. Studying my defined Identity Center was the most profound — it helped me stop relating to my body as the enemy and begin seeing it as a perfectly designed vessel for the purpose I'm here to fulfill.

Substack Publication: The Sacred Art of Becoming HER

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Polly Rusyn

4/6 Generator - Simple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I’m in the early years of transitioning from a decade of running a photography business into coaching and guided healing. I’m also a writer (a published author of three street photography books). These days I’m often left wondering: am I what I’m paid to do, or am I all the things that fire me up and that I love doing? Which makes me want to introduce myself as a photographer, coach, healing guide, writer, and tropical garden-sitter!

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

Understanding my Human Design has, more than anything, helped me make sense of patterns I was already noticing. It’s definitely increased my self-acceptance, strengthened my appreciation for individuality, and reinforced my belief that people thrive when they understand themselves rather than trying to optimise themselves into someone else’s version of success. If anything, Human Design has been more of a mirror than a map, helping me trust myself more.

Substack Publication: Emotional Wealth

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Tricia Edwards

6/2 Generator - Triple Split Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

I find that I want to share the breath of who I am rather than a title or niche. I’m here to be inside what I call “my aliveness.” Some days it’s making art, others being outside, and of course, sharing my how I deepen my aliveness here on Substack and through my business. It’s inside>out. It’s about what feels good first. It’s starting with what’s already strong. It’s body-led.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

For me it was like categorizing the different types of energy flowing through me. It helped me to separate mind from emotion, emotion from thriving, thriving from the urge to move. I started to feel how all of the centers connected and where mine didn’t. I found an organized system to how I felt, thought, and moved.

Substack Publication: Being Inside>Out with Tricia Edwards

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Stef Carlstedt

3/5 Manifesting Generator - Single Definition

How do you introduce yourself these days?

Hello, I’m Stef - a Human Design guide, mom of four, and someone who spent way too many years thinking something was wrong with me.

I discovered Human Design shortly after losing my dad and was completely lost. I started implementing it into my own life first. Then I spent a year helping business owners use it to build in alignment with who they actually are instead of someone else’s formula.

And then it expanded… into families, into parenting, even into relationships!

Because once you see how this changes everything for you, you can’t help but want it for the people you love most.

My favorite work I do is with families… helping parents finally understand their kids and themselves at a level that creates real ease, real joy, and real connection.

That’s what I’m here for.

What shifted when you started understanding your centers?

I’m 42 years old and I feel like I’m 16… but loving myself this time.

That’s what studying my centers has done for me.

My open heart center explained years of overgiving, over-proving, and trying to earn my place in every room I walked into. I wasn’t broken. I was just trying to find worth in a center that was never designed to define it.

My defined throat showed me that my voice was always meant to be heard… that speaking up, speaking out, and saying the thing nobody else was saying was never too much. It was my design!

Most of all…studying my centers showed me that the places I struggled weren’t failures. They were invitations to evolve. Nothing was ever wrong with me. And nothing is wrong with you either.

XOXO,
Stef

Substack Publication: The Return to Yourself

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Over the next 11 weeks

We’ll be moving through each of the nine centers together. Nine articles, each one focused on one center. We’ll share real life expression of it as a Defined, Undefined, and Open center. Then we’ll wrap it up with some extra goodies in the last two weeks.

The Real Life of the HD Centers
A co-authored Human Design series with 10 voices & 9 Human Design Centers

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Which center are you most looking forward to exploring?