The Church of Christ in Devonshire hosted a series of family enrichment seminars this week with guest speaker, Michael A. T. Stewart, a motivational speaker, licensed marriage officer, life coach, communications consultant and author from the Caribbean island of Tobago.

Mr. Stewart has authored two books, including "Get Yourself Up" and "Four Reasons Why Relationships Fail and How You Can Make Yours Succeed". He also hosts two radio programmes, a nightly programme called "Mike[AT]Night" and a weekly programme called "He Says, She Says", which is aimed at women, helping them to understand men. He also writes a column for the Tobago News called "Man To Man".

Focusing his talks on the breakdown of communication in the family, the first evening looked specifically at the challenges faced by husbands and wives.

"[On the first evening, we looked at] communications between husbands and wives and how the breakdown of communication affects the marriage," Mr. Stewart shared. "We have to accept that [men and women] have different modes of communication."

Men, Mr. Stewart explained, speak in terms of facts and information, while women generally speak in terms of emotion. For example, a woman might say that her husband does or says something "all the time" that makes her feel hurt, while the husband cannot understand how he does it every single time.

"Women have to understand that men deal with facts and change their language. Men have to understand that when she doesn't go with fact, to ignore the phrasing," Stewart elaborated.

Another evening during the series of seminars was entirely devoted to "It's Not Easy Being Single".

"Singles need to feel comfortable being single," realising that it may not be the time for them to be in a relationship or that the right person for them just hasn't come along yet, Mr. Stewart shared.

"Man is a social being, and God generally looks by twos."

But at the same time, Mr. Stewart explained, "Singles need to learn to be complete in their self."

While on the Island, Mr. Stewart was greatly interested in the growing culture of gang violence – a problem that he sees is rooted in the simple problem of bullying.

"Bullies have a desire to dominate; a hatred of society. There is often [some level] of dysfunction in the home," he said.

Bullies can come from all kinds of homes, both single parent and appearingly stable two-parent homes, where parents have neglected their children to be raised by the television or left unmonitored.

"Bullies tend to try and identify themselves through earning respect by beating [others] into position," Mr. Stewart added.

Finding a solution is not always so easily, but he suggests that such a big focus on 'bullies' in the media may actually inflate their ego, as oppose to shaming them.

He also believes that preventative action is the best cure.