Being Different Together
Being Different Together explores the realms of relationship, entrepreneurship, and personal development through the lens of Real Dialogue, a set of principles, practices, and methods for healthy conflict as a means for growth.
In other words, just because we disagree, doesn’t mean we can’t get along.
Through this series, Nyssa and Kelly will bring their combined experience as holistic health practitioners to the table to share what they’ve learned through the process of integrating these skills in their lives.
This podcast is for all the people who want to make the world a better place and feel a little less alone doing it.
Being Different Together
#7 - How Touch Shapes Our Relationships
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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