About me
In-person (you must be able to host!) -
$100/hour
My name is Shelly, and I'm a neurodivergent Cuddler and space holder. I am passionate about providing cuddling services and support through platonic touch, casual - deep conversation, and deep breathing. Through attunement and co-regulation, we can bring both of our nervous systems back to a sense of safety, belonging, and connection. Support through feelings of loneliness, grief, alienation, disconnection, and touch deprivation.
I am not a licensed therapist; however, I do provide cuddle therapy. Cuddling releases oxytocin that helps the body manage stress by lowering cortisol and can lower your blood pressure. Cuddling can provide an alternative pain therapy as oxytocin can help block pain signals in the body.
I am a Canadian-Caribbean/West Indian Black, femme, queer, and neurodivergent multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary artist with a significant background in theatre and literary arts. As well as a professional Active Listener / Peer Support worker.
I cuddle all genders, all bodies. I care deeply about informed consent, mutual respect, and proactive communication.
As a professional cuddler, I will bring a trauma-informed, inclusive, and deeply intimate energy to everyone I cross paths with in helping support folks in returning their bodies to safety, care, and belonging. I am an advocate for mental health and wellness, decolonial practices, body positivity, arts education, relationship anarchy, ethical non-monogamy, LGBTQIA+ communities, invisible disability, neurodivergence, and chronic illness. These aren't just causes to me, they're my people 💖
As a professional Active Listener / Peer Support worker, I support the mental health struggles of audience members and participants at public events and workshops. I have personally witnessed the immense pain, trauma, and isolation many community members are experiencing on a day-to-day basis. I have provided countless hours of empathetic support. I participated as the Keynote speaker for BigFeels: Post Radical Growth Symposium: Making Space for Mental Health in the Arts.
We live in a society where these needs are rarely, if ever, adequately met, and I am an advocate for physical touch as medicine and a way to deeply heal our nervous systems, returning us to safety and metabolizing the stresses of surviving modern life.
If you are a stressed-out artist, caregiver, parent, customer service worker, or frontline responder, I would love to connect with you. I can help support those experiencing touch deprivation/touch starvation.
By the end of each cuddle session, I hope to help clients feel better than they did at the beginning of our sessions and to feel a little more like themselves again through active listening, affectionate embraces, and calming co-regulation practices.
Happy to wear a mask upon request. Vaccinated and will test for COVID-19 before every session. Please do not book a session when you are sick.