When parents spend time with their children and respond to their emotional needs, they help them develop healthy relationship skills (Photo: iStock)
Though intimacy is commonly linked to romantic relationships, it typically takes root much earlier in life.
Psychologist Hellen Staula explains that the earliest lessons about intimacy are usually learned at home. Parents teach children how to understand emotions, build trust, feel safe and form close bonds.
Hellen believes that intimacy can be innate and a learned skill. Human beings are biologically wired to form attachments and express emotions, but socialisation teaches them how relationships work and how intimacy is expressed.
“Nobody sits us down and teaches us how to become intimate. However, the way we express intimacy is influenced by what we observe and learn from those around us," she says.
