The Conscious Touch Foundation
About The Conscious Touch Foundation
At The Conscious Touch Foundation, we recognise and value the profound benefits of conscious touch offered with intention, presence, and care.
We exist to bring awareness, education, and professional training around conscious touch, mindful touch massage, holistic touch therapy, and trauma-informed touch practices that support health, wellbeing, and human connection.
Our work focuses on restoring safe, nurturing physical connection in a world where many people experience touch deprivation, isolation, and emotional disconnection.
Through education, training, and community initiatives, we aim to help individuals and professionals understand how conscious touch can support nervous system regulation, emotional wellbeing, and overall health.
Our approach is grounded in:
Touch, when offered with awareness and integrity, becomes a powerful pathway to healing, connection, and wellbeing.
Our vision
To help create local communities around the world where safe, nurturing conscious touch is understood, respected, and accessible.
We envision a future where conscious touch is no longer misunderstood or feared, but recognised as an essential part of health, wellbeing, and compassionate human connection.
Through ethical conscious touch practices, we believe it is possible to rebuild trust in human connection and restore a deeper sense of belonging.
Our mission
The Conscious Touch Foundation is committed to:
Raising Awareness
Bringing global awareness to the benefits of conscious touch and holistic touch therapy as supportive modalities for emotional and physical wellbeing.
Educating Communities
Providing education for carers, professionals, families, and communities on safe, trauma-informed conscious touch practices.
Supporting Practitioners
Developing and maintaining a register of trained conscious touch practitioners who offer this work safely and professionally.
Inclusivity & Respect
Valuing all people equally, regardless of background, identity, or life circumstances.
Promoting Touch for Health
Actively promoting conscious touch as a valuable support for nervous system regulation, emotional balance, and overall well-being.
Encouraging Safe Practice
Opening conversations around boundaries, consent, and ethical touch, helping create safe environments for healing and connection.
Building Community
Supporting the development of local conscious touch groups and practitioner networks across the UK and internationally.
Professional Development
Creating professional standards, codes of practice, and ongoing education opportunities for conscious touch practitioners.
Why Conscious Touch Matters
Touch is essential to life.
Modern society has increasingly become a touch-deprived culture, leaving many people without the nurturing human connection that supports emotional and physical wellbeing.
Loss, illness, trauma, disability, ageing, and social isolation can all contribute to a reduction in safe physical connection.
Research now shows that conscious, nurturing touch plays an important role in:
Emotional regulation
Nervous system balance
Mental health
Pain management
Overall wellbeing
When touch is offered through presence, stillness, and consent, the body can begin to shift from stress responses into states of safety, rest, and restoration.
This is why conscious touch therapy and mindful touch massage are increasingly recognised as important elements of holistic wellbeing.
Touch for Health & Nervous System Regulation
Conscious touch therapy and mindful touch massage support the body’s natural ability to regulate and restore balance.
When touch is offered with stillness, presence, holding, and consent, the nervous system can move out of chronic stress responses and into states of calm and safety.
This process supports:
Vagus nerve regulation
Emotional stability
Reduced stress and anxiety
Increased sense of connection and wellbeing
Through these gentle processes, holistic touch therapy allows the body’s natural healing systems to emerge and restore balance.
What we do
Our Founders
The Conscious Touch Foundation was established in 2015 in response to both personal and professional experiences of the impact of touch deprivation.
Sidtsara Ross
Sidtsara Ross is an experienced educator, psychotherapist, and wellbeing facilitator whose work spans education, psychosomatic therapy, mindfulness, and health programmes.
Her professional background includes:
• Family crisis intervention and child protection
• Educational director, lecturer, and trainer
• Psychotherapist and Relate therapist
• Mindfulness and breathwork teacher
• Facilitator of NHS-funded personal development and wellbeing programmes
She has delivered talks, workshops, and training programmes internationally, including work with universities, wellbeing organisations, and retreat centres across the UK, Europe, and New Zealand.
Sidtsara received business awards in the 1990s, recognising her leadership in professional and community development.
A Personal Turning Point
A stroke later in life profoundly changed Sidtsara’s path, leading to a period of depression and enforced stillness.
During this time she experienced first-hand the healing power of conscious touch, trauma-informed mindfulness, and nervous system regulation practices.
What had previously been professional knowledge became deeply lived experience.
This journey inspired her to create the Conscious Touch Foundation so others would not have to experience the pain of touch deprivation without support.
Professional Background
Sidtsara has worked as:
Family crisis intervention practitioner
Lecturer and educational director
Psychotherapist and Relate therapist
Mindfulness and breathwork teacher
Facilitator of NHS-funded personal development and health programmes
Her passion lies in psycho-education, community development, and training, helping individuals and professionals develop safe, compassionate touch practices.
Community & Accessibility
The Conscious Touch Foundation aims to make safe, nurturing touch accessible to all, regardless of financial status.
The long-term goal is to:
Support local conscious touch groups nationwide
Offer facilitator-led and peer-led sessions
Seek funding for inclusive access
Develop conscious touch as an established wellbeing project
Sidtsara’s work is driven by a simple truth:
To touch is to give life.
Martin Jenner
Martin Jenner’s lived experience of touch deprivation deeply informs the foundation’s mission.
Together, Sidtsara and Martin are committed to ensuring that no one should have to live in silence without access to safe, caring, conscious human touch.
Their work continues to support education, awareness, and community initiatives that bring compassionate connection back into everyday life.
Whether you are here to learn, to receive, or to explore professional touch holistic therapy and training, you are welcome.
We invite you to slow down, stay curious, and rediscover the profound healing power of conscious, nurturing touch.