The Healing Power of Touch: How Cuddle and Rope Therapy Support Emotional Well-Being

I often feel pulled away from my life. With constant communication, easy availability of substances for every need, and a distraction at just a swipe, it can be easy to ignore the various sensations sweeping across my body in a given day. I've learned touch- when it's safe, consensual, and nurturing- can be a powerful tool for healing emotional wounds, regulating the nervous system, and rebuilding trust with myself and others.

My own experiences as a victim of sexual and relationship violence taught me the power of touch through trauma. Safe, nurturing touch healed the wounds those incidents inflicted. As I reflect on where to go with my career at a moment of forced pause, I'm drawn back to my roots. I started my life's work through direct service to my community. In supporting others through their healing, I found my own path to purpose.

I'm currently on furlough and very likely facing a layoff, just as we tip right into the point-of-no-return as a country. The uncertainty is enough to terrify anyone, especially this single mom. I've done my due diligence applying for jobs with appropriately tailored resumes, reaching out to my network, and expanding my professional skill set. But there's something I want just a little more than returning to the day job I love. That's to build a life doing work that is both meaningful and more within my control.

I've returned to the roots of my profession as I've reflected on this, particularly curious about how I can revive them for this new iteration of life. "Touch therapy" is the idea that came to me- a non-sexual, professional service integrating my 15 years of experience in trauma-focused work and my ancestral practice curanderismo to support a somatic-based approach to wellbeing and human connection. Welcome to Sacred Touch.

The Science Behind Healing Touch

Research shows healthy physical touch has several benefits for our health and wellbeing. Touch releases a hormone called oxytocin, often referred to the "bonding" or "love" hormone. From a general health perspective, this hormone helps lower stress, reduce anxiety, and increases our feelings of safety and connection. Developmentally, it's critical for our survival. Skin-to-skin contact right after birth regulates newborns' temperature, hear rate, breathing, and even decreases crying. The same skin-to-skin contact that helps a newborn bond with their caregivers, birthing parents receive signals from the same touch leading to the release of their milk. The benefits of safe, consensual touch extend beyond immediate feelings of feeling good. We can all recall a hug so safe it rooted us back to earth in a difficult moment, or the electric thrill of holding hands with a new crush, or the soothing sensation of someone gently rubbing their fingers through our hair. Physical touch regulates our heart rate, decreases cortisol levels, and activating the parasympathetic nervous system- the part of the body responsible for rest, digestion, and emotional repair.

The partner to the parasympathetic nervous system is the "sympathetic" nervous system- the one controlling the body's fight or flight responses. This is a nervous system survivors of trauma are often familiar with. Trauma survivors may develop survival responses to touch such as hypervigilance or avoidance that may no longer be supporting their current needs. Survivors can rebuild a sense of safety in their bodies and within relationships with a slow practice of caring and consensual touch. My own experience as a trauma survivor living with PTSD has shown me how powerful safe and consensual touch can be in soothing and regulating the nervous system. It can provide survivors with a re-introduction to touch through a process they own and at the pace they choose. Integrating cultural and spiritual practices such as breathwork, ritual, and affirmations allow survivors to connect with their bodies in a variety of ways, leaving room for the moments where touch may simply be inaccessible.

Whether you are a trauma survivor or not, there is tremendous value in connecting with people through safe, consensual, non-sexual touch. Cuddle and rope therapy are about more than just the physical touch- it's about emotional attunement, deep listening, and presence and connection. It's about co-creating a safe container for you to be held.

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