What’s Inside
The cultural and social barriers that keep us physically isolated.
How much touch you prefer.
A framework that helps to keep your intentions clear.
What items you will need for a successful encounter.
What sort of touch you enjoy.
How to get your touch needs met by strangers in a safe, sane way.
What touch does to the physical body and why it’s so important.
How to navigate interpersonal boundaries with respect and consent.
How to approach your friends in a thoughtful way.
Different ways to give and receive touch.
Ways to share nurturing human touch across a variety of situations.
How to get less touch, not more if that’s what you want.
Somebody Hold Me: The Single Person’s Guide to Nurturing Human Touch
The book that takes a simple, radical approach to health and relationships by teaching you how to get more platonic touch.
Nearly 50% of Americans checked the ‘single’ box in the 2010 census.
Because we equate touch with sex, many of us suffer alone when we crave physical comfort and tenderness.
Somebody Hold Me walks you through the increasingly fraught physical space between between humans, and allows for more connection and closeness through giving and receiving structured touch in your existing relationships.
This is NOT a guide about how to find or attract a partner, or how to have better sex. Millions of pixels have been sacrificed to that cause already, many of them eloquently.
This guide will give you tools to improve your communication and negotiation skills, and get your touch needs met. While these things could help you in your quest to find a mate, that’s not my focus. Still, there are nuggets o’ wisdom aplenty in here for people who are in romantic of sexual relationships, and this information just might contribute to more harmonious partnerships.
Nurturing human touch is free, abundant, and organic, and giving and receiving it requires little training. It’s a simple life hack with profound consequences. If you are willing to take a risk and connect with others, you will be able to enjoy better health and relationships.
Bella LaVey
If you’re not getting touched, then this is the book for you. Somebody Hold Me is the how-to manual about touch that the world has been waiting for – without knowing it. Warning! Following these instructions could positively change your health, uplift your attitude, and brighten your world.
Dr. J
An honest, clever, enjoyable and amazingly radical book.
Jordan‘s take on the paucity of touch in our culture and the resulting negative effects would be depressing, except that the most of the book describes practical paths back to normal healthy, healing and nurturing touch, especially for anyone whose life has become touch barren.
Be clear: Somebody Hold Me is not, not, not about sex. Quite the opposite. Jordan walks her readers through the steps necessary to create and maintain a personal life where touch is appreciated, available and safe.
This book will change your worldview. Read it only if you want to live more fully and enjoy feeling alive way more often.
Janet
As a Platonic Touch & Cuddling Specialist, I can attest to the value of touch. There is no lack of scientific and anecdotal evidence that speaks to the necessity of touch for all ages, but limited access to platonic touch is our greatest obstacle to meeting our touch needs.
In this first-of-its-kind book, Jordan explains with ease and humor how many of us, herself included, have found ourselves needing touch after a major life change. “We don’t have scripts on how to touch our friends,” she says. This book provides the scripts to begin creating a culture where platonic touch is normalized in all of society.
Somebody Hold Me moves through the emotional connection of touch, the science and basic need for touch, and the how-to of touch: a large portion of Jordan’s book gives exercises you can try with a friend or a group of friends to begin playing with meaningful and enriching touch.
Creating a culture of touch starts with you. Somebody Hold Me is the book you need to do just that!
Skipper
Somebody Hold Me is a smart, practical, and empowering guide for anyone who could benefit from more nurturing touch in their 21st century lives, which, Jordan helped me realize, is pretty much all of us.
Halcyon
In today’s charged landscape of increased sexual-harassment awareness, dialogue about consensual touch is mandatory.
Somebody Hold Me is the textbook for the touch we need. Jordan clarifies the lines of sexuality, health, and well-being and shows a path for healthy human touch that might save us from our isolated, screen-dominated future.
Mo
Yes, I do want a hug. And you probably do, too! Somebody Hold Me breaks through the shame of loneliness and desire for physical touch and offers a compassionate guide to getting this need met. This book is an invitation to take the risk to go against our culture’s cruel edict that touch only be given by a romantic or sexual partner, and provides instructions on how to offer, ask for, and negotiate boundaries around platonic touch. An important conversation, and Jordan shows that she’s the right person to lead it.
Kitty Stryker
Somebody Hold Me is a fantastic guide for the single person looking to understand how best to access the kind of touch that feeds the soul without being creepy about it. The focus on radical vulnerability, asking for what you want, and understanding touch in non-sexual ways is super important! Also excellent are the practice exercises so that a group can have a guided workshop on these topics. Useful for any community wherein nurturing touch may play a part.