As someone who was badly bullied as a teenager and again in my adult life, at work, I found this article very interesting. I now realise that my interactions with others were closely linked to my relationship with my own mother. We had an extremely toxic and dysfunctional relationship. I was incredibly shy and found making friends hard, something I've worked extra hard at as an adult to change. I still find the thought of being in a room with people I don't know, terrifying. Will they find me boring, what will we talk about, how awkward I feel about air kisses, yet I'm very happy to hug someone. Aged 45, following my father’s disappearance and subsequent suicide, I finally had the courage to walk away from her permanently.

Guardian Article

Gestures, facial expressions, posture – they are all crucial to what we’re communicating, though many of us don’t realise it

My interest in human behaviour and psychology started in primary school. In my attempts to socialise with other children, I had a constant, nagging feeling that everybody else had received a manual entitled How to Interact with Others. I was socially awkward, to put it mildly, and this meant I was picked on a lot, which in turn meant I started to ask myself some questions: how did my behaviour differ from others? Why did my antagonists act as they did?

Read More