The Research Behind Our Work
Intimate healing deserves the same care and rigor as any other kind of health work. Here is the science we build on, shared honestly, including what the evidence does and doesn't yet show.
Why research matters to us
Because you deserve to know that your care is grounded in something real.
The approaches we use aren't improvised. They rest on decades of research into how humans connect, regulate, and recover. We share this library so you can see the foundation for yourself, and because we believe in being honest about the difference between what is well established and what is still being studied. That honesty is part of how we earn your trust.
The foundations of our work
Five bodies of research, working together.
The healing relationship
A safe, attuned relationship is one of the most reliable ingredients in healing across every form of therapy studied. It is the heart of everything we do.
Flückiger et al., 2018 · Bordin, 1979Attachment & connection
We are wired for connection from birth, and the patterns we form early in life can gently change through new, secure experiences.
Bowlby, 1969 · Ainsworth, 1978 · Mikulincer & Shaver, 2016Trauma-informed care
We follow recognized principles, safety, trust, collaboration, and choice, and a phased, safety-first approach to healing that never moves faster than you're ready for.
SAMHSA, 2014 · Herman, 1992The body in healing
Learning to feel safe in your own body is a real, trainable capacity. We approach touch slowly, consensually, and with clear ethical boundaries.
Craig, 2002 · Maltz, 2012 · ZurSexual health & consent
We ground our work in respected definitions of sexual health and in current research on consent as continuous, affirmative, and always revocable.
WHO, 2006 · WAS, 2014 · Muehlenhard et al., 2016How intimacy forms
Closeness isn't a fixed trait, it's a learnable process of sharing, responding, and feeling truly understood.
Reis & Shaver, 1988 · Laurenceau et al., 1998Professional organizations we look to
The bodies whose standards and definitions guide our practice.
Gentle starting points
If you'd like to explore.
- Emily Nagoski — Come As You Are. Understanding desire, stress, and context.
- Sue Johnson — Hold Me Tight. Attachment and connection in relationships.
- Wendy Maltz — The Sexual Healing Journey. Healing after sexual trauma.
- Peter Levine — Waking the Tiger. A body-based view of trauma (an approach, not settled science).
- Deb Dana — The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy. A popular clinical framework for nervous-system states.
A note of honesty. Some ideas we find useful, such as polyvagal-informed language and somatic approaches, are still being studied and debated by scientists. We use them as helpful ways of understanding experience, while staying honest that the research is ongoing. Surrogate partner therapy itself is a structured, supervised, consent-based practice with a long clinical history but a still-developing formal evidence base. Our commitment is to keep learning as that evidence grows.