At Cuddlist, we don’t teach you how to cuddle. Our training program is about empowering you to model actions and behaviors imbued with consent, radical acceptance, an understanding that providing boundaries is a loving gesture and an invitation to discover one’s best self. By being very clear in what we are saying “yes” or “no” to and empowering our clients to make choices themselves, we model consent in a healthy, non-shaming, loving way. We are not better than our clients, nor are we worse than our clients. We are here to offer them our complete presence and loving support within a clear, safe container. A Cuddlist client is not paying for “cuddling” or “companionship”.

I am shaped by my experience in the training I received and in teaching at http://jivamuktiyoga.com, whose motto has been “our students know more than most yoga teachers.” It’s not knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but it is a way of being in the world where you are kinder and more loving to all. That is exactly what we believe at Cuddlist. At the end of the session, our clients have a stronger understanding of being fully present for themself, a strong understanding of consent and boundaries, and an intuitive understanding of communication on an authentic/heart-centered level, not just “feel better”, and they can now model this for other people.

A Cuddlist session is designed to create the conditions where a true, honest, consensual experience within a strict code of conduct can happen. A Cuddlist must understand that their role is to help empower their client and help them rediscover their best self. They do this by the combination of radical acceptance, complete honesty, strong, loving boundaries, and the desire to be of service. They do not do this because they love “cuddling.”

Madelon Guinazzo, our co-founder and architect of our training program has trained hospital staffs, med students, and doctors on critical communication skills. She is brilliant and inspiring, and has put together a training program that will change your life and offer you a community of incredible Cuddlist practitioners that you will be on this journey which offers support, sharing of best practices, and are frankly the most brilliant people you will ever meet.

By Adam Lippin & Nicolette Cetrulo