Face Reading – Truly understanding people through their face
- Daniel Neuhaus
- Feb 6
- 12 min read
What we see when we look at a face
Often, a brief glance at a person’s face is enough for us to sense a great deal of what is going on inside them, even if they do not say it. We sense whether someone is open or withdrawn. Whether something is “flowing” or whether something is being held back. All of this happens in fractions of a second.
And yet, I believe we have become quite bad at doing exactly that. We have unlearned much of what we could actually perceive. All of us carry this ability within us: not only to grasp character traits, but also to capture states of mind in the shortest possible time.
I believe this: in a world in which so much has become superficial, we need exactly this again – the kind of gaze that goes deeper.
Face Reading, meaning the conscious act of reading in the face, is exactly that kind of gaze for me.
One that does not – like so many others – simply skim quickly over someone, but pauses.
One that tries to see the human being behind all their roles. A gaze that does not judge, but understands. That, for me, is empathy.
A gaze that creates understanding and perhaps touches something in the other person that they themselves have long forgotten. Behind every face there is a human being with a story and inner dynamics. And with a truth that can be seen, if we learn to truly perceive what we are looking at.
Overview of contents
What Face Reading really is
Face Reading is not simply a gimmick that sorts people into types, nor is it an ability that only a chosen few possess. No, all of us are face readers. This ability is deeply anchored within us. In the brain, the FFA center is responsible for this – the so-called “Fusiform Face Area.”
Because a face is not something static. It is constantly changing, throughout our entire lives. With every year and with every experience.
Therefore, Face Reading does not mean rigidly linking a broad jaw to a specific character trait – that would fall far too short. And it also does not mean: “If someone looks like this or that, then they are like this.” I reject such simplifications.
Face Reading goes deeper. And this is where wrinkles in Face Reading, the traces of lived experience, also play an important role. Wrinkles tell us stories about emotions a person has often felt. They allow conclusions on many levels – psychological, emotional, and biographical.
Some forms of expression – such as the Bucket Face – show complex patterns that go far beyond individual features. Other archetypal forms, such as the King Face, reflect posture, presence, and a very distinct kind of stability and dynamic.
I work with what I see, and with what becomes visible behind it. Anyone who takes Face Reading seriously stops judging or evaluating. And begins to “listen” – above all with their eyes.
Ultimately, it is about opening up spaces and building bridges for people back to themselves. Because I believe this: the feeling of truly being seen is perhaps the most beautiful feeling we can have. That is what I understand by Face Reading. And why, for me, it has nothing to do with pigeonholing, but very much to do with humanity.
How faces are formed –
Nature, lived experience, and our attitude toward life
A face is not only what we see in the mirror. It is the result of many things that are at work within us and that began long before us. One part of it is innate – the foundation (DNA), genetically given.
Our basic structure, body shape, and proportions are like a blueprint we bring with us. This is also where face shapes play a role, which in Face Reading provide clues about personality.
Then life comes into play: experiences, imprints, injuries, and decisions. Everything we have lived through, enjoyed, suffered, or endured.
And all of this leaves traces – in the face, in facial expression, in facial tension, in the small lines and large movements of expression, and not least in our posture.
Our body stores what we have experienced in body memory – often for a lifetime. This is why our face, in particular, becomes a mirror of a lived life. If you would like to learn to read exactly that, the Advanced Training – “Emotions in the Face – Traces of Lived Experience” may be exactly right for you.
And then there is a third element: our attitude toward things. The way we deal with what we encounter. Whether we move through life openly or reserved. Whether we fight, flee, or remain. Whether we say yes, or avoid.
Attitudes imprint themselves – visibly, in expression.
Depending on type and life energy, certain dynamics can also be seen in the Five Elements teaching, which plays a role especially in Chinese Face Reading.
The face is therefore not something finished, but something in the process of becoming. And that is precisely what makes Face Reading so exciting: because it is not about pigeonholing, but about development and movement.
The four dimensions of Face Reading
When we read a face, we are not simply reading form or structure. We are also reading a large portion of history, the present, and inner dynamics. From my perspective, there are four central levels that are always interwoven in Face Reading and influence one another:
1. Personality in the face
This is about what fundamentally makes us who we are. Our inner architecture. Strengths, innate traits, ways of thinking and acting. All of this is reflected in personality in the face – in the face shape, proportions, and in certain areas that are connected to typical personality qualities.
Some of this, as described above, is given – while other aspects have developed or strengthened over the course of life. It is about understanding how a person thinks, feels, decides, communicates, and how they relate.
2. Emotional patterns
Our face does not only show who we are – it also shows what we have often felt. Recurring emotional experiences leave traces in the form of wrinkles, tension, alignment, and posture.
I call this level emotions in the face, because it shows how deeply lived experience remains stored in expression.
It makes a difference whether someone has learned to show emotions or to hide them, which can encourage potential emotional dissonance. Whether someone was hurt early on or supported, and how our caregivers helped us regulate these experiences in the form of emotion regulation. These patterns shape our entire lives.
Here, talent characteristics / talent traits also play a role – not in the sense of lines, but in the sense of innate dispositions that become visible when something has often been felt or trained.
3. Facial expression & body language
Face Reading always also means perceiving what is happening in the present moment – consciously reading facial expression & body language. Fine microexpressions that appear in our face in less than 500 milliseconds. The lifting of an eyebrow, a brief pulling apart of the corners of the mouth. Reading facial expression means reading emotions. And reading body language alongside it means capturing the overall state through other channels of body language. It is often precisely here that the key to genuine encounter lies – and the opportunity to look behind words and see what a person is truly feeling, in order to meet them more accurately in their emotion.
Face Reading – Truly understanding people through their face
4. Biographical traces
No face is random. Everything a person has lived through has left a trace somewhere. Some faces speak of early loss, others of long endurance. Some show a great deal of learned control, others a deep need for closeness. To see these traces means more empathy. Because every face is also a testimony to what a person has managed to survive. And sometimes these traces are also signposts for what is allowed to heal.
These four dimensions interlock. And that is precisely what makes Face Reading so multifaceted. It is therefore not simply about interpreting a single feature, but about grasping a person in their wholeness. With everything they are and everything they can be.
Why Face Reading is more important today than ever
We live in a time in which many things are changing rapidly. Our communication is becoming faster, more digital, and often more superficial. We are constantly connected to others and yet often do not truly feel seen. This is exactly where I see the great opportunity of Face Reading.
Because we do not need more information. We need more connection. More genuine understanding. More humanity in our encounters.
Face Reading gives us exactly that. It slows down our gaze. It leads us back to a form of perception that we have long carried within us, but have often unlearned.
And perhaps that is precisely why we need this ancient art of seeing again today. Because it helps us to understand ourselves better. Because it enables us to meet others with more openness and compassion. And because it reminds us of what truly defines human beings – beyond roles, opinions, and labels.
In a world full of sensory overload, comparison, and adaptation, Face Reading is, for me, a counter-impulse. A gaze that does not judge, but connects. A gaze that brings humanity back to where it has sometimes been lost.
How a personal Face Reading with me works
At the beginning, I need a few photographs of you. I explain exactly what these photos should look like directly after booking. Then my preparation begins – I immerse myself deeply in your face. I look at how you are built in your personality, how you function, which strengths lie within you, and which patterns shape you. And also where inner opposites are at work.
A strong gut feeling that clashes with the rational mind. A great sense of adventure combined with a strong need for security.
The question is: how do these parts within you relate to one another? Do they fight against each other – or do they work together?
I see these fields of tension and, when it fits, I build bridges for you. Pathways through which you can better understand the apparent contradictions within you and perhaps even connect them with one another.
In doing so, I often write 15 to 20 pages about you. Not in the sense of an analysis, but as personal feedback on what I perceive in your face.
Then we meet. Either in person with me – or via Zoom, which most people prefer.
In a 90- to 120-minute conversation, I tell you what I have seen. We look together at your personality and your potentials. And sometimes also at blockages that you may have felt for a long time but have not yet been able to grasp.
The reading is recorded. You receive it afterwards as a video, together with your very personal script, which you can also use later to continue working with it.
Many people tell me after the reading that they felt truly understood for the first time. Not because I told them something completely new about themselves – but because what they had already sensed was finally put into words.
And that is often the moment when something begins to loosen. When we stop fighting against ourselves. When opposites within us are allowed to make peace. And when we arrive a little closer to ourselves.
Why people want to learn Face Reading
People come to me for very different reasons. Some because they want to understand themselves better. Others because they work professionally with people and notice that something is missing – this fine, hard-to-name sensitivity.
Many want to learn how to truly learn Face Reading, how to understand people deeply. They sense that behind what someone says or shows, there is something else – and they want to learn how to read it.
Especially in recruiting, a new perspective emerges: Face Reading in Recruiting. Leaders also benefit – Face Reading for Leaders is another specialized training for greater people awareness. Teachers and educators, too, gain concrete tools in the specialized training Face Reading for Teachers to better understand students.
And then there are those who are searching. Not necessarily for a profession, but for themselves. Those who no longer want to merely function, but want to understand why they feel the way they feel. Why they sometimes stand in their own way, and what they actually need.
For many, Face Reading feels like coming home, because it opens a view of human beings that has often been missing for a long time.
Anyone who has once felt what this gaze can trigger does not want to miss it anymore. And many who come to me say at the end: I want to learn this too – for myself and for the people I deal with every day.
And that is exactly what the Face Reading Basic Training “Reading Personality and Strengths in the Face” is there for. A space in which you can learn to read faces with a gaze that connects and strengthens strengths.
Why Face Reading has nothing to do with pigeonholing
I believe many people have an image of Face Reading that is shaped by old clichés. Along the lines of: “She has a large nose, so she must be dominant.”
But that is precisely what Face Reading is not.
A face is not a simple profile, and Face Reading is not a typology that sorts people into categories. I do not believe in reducing people to features.
Because no face tells only one story – it tells many. It tells of dispositions, of lived experiences, of development, of strategy, of protection, of longing, fear, and sometimes also of grief.
And that is why one cannot say: “If someone looks like this, then they are like that.”
It always depends on the context – on what complements, reinforces, or balances out. On what resonates internally. And that is exactly what makes genuine Face Reading so deep and individual.
When I read faces, I do not only see “the forehead” or “the chin.” I see the person behind it. Their story, their energy, their way of living, feeling, and expressing themselves.
A feature is always only a starting point. The beginning of a possible interpretation – but never its end. And that is precisely why this work requires so much sensitivity and also humility.
Because every human being is more than what is visible. And every face deserves not to be put into a box, but to be perceived in its wholeness.
Closing – an invitation to continue
Face Reading is therefore not simply some technique that one applies.
It is much more a path that one walks.
A path that leads us deeper with our counterpart – and not least to ourselves.
Often, this path already begins with a look at our own face.
If this gaze has touched you, if you feel that something within you is resonating, then perhaps this is the beginning of understanding yourself better.
I invite you to walk this path with me – at your pace and with your very personal story. Whether you want to just take a look at first or dive in more deeply right away makes no difference at all.
I offer a variety of formats to dive deeper into the topic of Face Reading.
My free webinar can be a beginning.
Perhaps you are also interested in what is written in your face – which talents and strengths you have, but also which inner opposites you may be struggling with. In that case, a personal Face Reading can be a good entry point.
If you work professionally with people – whether therapeutically, in
HR & Recruiting, in schools, or as a leader – I explore the following topics in another article:
Everything begins with a first step – and often with a YES.
A yes to yourself.
Also interesting:
The philtrum is more than just a small indentation – it is an expression of how much energy, creativity, and life flow a person carries within. If you are curious about what your face reveals on this level, this article gently guides you into the topic.
What different face shapes are there, and how can you recognize your own?
Video: A conversation about personality, empathy, and what faces reveal
In this episode of FlowGrade – For Life, I speak with Max Gotzler about what Face Reading can truly offer today. We go through the fundamentals – physiognomy, facial expression, body language – and discuss how personality shows itself in the face, where the limits lie, and why empathy is the core of this work.
At the end, I read a few facets of Max’s personality from his face – in the form of a small speed reading, as a live analysis.
Free Face Reading Webinar – live every month
In my monthly live webinar, I show you how Face Reading works in practice.
You will learn how facial features are connected to personality, resources, and inner patterns – and how you can use this knowledge for coaching, communication, or your personal development.
The webinar is interactive and offers plenty of space for your questions.
Join for free here:
