Body Doubling and Cuddling?

AlyLaurenAlyLauren
in General

I had an interesting request from a client that has gotten me thinking and I would love to hear from the community!

One of my clients requested that I be there to support them while they work out in their home gym. Just to provide a positive, encouraging presence to help motivate and I started thinking about body doubling.

If you're not familiar, body doubling is a practice where someone is present with you while you work on tasks, providing a sense of accountability, focus, and emotional support. It's especially helpful for individuals who struggle with procrastination, ADHD, or simply need motivation to stay on track. The idea is that having another person nearby—whether they’re actively engaging or simply being present—can make tasks feel less overwhelming and easier to accomplish.

I have ADHD myself, and my friends body double for me and for each other all the time. It's great to just have a friend hanging out on my couch while I do my laundry or clean my kitchen.

I am curious if this is a potential service I should add to my professional cuddling? Or even outside of professional cuddling and clients if body doubling is a potential extension of cuddling for everyone on the site. I would love to hear what the community thinks about that. It seems to me like it has some similar benefits in offering human connection and support, even if it's not entirely physical affection or touch oriented. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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Comments

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    I know a lot of people who will stand there talking to you while you work. They are called kids and they are the true professionals at doing that.

  • WestsideMarcWestsideMarc
    edited January 2025

    Those 2 are quite mutually exclusive .I just can’t imagine anyone paying $100 per hour or more for that service. I mean, why not just hire a personal trainer to get all of those benefits, PLUS?! …. 2 birds 1 stone.

    I do see some pros offering services outside of cuddling like being a dinner, movie, or event companion or friend for hire in some other capacity, so I don’t see anything wrong with adding in some verbiage onto your profile to incorporate those options if you want.

    Having said that, if that person has money to burn and you’re meeting a need they have then I say why not….

  • lovingspoonfulllovingspoonfull
    edited January 2025

    I think the practice you describe is too far outside my experience to even offer advice. I’ll echo above and say give it a try and see if it works for you. Good luck!

    @TheFunCartel I’d add coworkers to that mix. There are days I avoid the office just because people are so starved for connection that they just want to stand around and talk. The hybrid or work from home scheme doesn’t work for everyone and so much of my time gets absorbed by others these days that I’m contributing to the problem by avoiding them. 😇 they learn quickly though because I give them something to do and they flee! 🤣 the tasks are on a rising scale of difficulty versus annoyance.

  • BrionCBrionC

    If they are willing to pay you for your time-go for it. No different from therapeutic counseling

  • timbear50timbear50

    Check out a service called Focused Space. Virtual co-working and although it's not body doubling, it's an online service where people work in 90 minute sprints together. There are other services like Focused Space out there as well.

  • LadyVelLadyVel

    I use an extension of my cuddling as it is especially helpful for those who need to break the ice first, have autism, other ND, or who may have touch trauma and need to feel comfortable around a person before actually cuddling.

    If it's a task that can be done sitting, you can even potentially hold them while they are doing it. It depends on their comfort.

    I had one session where I sat behind them and held them while they worked on their laptop on the bed.

  • AlyLaurenAlyLauren

    @TheFunCartel kids are great at that! 😂 my other job is taking care of disabled kiddos and a couple of my clients love to just chill at my apartment with me.

  • AlyLaurenAlyLauren

    @WestsideMarc a personal trainer is definitely a more skilled option for specifically working out. 😂

    The cost and value is always an interesting thing to consider. Some of my friends/family outside the cuddling community are amazed people pay for cuddling, or by how much people pay for it.

    If my clients would prefer to spend their session getting some moral support for whatever they want to work on, I'm cool with that! (Obviously within the bounds of platonic and appropriate)

  • AlyLaurenAlyLauren

    @lovingspoonfull I fear I may be THAT coworker. I was a teacher and then I worked in behavioral health and I always wanted to be working closely with my coworkers and I love being around people. 😂

  • AlyLaurenAlyLauren

    @LadyVel I love that! It's wonderful you are so accommodating and compassionate for your clients. I try to be the same way 😊

  • GuyverGordonGuyverGordon

    See, I do my best work when I am on my own. For me, hiring someone like that would make me much less productive not more. I would most likely be too self conscious to either work or if I did work, it would not be my best work...

  • WestsideMarcWestsideMarc

    PS to my last comment. I don’t think the term body double is a very apt term, my understanding is it just has one meaning and that is what we all know for filming purposes. I think a better term would be a Emotional Support Person ESP.

  • AchterbahnAchterbahn

    @WestsideMarc You may not prefer the term, but it's the common term used the ADHD community. It's not like @AlyLauren made it up.

    I've done it and it works well for me, but I don't see it as something that I'd really pay for.

  • AlyLaurenAlyLauren

    Body Doubling is also the accepted term for what I'm talking about but @WestsideMarc it would be way funnier if the film definition is what I was asking about 😂

  • wilderdudewilderdude

    You can get a personal trainer for far less and they will be way more useful when working out.

  • TenderEmbracesTenderEmbraces

    Sounds like something I could use.

  • BlessedEnergy4UBlessedEnergy4U

    I would love 😍 to be a hosting body double… have fun! let me know how it goes :)

  • [Deleted User]couch_cuddler (deleted user)

    With a personal trainer, you are starting over with a new human, which can be difficult for some. And I don't know much about it but I'm guessing they don't usually come to your home to train you? At any rate, I can see why someone who has already built trust and a good report with you might think of other ways you could help them. They aren't just paying for the service at this point. They are paying for the security and convenience of already knowing you and having trust in you. If you don't judge someone paying for human touch, you're not likely going to judge them for anything else.

  • SweetPeaJenSweetPeaJen

    2.5 years ago, I made a connection with someone on here who happened to live in my town. We've become close friends, and we have body doubled, then cuddled afterwards as a type of reward for being productive. I don't have ADHD, but he does. It seems to really help both of us get things done. Never heard of the term, until he taught me about it. 🤷‍♀️. I think it's worth a shot! If it's an activity you can both engage in while sitting, you could incorporate touch some how--even if it's just hand holding or touching knees. We actually body doubled tonight. We weren't sitting next to each other tonight, but I periodically went up to him and hugged him to give him some motivation and comfort because he was working on something very stressful for him. I love helping him like that. ❤️

  • graceangelgraceangel

    I didn't even know people do that for people with adhd. I wonder if 8d benefit from something like that 🤔. since becoming a mother, I became such a procrastinator. like I have material to organize into a few manuscripts. I don't do it because it's tedious. but if someone were around and just in the atmosphere. the idea of it feels appealing.

  • LadyVelLadyVel

    I have never been diagnosed but I know I am neurodivergent. I have had friends body double with me and we cuddle and watch TV afterwards.
    This is one of the reasons why I thought of offering it.

  • WestsideMarcWestsideMarc

    @Achterbahn I didn’t know that. Something new I learned.

  • AlyLaurenAlyLauren

    Thank you all so much for your wonderful input! I think it can be so helpful, particularly with someone you trust and are comfy with.

    @graceangel I definitely know some moms who do this too! Get all the kiddos together, share parenting duties, get some laundry done, cook dinner together!

  • SoosonSooson

    I seriously thought this is about someone asking for advice regarding cuddling after they doubled in size. ok I'm out of here

  • ReltvlyCanshesReltvlyCanshes

    People put. Name on all sorts of things. I was once a stand in boyfriend because her boyfriend worked nights. He got laid off and couldn't afford it anymore. It was weird because he was still gone every night i just stopped getting paid....

  • VitaminJVitaminJ

    My son has an ASMR channel and is in college so he started filming himself studying and has several long form “study with me” videos that others watch while they are studying to have a companion. This was the first I had ever heard of such a thing.

  • TinaPlaysTinaPlays

    I body double on zoom a lot, but I still have anxiety about working on tasks sometimes and it makes it very hard to get started. I have very seriously considered whether something like cuddling while trying to do difficult tasks would help, be too distracting, or just ruin the whole thing.

    Ex. I’m curious if someone would want cuddling while doing their taxes since they are pretty universally stressful.

  • KuddlyKoalaKuddlyKoala

    I've actually done that before! The person was working on spreadsheets while I watched a movie and occasionally asked him how it was going.😂

  • AlyLaurenAlyLauren

    I love hearing all these stories! It's amazing that I'm not the only one. 😊 you are all awesome! 💛

  • BlueWandererBlueWanderer

    @TheFunCartel My 17-year-old son WILL STOP HIS WORKOUT and come find me in the middle of MY workout to show me the funny video he just watched.

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