As a professional cuddler, Samantha Hess touches on a issue in our modern society, where genuine contact is rather limited and is usually filtered through social media and things alike, so her idea of professional cuddling is to try and mend this problem we’ve created inadvertently by offering professional platonic cuddling services!
She explains that a professional cuddler is someone who has an infinite amount of physical energy to give and emotion through touch to convey, yet albeit her capacity for physical touch is infinite, her time isn’t, accenting the fact that the price for her services is not the touch itself, but rather the time she has to spend focusing on her cuddle partner to make the session constructive and with a positive outcome
She also elaborates that in our current society, men are somewhat treated like predators too much with stereotypical premeditation rather than factual representation, and she takes it upon herself to create a form of a self-space with differently colored rooms in which people can get comfortable and physically express themselves in a platonic manner, saying that in her line of work, she’s accountable for her boundaries rather than her cuddle partner!
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By Nikola Bonev
Meet master cuddler Samantha Hess, a woman who as a layman psychologist dabbles in professional cuddling as a form of emotional rejuvenation, saying that the payment her service is for her time only and not for her touch during the session, consisting of her eccentric approach towards physical and emotional healing, welcomed by many!
Paraphrasing Samantha Hess's words, in today's world we live in a rather isolated manner with genuine emotional and even physical contact is very scarce, as much of our interactions are via a form of a medium like social media where albeit the contact is much more easier and convenient, it really lacks the impact which genuine, real-life physical contact and emotionally intriguing conversations have.
As a professional cuddler, she explains that her job consists of simply platonically cuddling with people in differently themed rooms that provide the setting for different activities, everything and anything in-between from extensive cuddling to simply watching a movie while holding hands, as different people have different needs and Samantha’s job as a professional is to be able to cater to as many people in need as possible.
She explains that while in today’s world men are usually heavily stigmatized as predators rather than having factually looked at their needs as human beings, and she takes it upon herself to help people with different levels of need, going from simple cuddle sessions to serious trauma, with her logo spelling “F.A.I.R”, an acronym that stands for “Freely given, Agreeable, Informed and Reversible”, explaining that during her professional platonic cuddle sessions she’s the one that’s accountable for setting up her boundaries and totally breaking down the standard dynamic of “having to read her mind what’s okay or not”, as she’ll simply tell you so you can create a sense of comfort at a much faster pace, making the sessions themselves much more accessible and productive overall.
During her cuddle sessions, Samantha uses over 80 cuddling positions, one of the most popular being “The Cloak” in which she simply lies directly on top of her cuddle partner, a cuddling position which creates a lot of pressure on the person that’s on the bottom, explaining that The Cloak is one of the most effective cuddling positions for people who struggle with overthinking and general anxiety, having the physical positive pressure release them from negative thoughts and even help them slow down their mental process for a while, often joking that “During the Cloak, she’s usually the mustard while her partner is the bun, as she’s usually the one who’s on top during the cuddling sessions”.
Humor is a big part of her work, as Samantha herself says that “We need to laugh in order to overcome the pain”, which even though her work specializes in rejuvenating emotional pain, the physical rejuvenation that happens parallel to the emotional is probably indistinguishable and possibly even intertwined, as when we indulge into platonic physical touch that provides us improved self-esteem, a general feeling of greater self-worth and even relieving mental anxiety, the body operates on a physiological level to actually make these things happen, increasing our levels of serotonin and oxytocin (which are commonly known as the hormones of happiness and love), while also decreasing our levels of cortisol (also known as the hormone of stress).
While her demeanor is rather jolly, during her interview Samantha thoroughly expressed her adeptness at utilizing this knowledge into her sessions in order to increase their effectiveness, having all of the 80 cuddling sessions be almost at a meticulously calculated level of thoughtfulness so they can properly target the different needs of different people rather than being a simple cuddling palette from which her cuddling partners choose a position.
Having such an eccentric approach to psychological therapy and emotional healing yet possessing an astonishing insight into her work, Travis Hoefle simply couldn’t give up the opportunity to interview Samantha Hess who disperses stigmas and does her best to make the world a better place, no matter how what her methods may be!