Anna Joy

May your touch-tank always be brimming.

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My origin story, in a sentence: In 2013 I found myself in a cuddle puddle on a community dance floor being fed grapes by frolicking little fairies (children). Inspired to recreate this slice of heaven as often as possible and share it with the world, I completed the Cuddlist and Cuddle Party TM certifications along with a series of related trainings. Since co-founding Happy Humanimals in 2022 I’ve facilitate consent workshops locally as well as occasionally abroad. I have served on the Cuddlist Advisory Board since 2017. Somatic, or body-based, heart and soul healing are my full time work, and I use with a variety of body-based modalities in addition to Cuddling and am delighted to meet my clients where they’re at and support growth and wellbeing. I especially enjoy supporting clients in tandem with therapists or other healthcare providers using the triadic model.

You who are seeking out Therapeutic Cuddling, you are on your own journey to expand your self-knowing, self-love and self-care in order to more positively impact and create the life around you. You are inspired toward a positive and empowered relationship with your body and orientation toward the broader culture. Maybe you bring touch deprivation or are someone whose primary love language is touch but is currently unable to meet this needs for various reasons; maybe you have a trauma-based aversion to touch which wants to be gently approached. You may feel your nervous system calling you to receive grounding in its state of static. You may crave more meaningful touch than you’re accessing currently, or want training in skills to deepen the intimate connection(s) you have. Little known fact: even though I have access to a lot of good touch in my life,  I regularly schedule this type of all-for-me session for myself! You, too, may also just feel that it all goes better when the “touch tank” is topped off.

To enter my Cuddle Cove space is to walk through a portal into the invocation of a warm, cozy forest, where luscious and nurturing trees embrace us as we talk about what’s real and commune in the magic of touch.

Words folks use about touch therapy:

~ leads to better sleeping, deeper relaxing, a more regulated nervous system, help with chronic pain

~ a place to feel what’s real: to release grief, fully take in joy, notice more pleasure

~ learning how to create a container for a successful platonic cuddle relationship, become more socially comfortable and confident, able to negotiate connection more consensually, able to differentiate truly receiving from truly giving, training the skills of noticing and speaking desires, saying NO, and expecting to be accepted when showing one’s true self

~ replenish a chronic touch deficit by dosing up on Vitamin T

~ embodied, mindful, and playful, connected with pleasure, inspiration, and love

~ releasing anxiety, depression, loneliness, outdated beliefs/emotions

Meet me on an interview with Jessa Zimmerman, MA, check out some Touch Research on youtube, read a research article.

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