Can I Pay Someone to Hug Me?

Short answer: yes

You can pay someone to hug you. The service is called professional cuddling, every professional is trained and vetted, sessions are fully clothed and strictly non-sexual, and in most of the US an hour costs $80 to $200. You book it the way you would book a massage: pick a professional, message them, agree a time, show up. To see who is available near you, browse trained Embracers on Embrace Club.

Is it weird to pay someone to hug you?

No. Most people who book a first session arrive with the same worry — that wanting to be held is a defect, and paying for it an admission of failure. It helps to know how common that is.

“A lot of the clients feel they are the only ones who have this need to be held, when in reality this is a human need as food and shelter and our jobs exist because there is a big demand. Experienced professional cuddlers know how not to make it weird, so the whole experience feels welcoming.”

— Melissa, founder of Embrace Club

Touch is not a luxury your body added on later. It is a biological need, and it does not care whether a partner, a friend or a professional meets it. A body held steadily for an hour responds the way a body responds.

What has changed is access. More people live alone, work remotely and live far from family than at any point in living memory. The need did not go anywhere; the ordinary supply did. Paying for touch is a response to that gap, not evidence of something wrong with you.

How much does it cost?

Most professional cuddling sessions cost $80 to $200 per hour. Rates are set by each professional, and every profile lists its own pricing and session lengths — you see the number before you message anyone.

There is no membership fee, no package requirement and no charge to browse or message. You pay for the session you book, and nothing before that.

What are you actually paying for?

Not the touch by itself. People book for what comes with it: compassion, comfort, safety, the feeling of being seen and understood, and what steady contact does to a stressed body.

What makes those possible is the structure around them. A session is a controlled space built around the client — your pace, your boundaries, your call on everything, agreed before anything begins. Every Embrace Club session runs on six principles: consent-based, client-led, inclusive, confidential, judgment-free and trauma-informed.

Those are not decoration. Inclusive means professionals work with clients of all genders, orientations and abilities. Trauma-informed means they are trained to notice when something shifts and slow down without being asked twice. Confidential means the session stays between you and your Embracer.

Is it sexual, or a kind of therapy?

Not sexual. Sessions are fully clothed from start to finish and strictly non-sexual. This is not a soft preference that shifts with the right professional or the right price. It is the condition the entire practice runs on, and it applies without exception.

Therapeutic, but not therapy. Research on human touch suggests that safe, sustained contact can lower cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, and prompt the release of oxytocin, which is associated with feeling calm and connected. Clients commonly report sleeping better and carrying less tension in the days after a session. Professional cuddling is increasingly recognized as a form of somatic care — work that supports wellbeing through the body rather than through conversation alone.

What it is not is clinical treatment. A professional cuddler is not a licensed mental health provider, does not diagnose anything and does not treat any condition. Plenty of clients see a therapist as well — one works through talk, the other through safe physical contact.

Our complete guide to professional cuddling covers the training, the boundaries and the science in depth.

What happens in a session?

Every session opens with a conversation. Before any contact, you and the professional talk through what you want and what is off the table. Nothing happens that you have not already agreed to, and you can change your mind at any point without explaining yourself.

From there it is led by you — sitting side by side, holding hands, a long hug, or lying with your head on someone’s shoulder while you talk. It might be mostly talking with very little contact. There is no sequence to complete, and no technique performed on you.

Most people find the first ten minutes are the awkward part and the rest is not. If uncertainty is what is stopping you, what to expect from your first cuddling session walks through it step by step.

Who actually books professional cuddling?

A wider range of people than you would guess. Clients book after a bereavement, during a divorce, or in a stretch of remote work where weeks pass without being touched by anyone. Caregivers book because they attend to others all day and have nowhere to put their own need for care. So do people recovering from illness, and people who live alone.

Every professional on Embrace Club is trained and vetted. We only accept people who have completed recognized professional cuddling training, every one is background-checked and interviewed before joining, and each profile carries reviews from real clients. You are not taking a chance on a stranger from a listings site.

How do you book a session?

1. Browse. Go to the Embracer directory and filter by location. Every professional listed is trained and vetted, and each profile shows photos, rates, reviews and availability.
2. Message first. Say what you are looking for. Most professionals answer questions before you commit, and some offer a short call.
3. Agree the details. Time, length, and where — their space, yours, a public setting, or online.
4. Book it. Confirm through the platform.

In New York, sessions can take place at the cuddle studio in Brooklyn, the city’s only space dedicated to professional cuddling. In Southern California, book a professional cuddler in the San Diego area. Elsewhere, professionals host, travel or work virtually.

Frequently asked questions