Professional cuddlers offering online sessions amid coronavirus pandemic
The intimate profession has gone virtual
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ah, the warm embrace of a screen.
Professional cuddlers – people who get paid to give clients platonic snuggles – are moving their businesses online as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Though the profession typically revolves around touch, cuddlers have reportedly found a way to mimic some of the intimacy offered their clients from real in-person sessions through video chatting.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cuddlers have begun talking their clients through cuddling themselves to try and replicate the hugging experience. (iStock)
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Madelon Guinazzo, co-founder of cuddle therapist training platform Cuddlist, told the New York Post that ncreased eye contact can help substitute “some sort of connection” while the COVID-19 outbreak keeps everyone apart.
Others have also begun talking their clients through cuddling themselves to try and replicate the hugging experience.
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Jean Franzblau, founder of Cuddle Sanctuary in Los Angeles, took on virtual client Randy Wade Kelley and instructed him to lay on his side and position one arm under his head and the other close to his torso to simulate cuddling.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“There’s no substitution for human touch, but it definitely helps bridge the gap,” Kelley told The Guardian. “I’m so thankful I’m able to cuddle myself.”
As the pandemic continues, professions are finding loopholes or alternatives to keep business as close to usual as possible, like one New York facialist, who started offering "booty facials" after her salon was not allowed to reopen for the more traditional facial.