Relational Healing Through Trusted Touch and Platonic Connection - Allowing for a Corrective Emotional Experience

Human Connnection Lab

TLDR - In the human connection lab we get to build a connection with ourselves and others. Michelle works with all genders with a full spectrum of life history and specializes in working with survivors of child sexual assault, providing an opportunity to have emotionally corrective experiences.

Relational-Based Touch for Relational-Based Healing

  • I work with people of all genders; most clients are single.

    I tend to work with clients needing support around body image, childhood sexual assault recovery, and/or mother wounds.

    Clients are seeking an emotionally corrective experience. This is a great space for experiential learners.

  • • Managing anxiety and depression

    • Setting boundaries, expressing needs, and desires

    • Feeling more empowered and overcoming past trauma

    • Recovering from abuse and neglect, including sexual, physical, and emotional trauma

    • Boosting self-esteem and dealing with body image issues

    • Overcoming codependency in relationships and attachment problems

    • Changing your understanding of consent and obligation. It's common to learn early on that people in authority can control our bodies, and it can be difficult to unlearn this belief.

  • You may be wondering what a session looks like. We begin by exploring how you want to connect, which can be a big question. Many clients struggle to answer it, so we work on figuring it out from the get-go. I use various exercises and coaching techniques during each session, without a set plan, to address whatever comes up in the moment. My role is to guide you in slowing down, being present, and tuning into your body's truth during our time together. It's like a live experiment where we strive to be authentic and face fears, in this safer space to take risks. As you become more comfortable, we gradually approach new challenges at a pace that suits you. Think of our sessions as the therapy of the social world.

    I call these sessions “Foundations of Human Connection” and they vary from 60 minutes to 3 hours, depending on each client's needs and availability. We'll discuss this in more detail during our intake call and decide together. I usually recommend starting with a 90-minute or 2-hour session.

  • I offer sessions ranging from Professional Cuddling to Foundations of Human Connection to Platonic
    Surrogate Partner Therapy. Let's have an exploratory call to discuss what you need.

  • The next thing to do is get in touch with me. I'd like to schedule a one-hour Zoom call to see if we're a good match to work together. We can chat and I can learn more about you. You can also ask me anything you want.

  • It's hard to predict how many sessions you'll need, but most people work with me for many months.

    When a client is local to San Diego, sessions are usually scheduled weekly or every two weeks. My San Diego location is in Rancho Bernardo, near the 15 freeway. If you want me to come to you, there's a $50 travel fee for areas within western San Diego County, around a 30-minute drive from Rancho Bernardo.

    Clients in the Los Angeles or Orange County areas can see me once a month when I’m in their area.

    Clients in the Mid-Atlantic can schedule quarterly sessions when I’m in the Baltimore area.

    Clients outside of those areas can create their own schedule, as I’m open to travel and San Diego is also a beautiful destination.


    Surrogate Partner Therapy, Professional Cuddling, and Foundations of Human Connection - all relational forms of touch therapy - are all extremely intensive processes for both client and practitioner. It is important to me to be able to offer this work to historically underserved populations while also abstaining from burnout so I can bring all of my clients my best self. For this reason I have implemented an anti-oppression rate-based structure, also known as “sliding scale,” wherein redistribution-range clients make it sustainable for me to serve my sliding scale clients.

    As part of our intake, we will determine our session rate. Please click here for more info.

  • If you're not in San Diego, that's okay. Clients can come to town for an in-depth workshop spanning several days. I can also come to you.

    We will build a schedule that works for you.

    If you are in Los Angeles or Orange County, starting in the fall of 2024, I'll be seeing clients in those areas once a month.

    East Coast? I return to the Baltimore area to work with clients quarterly.

  • You don't have to see a talk therapist for Professional Cuddling nor Foundations of Human Connection sessions, but I believe it's much more effective when clients also have a talk therapist.

    If you’d like a referral to a talk therapist that I regularly work with, please ask.

  • When I say "reset your baseline," I mean helping your nervous system feel protected and secure. Our nervous systems develop from infancy, influenced by our primary caretaker. If our caretaker is stressed or distracted, it can affect our development. Thankfully, our brains are adaptable, so we can reset some of those early experiences.

    If you've been through a traumatic situation or relationship, your nervous system might not feel safe now. I specialize in helping clients feel safer in their nervous system. With my expertise and experience, I can help you feel more comfortable in your body and with others. Then, you can take this confidence into all your relationships.

If you have more questions, please check the FAQ. If you can't find the answer there, you can email your questions using 'Let's Connect.'

“Few practitioners can blend their own humanity with their expertise as readily and sincerely as Michelle. Her openhearted, well-boundaried poise is the hallmark of her distinct brand of compassionate professionalism. Her character and practice model a soft power, firm courage, and guiding discipline that is aspirational to clients and colleagues alike.”

Brandon Hunter-Haydon, MSW, CSE, RYT and Surrogate Partner

"[You are] the very smart trauma-informed surrogate I’d most want to have a beer with because of your relatable and lively and playful self.”

Sharyn Wolf, R-LCSW

Meet Michelle Renee

My name is Michelle and I’m a relational-based touch specialist based in San Diego, California, serving Southern California and the Mid-Atlantic. I’ve been working in human connection since 2015, with over 1,200 in-person session hours.  I’m humbled by the growth I’ve witnessed in my clients when they get a chance to experience safety in self, security, trust, acceptance, and self-empowerment.  I see my work as the physical therapy of emotional health.

I’m here to support you in discovering and loving your authentic Self so that you can share the same love and acceptance with the people in your life, helping them do the same, over and over.

"Michelle is one of the most compassionate and thoughtful human beings on this planet. Not only that but Michelle is extremely, and I mean extremely, dedicated to her work. She is constantly doing more to expand the field, serve her community, open doors for clients and clinicians. Michelle lobbied me to do a course on Surrogate Partner Therapy (SPT) which was tremendously helpful in our clinical work together. She is consistently learning more about different therapeutic techniques and interventions. She even bought and read a dense trauma book made for clinicians to understand more about exposure therapy. Working with Michelle has truly opened my eyes to the immense power and healing of SPT. I am grateful that she was my first experience working with a surrogate partner and I know this relationship will go on for the rest of our careers."

Vanessa Cushing, LPC

"Michelle Renee is a gifted surrogate partner, who I had the joy of working with this past  fall (2022 ). Michelle responded promptly to my inquiry, initially we met on FaceTime, where her knowledge and awareness of the triadic relationship of surrogate work was clearly communicated.

During the initial 3 way meeting with my client, her warmth, sensual and sexual knowledge along with a clear sense of professional boundaries was easily communicated. She presents her authentic self with a healthy sense of humor and naturalness.

As she worked with my client she made valuable astute observations along with well crafted and detailed written feedback of her sessions with the client. My client was very pleased and benefited greatly from the work.

It is with great pleasure that I recommend Michelle as a surrogate partner and colleague.

Additionally, I want to thank Andrew Hartman co-creator of Surrogate Partner Collective for referring me to Michelle.”

Bryce Britton, MS