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- BlogDear Reader: Welcome to my very first blog! This blog represents the next step of faith in a journey I never could have imagined ten years ago, a path full of unexpected turns, rich discoveries and shared connections—personal connections to some of you who might be reading at this very moment, as well as a larger sense of shared practice, kinship, and brotherhood with many of you whom I will never meet. What I now call “Touch Practice” began as an effort to explore and heal my own body. I thought of it as something I created, something invented or made up, just for me. I slowly realized that while it was profoundly healing for me, it also seemed to have tremendous benefit for others, and so it became something for “we” rather than something just for “me.” I began to think of Touch Practice as a form of partnership. Next, I understood that something I imagined I had created or invented myself actually existed before I found it—Touch Practice is more accurately something I discovered, something I became aware of rather than creating. I came to understand that this aspect of touch has probably existed in an infinite variety…
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Consolidating
2All living things follow a predictable sequence of opposites: after periods of growth or active change, there is a moment of dormancy or rest, a time when nothing in particular seems to be happening. In human experience, I refer to this process as consolidation: periods when what …
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Touch Practice: Mission, Vision, Values
Touch Practice describes an improvised, ritual practice of non-sexual partnered bodywork for the soul that empowers men through compassionate touch. My mission: to physically hold men as a spiritual practice of compassion to support and nurture physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, safety, and happiness to be …
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Working with Shadow
It’s popular in our culture to think of people in terms of “strengths and weaknesses.” On evaluations of a child’s schoolwork or an employee’s performance, this phrase is often euphemized into “strengths” and “areas for improvement,” but hey, we all know what that code means, …
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Finding Touch Practice Partners
I often hear from men in remote parts of the country who stumble across my website and ask, “can you help me find someone here who does what you do?” Sometimes I’ll leave a city, having shared Touch Practice there with several people, and one …
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Is Touch Practice related to other forms of Body Work?
Since I’ve become more public about the work of Touch Practice, I’m met at least a dozen people, and become aware of many more, who are working in similar ways: using physical touch to bless and heal physical bodies. Some of my closest cousins seem …
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Hanging On, Letting Go
Sometimes a guy will come to Touch Practice once, send a note that says “thank you, that was wonderful,” and that’s the last of our communication. Others who met me initially through Touch Practice have, over the course of years, become close friends, people I …
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A Thank You To Soldiers
It is fair to say that every time I share Touch Practice with another man, it is a life-changing experience for me. It’s not possible to hold someone for an hour and not be deeply touched (pardon the pun) on every level. But some of …
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Men are Animals! Packing Behavior and Puppy Piles
One of the most profound influences on our behavior as men is not something we think about very often, because it is hardwired into us on a deeper level of the brain. Humans, like dogs, wolves, apes, zebras, and many other mammals, experience “packing instinct.” …
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Out of my Mind: The Limits of Talk Therapy
One of the greatest moments of my life occurred on a Thursday evening when, at the end of a yoga class during the shavasana period, I, quite literally, went out of my mind. That is, I felt my own sense of self fall down out …
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Touch as a Spiritual Practice?
People sometimes ask why I don’t accept money for Touch Practice, or why I don’t “market” it more aggressively. Sometimes men who would like me to hold them will ask me what my “type” is. My reply is “I don’t have a ‘type’. The people …
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