What Is Temperament Therapy?

Temperament Therapy is a powerful clinical approach that helps you understand the unseen structure of who you are — your emotional needs, your stress responses, your relational patterns, and the motivations that shape your decisions. Based on the Edify Temperament Assessment (ETA) and the Arno Profile System (APS), this method reveals the core design that guides how you think, connect, give, receive, love, and protect yourself.

Where personality can change with time, trauma, and environment, temperament is permanent.

It is your internal wiring, and when you understand it, you unlock:

  • Why you behave the way you do
  • Why certain people energize or drain you
  • Why certain relationships thrive and others struggle
  • How to heal emotional wounds at the root
  • What you truly need to feel loved, safe, and fulfilled
  • How to deny the flesh and grow spiritually

Temperament Therapy doesn’t guess — it explains.

Temperament Color: Blue

Melancholy Temperament

Temperament Overview:

The Melancholy temperament is deep, introspective, analytical, and detail-oriented. They experience emotions with great depth and think carefully before making decisions, valuing accuracy, meaning, and structure.

Melancholy in Inclusion Strengths

Strengths:

Melancholies are loyal, organized, thoughtful, and highly observant. They excel in problem-solving, creativity through precision, and long-term commitment. Their emotional depth gives them insight into the needs and struggles of others.

Melancholy in Inclusion Weaknesses

Weaknesses:

Their sensitivity can lead to overthinking, self-criticism, or perfectionism. Melancholies may hesitate to trust others, struggle with emotional vulnerability, and become overwhelmed by unpredictable or chaotic environments. They need stability and reassurance to feel secure.

Melancholy in Relationships

The Melancholy loves with depth, intention, and emotional sincerity. They invest heavily in the relationship and think deeply about their partner’s needs, feelings, and long-term happiness.

Their loyalty and sensitivity make them attentive partners, though their tendency to overthink can create insecurities, doubt, or fear of being misunderstood.

They need consistency, honesty, and emotional safety to open up fully. Chaos, unpredictability, or unpredictably emotional partners can overwhelm them. In conflict, they retreat inward, replay conversations, and analyze every detail.

They thrive in relationships that are consistent, structured, honest, and emotionally grounded.

Temperament Color: Yellow

Sanguine Temperament

Temperament Overview:

The Sanguine temperament is lively, expressive, vibrant, and people-oriented. They thrive on connection, excitement, and emotional engagement, often becoming the life, warmth, and energy of any room they walk into.

Sanguine in Inclusion Strengths

Strengths:

Sanguines excel in communication, creativity, and motivation. Their optimism lifts others, their expressiveness creates emotional closeness, and their ability to energize environments makes them natural encouragers and influencers.

Sanguine in Inclusion Weaknesses

Weaknesses:

Their enthusiasm can fade quickly, leading to inconsistent follow-through or difficulty with structure. Sanguines can be impulsive, easily distracted, and may seek external validation when feeling insecure. Routine, stillness, or emotional heaviness can be challenging for them.

CHOLERIC (Red)

Sanguine in Relationships


The Sanguine thrives in relationships filled with affection, communication, and emotional connection. They love with enthusiasm, warmth, playfulness, and constant engagement.

Their energy brings life to their partner, but their desire for validation can make them sensitive to distance or inconsistency. Because they feel deeply and express quickly, they often need reassurance or verbal affirmation to stay grounded.

Structure and follow-through can be challenging, but they show up emotionally in ways that make relationships vibrant and expressive. They thrive when their partner values fun, communication, spontaneity, and emotional closeness.

Temperament Color: Red

Choleric Temperament

Temperament Overview:

The Choleric temperament is strong-willed, determined, confident, and intensely goal-driven. They are natural leaders with a powerful internal motor that pushes them toward achievement, action, and results.

Choleric in Inclusion Strengths

Strengths:

Cholerics are decisive, productive, and resilient. They know how to take charge, solve problems, and navigate obstacles with force and focus. Their ability to lead, plan, and execute makes them excellent initiators and visionaries.

Choleric in Inclusion Weaknesses

Weaknesses:

Their strength can turn into intensity, impatience, and emotional bluntness. Cholerics may become controlling, struggle to acknowledge weaknesses, or overlook the feelings of others. When stressed, they can become inflexible or overly forceful without realizing it.

Choleric in Relationships


The Choleric approaches relationships with intensity, purpose, and strong direction. They are protective, decisive partners who express love through action: problem-solving, planning, and taking the lead.

Their determination creates a sense of security, but their assertiveness can sometimes feel overwhelming or controlling if not balanced with emotional awareness.

They struggle with vulnerability and may avoid conversations that challenge their authority or expose softer emotions. However, when they learn to slow down and connect emotionally, they become powerful, loyal, and deeply committed partners.

Cholerics thrive in relationships where strength is balanced with patience, understanding, and open communication.

Temperament Color: Green

Phlegmatic Temperament

Temperament Overview:

The Phlegmatic temperament is calm, steady, peaceful, and emotionally grounded. They bring balance and stability into relationships and environments, making them natural mediators who prefer harmony over chaos.

Phlegmatic in Inclusion Strengths

Strengths:

Phlegmatics are patient, dependable, and unbothered by emotional intensity. They think before acting, handle pressure with composure, and effortlessly de-escalate conflict. Their stability and consistency create safe spaces for others.

Phlegmatic in Inclusion Weaknesses

Weaknesses:

Their desire to avoid conflict can lead to passivity, procrastination, and difficulty making decisions. Phlegmatics may struggle with motivation, suppress emotions to keep the peace, and resist change or fast-paced environments that demand quick action.

Phlegmatic in Relationships


The Phlegmatic brings stability, peace, and reliability into relationships. They are unbothered, patient partners who avoid unnecessary drama and prefer calm, consistent connections.

They show love through presence and dependability rather than heavy emotion or intensity. However, their avoidance of conflict can leave important issues unspoken, and their partner may misinterpret their calm as disengagement.

Phlegmatic's rarely rush change, but they are loyal and steady once committed. They thrive in relationships that are predictable, supportive, and emotionally safe — where both partners respect their need for peace and low-intensity communication.

Temperament Color: Purple

Supine Temperament

Temperament Overview:

The Supine temperament is warm, gentle, service-driven, and deeply relational. They have a natural spirit of humility and a strong desire to support, care for, and be accepted by the people around them. Supines are motivated by connection and appreciation.

Supine in Inclusion Strengths

Strengths:

Supines excel in empathy, loyalty, and attentiveness. They read emotions well, offer consistent support, and bring a quiet strength to every environment. Their willingness to serve and their innate compassion make them some of the most dependable and nurturing individuals in any relationship.

Supine in Inclusion Weaknesses

The Supine’s Inclusion weaknesses include indirect behavior that expects others to read their mind, high fear of rejection, and harboring anger viewed as “hurt feelings.”

Supine in Relationships

The Supine moves through relationships with deep loyalty, sensitivity, and a quiet desire to feel wanted. They love through service, sacrifice, and thoughtful gestures, often giving far more than they receive.

A Supine partner needs reassurance, warmth, and appreciation to feel secure. Because they rarely express what they want, their needs can go unnoticed, which sometimes leads to feeling hurt, invisible, or taken for granted. In conflict, they withdraw emotionally and internalize their pain rather than confront it directly.

They thrive in relationships where their gentleness is honored, their efforts are acknowledged, and their emotional needs are handled with care and intentionality.

  • Inclusion 

    Determines who is in or out of the relationship.

  • Control 

    Determines who maintains the power and makes decisions for the relationship.

  • Affection 

    Determines how emotionally close or distant the relationship is.

The Temperament areas of Inclusion, Control and Affection (emotional needs) must be balanced or our physical bodies will eventually break down.

What is inclusion?

Inclusion is the need to establish and maintain a satisfactory, surface relationship with people through association and socialization. Relationships include parties, social gatherings and people who come in and out of our lives every day. The temperament need ranges from approaching many people for association(socializing, surface relationships) to approaching only a select few.

The second Inclusion need is wanting people to approach us for association and socializing. This need is measured on a scale of wanting almost everyone to wanting almost no one to approach us for association.

Terms used to describe this association are interact, mingle, belong, communicate, companion, attend,member, togetherness, join, extrovert, introvert, exclusion, isolate, outcast, outsider, lonely, detached, withdrawn, abandoned and ignored.

InclusIon need #1 is the need to establish and maintain a satisfactory relationship with people in the area of surface relationships (association and socialization).

InclusIon need #2 is our desire for wanting people to approach us for association andsocialization.

Inclusion is unlike the temperament need of Affection in that it does not involve the strong emotional attachments to another person.

Inclusion is unlike the temperament need of Control in that Inclusion concerns itself with the prominence of the social encounter. Control concerns itself with which of the participants in the interpersonal situation is dominant.

The need a person is attempting to meet in the area of Inclusion is the perception of feeling significant or worthwhile.

What is control?

Control is the need to establish and maintain a satisfactory relationship with people in respect to control and power. This need will determine who needs to maintain control and hold the power in the interpersonal situation. The need for control within the temperament ranges from maintaining control over everyone’s behavior to maintaining control over no one’s behavior. The second area of need within the temperament is measured in wanting no one to control our behavior to wanting everyone to take control of our behavior.

Control is the decision-making process between people and is described in such terms as power, authority, dominance, influence, control, ruler, superior, officer, leader, rebellion, resistance, follower, anarchy, submission and henpecked.

Control Need #1 is the need to establish and maintain a satisfactory relationship with people in respect to control and power.

Control Need #2 is the need within the temperament measured by wanting no one to control our behavior to wanting everyone to take control over our behavior.

Control differs from Inclusion because Control is the need for dominance within the interpersonal situation, not prominence of the relationship, i.e., the power behind the throne.

Control is different from Affection because it has to do with the need for power in the relationship rather than emotional closeness.

The perception of feeling competent is the need objective in the area of Control.

What is affection?

Affection is the need to establish and maintain a satisfactory relationship with others in regard to love and affection. The needs within the temperament range from showing love and affection to a great many people to showing love and affection to only a select few.

The second area of need within the temperament ranges from wanting love and affection from everyone to wanting love and affection from no one.

Affection is unique within the temperament because it can only occur one person to one person, whereas in the areas of Inclusion and Control a group of people can be combined to be associated with or controlled as one. The temperament need for intimacy can only be achieved by the close, personal, emotional feeling between two people. To become emotionally close to someone, requires an element of confiding innermost desires, anxieties and feelings. A strong emotional tie usually results through sharing feelings.

Affection Need #1 is the need to establish and maintain a relationship with others in regard to love and affection.

Affection Need #2 is the need within the temperament measured by wanting love and affection from everyone to wanting love and affection from very few.

The perception of feeling that “Self” is lovable is the need the person is attempting to meet in the area of Affection.

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