In addition to professional cuddling (which I do), there is a whole cuddling community. So, I thought I’d talk about that a little.

There are Cuddle Parties (which is an officially licensed group) where you pay a fee (usually between $25 and $50) for several hours of cuddling with other folks. Cuddle Parties have a trained facilitator that does an open circle, helps participants voice their boundaries, and ends with a closing circle. You can find a Cuddle Party near you on the site! I’m currently going through Cuddle Party facilitator training and hope to be offering them in the Ann Arbor/Metro Detroit area in the next 6 months or so!

There are other cuddle gatherings that have different structures, but I don’t know a lot about them. Do you? If so, please comment so that I can inform myself!

Then there’s one-on-one enthusiast cuddling. Want to find a cuddle buddy? Sites like Cuddle Comfort can help you find one — no fee required! Cuddle Comfort is sort-of like a dating site in that you create a profile and can search for other people in your area, but IT IS NOT A DATING SITE (that is one of its major rules). Cuddle Comfort is a site that I like especially for its forums. In the forums you can learn a LOT about both enthusiast and professional cuddling. I, personally, have made quite a few online ‘friends’ through Cuddle Comfort. People that I message and keep in contact with just because of our common interests.

Then there are sites where you can find professionals. Cuddle Comfort, which I already mentioned is one. Cuddlist is another good one where the professionals have to go through training before being listed on the site. There are a whole host of individual sites, too. If you’re in the Boston area, I highly recommend Snuggle with Sam — but I’m biased because I met her this summer and we really hit it off! 😉

If you have a personal site (and you are truly a platonic cuddler who does NOT offer ANY kind of sexual ‘upgrades’) — please leave it in the comments so that other people who view this blog can find you!

One word of warning: while I am a big, big advocate of professional (and all of the communities around it), you DO need to use caution and your common sense.

There are people out there who use cuddling to mask prostitution. I don’t like this at all; I hate even talking about it. But I feel it would be neglectful of me not to mention it. So please be mindful of the sites you use to find cuddlers; if it *seems* particularly sketchy, pass. Along with this, there are both clients and enthusiasts who will try to test your platonic boundaries. And there are professionals who may try to scam you. Learning to screen professionals, clients, or fellow enthusiasts is VITAL. Knowing your boundaries and how to communicate them is VITAL.

I’m not trying to scare you. Cuddling is a BEAUTIFUL and THERAPEUTIC practice. If you’re not already involved in the cuddling community, I hope you join us!