Cuddlist launched in late 2015, a collaboration between Adam Lippin, a conscious entrepreneur, and Madelon Guinazzo, a consent expert.
Most of us don’t get enough meaningful human connection in our lives.
Reaching out is hard. Especially when we feel vulnerable. When we don’t connect our symptoms get worse, it’s even harder to reach out and we can find ourselves in a downward spiral.
A space where we can be ourselves in the company of another who is working with us to discover what helps us feel secure and connected is the purpose and mission of Cuddlist. In this place you will reconnect with your best, most natural and alive self. You will be reminded of the innate goodness of who you are. It can be a transformative healing experience.
Cuddlist brings together those who need healthy meaningful connection (and that would be just about all of us!) with trained, professional practitioners who are experienced, safe, well-versed in consent and follow a code of conduct that sets the conditions for a great session.
Madelon Guinazzo, Co-Founder & Director of Training
Co-Founder & Director of Training Madelon Guinazzo on Cuddling
Madelon Guinazzo is an expert on Communication, Consent, and Boundaries. She is the Co-Founder of Cuddlist.com and the creator of training for the only cuddle therapy program based on personal empowerment for both practitioners and clients. She trains and certifies workshop facilitators worldwide and is on the board of directors for Cuddle Party, Inc. She holds a degree from Northwestern University in Communication Studies and has been training doctors and other healthcare practitioners on examination techniques and communication skills with their patients for nearly 20 years.
Professional cuddling is very new and like all things it is evolving. My years of experience coaching communication with healthcare professionals and facilitating workshops on cuddling and consent with groups of people has taught me volumes about how people can genuinely connect very deeply very quickly. This is a skill set that can be taught and practiced. It has everything to do with boundaries and the ability to consistently communicate them in positive ways. When we do this it creates the safety necessary for tenderness and vulnerability to show up. The combination is magical and there is a need for it.
Our society is hungry to feel close to ourselves and others in healthy ways. Cuddling is a vehicle for this. We have done so much in the last 50 years to protect people from unhealthy abusive touch. Now we are ready to discover new ways to provide healthy nurturing touch. Separating it from sex is essential. We need to experience physical closeness as adults without the complications and pressure of sex. Cuddling is about being able to relax into whatever we are feeling in the moment in the presence of another person who sees that we are good. This is tremendously nurturing, even healing, in and of itself.
All human beings have bodies and emotions. We need to FEEL a sense of physical and emotional safety and belonging with others. This is the experience our Cuddlists are trained to provide. It is pioneering work. We are bringing something new and needed to those who are ready to try it. We don’t expect it to be right for everyone and we are adamant about no one being touched in any way they don’t want to be. What we do believe is that every time one person becomes more relaxed, happy and connected it ripples out and improves things for the rest of us.
Thank you for all the ways you exercise choice and respect around touch in your life.