SAM KENNEDY

A guided community container to give and receive nourishing, platonic touch, and bring curiosity and compassion to the parts of us that still carry old stories around touch – particularly in the context of sharing touch with other men. 

Touch is a vital part of being human. “Touch has a language all its own, one that transcends words and connects hearts.” - Resmaa Menakem, 

My Grandmother’s Hands. 

Unfortunately, most of us do not have enough access to safe, platonic touch – and between men, this can be even less accessible.  There is a lot of personal and cultural baggage that gets in the way of men sharing touch. For some, these are ingrained fears around being perceived “as gay”.  For others, touch has been tainted due to direct experiences of unwanted touch or unwanted sexual energy connected to touch. Education around and healthy modeling of platonic touch was notably absent in most of our upbringings – did you ever see men sharing non-sexual, platonic touch like cuddles during your formative years? Because of this, as we approach the possibility of inviting touch, we may be met with different inner voices holding fears, insecurities, and protective responses that keep us from breaking the touch barrier.

This offering is a healing space to re-encounter the nourishment of touch through a slow, trauma-informed process where you can practice asking for and receiving the touch you want. In this offering, we will get to know the different parts of ourselves that may complicate our relationship to touch.

Drawing on Internal Family Systems, a psychological modality that explores our sub-personalities (the voices inside of us), as well as Somatic practices and The Wheel of Consent, we will have opportunities to encounter our protections and move towards corrective touch experiences. 

SAM KENNEDY

I’ve been a licensed mental health counselor for 10 years, and deeply value play and experimentation. Trained originally in Existential and Phenomenological psychotherapy, my journey has led me increasingly towards the world of somatics and experiential modalities (including Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, EMDR and Play therapy). I worked in community mental health with kids and families for several years before starting my own private practice working with adults. One of my greatest joys in life is accompanying someone in welcoming back a previously exiled aspect of their being. 

Beyond psychology, the exploration of the body has led me toward dance, especially ecstatic dance and contact improv. I have trained with contact improv teachers around the world, and find this practice to offer a chance for deep attunement to self and other. I love to find ways to weave psychology and embodiment together – I just recently co-facilitated a workshop exploring platonic touch through the lens of Internal Family Systems. 

I am also fascinated by  interpersonal skill-building and culture development – I focus a lot of my time helping support the relational field and budding culture at Village Seed (where MANifest will be hosted). It’s a community to which I am deeply committed and in which I can see myself growing old – honestly discovering belonging in a grounded way is fundamentally altering how I think about self, other and the more-than-human world.