Touch is both essential and complicated.

In this episode, Kelly and Nyssa explore touch as a human need—how it can be both deeply healing and highly charged. 

The discussion moves through consent, subjectivity, non-sexual touch, and how cultural conditioning has shaped the way bodies relate to one another. 

Drawing from bodywork, psychotherapy, Thai massage, and lived experience, the episode names touch as a form of communication that can support healing, connection, and dialogue.

Main Topics Covered:

• Why touch is politicized, sexualized, and often misunderstood, especially in Western culture
• The importance of consent, communication, and clear boundaries in both professional and personal touch
• How their work as a psychotherapist, acupuncturist, and massage therapist shapes the way they think about safe, attuned touch
• The developmental impact of early touch (and lack of it), including attachment and our capacity for empathy
• The philosophy and practice of Thai massage as a form of slow, negotiated, non-sexual touch that can deepen connection between partners, family members, and friends
• How expanding our “touch menu” can make it easier to ask for non-sexual touch and potentially even strengthen or “save” relationships

Links:

Thai Massage Workshop at Gaze Hot Yoga, Feb. 21, 2026: https://www.nyssahanger.com/workshops

Book: Constructing the Sexual Crucible by David Schnarch

Stay in Touch:

Nyssa Hanger: www.nyssahanger.com | IG: @nyssahanger

Kelly Brady: www.kellybrady.me | IG: @drkellybrady