Compassionate touch in care settings

Therapeutic Presence for Care Homes, Hospices & Bedside Care

Gentle, responsive therapeutic touch and presence for people living with illness, dementia, immobility, frailty or end-of-life needs.

There are times in life when care becomes less about fixing and more about comforting.

Whether someone is living in a care home, receiving hospice support, recovering in hospital, or spending long periods at home with limited mobility, they may be navigating pain, discomfort, anxiety, loneliness or disconnection from themselves.

Alongside the essential practical care they receive, there can also be a quieter human need:
to be comforted, to be listened to, and to feel held in their experience.

This work offers an additional layer of support – one that complements the care already in place.

It supports not only the individual, but the wider circle around them too.

What is Compassionate Touch?

Compassionate Touch is gentle, consent-led therapeutic bodywork offered fully clothed and adapted moment by moment to the person’s needs.

This is not a routine massage or pamper treatment. It is responsive, tailored, relational care. Sessions are guided by what is needed on the day – physically, emotionally and energetically.

This may include:

  • Gentle holding and grounding touch
  • Soothing touch or soft bodywork to ease aches, tension or restlessness
  • Abdominal support for discomfort, tension or digestive sluggishness
  • Calm presence and emotional attunement
  • Space to talk, reflect or simply be heard
  • Nervous system regulation through steady, compassionate contact
  • Support for relaxation and sleep

There is no fixed sequence. Everything is tailored around the person in front of me, and what their body, mind and emotions are asking for in that moment. This work begins by listening, understanding, attuning and responding. Through touch, through words, and through presence.

How this work may help

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While every person’s experience is different, Compassionate Touch may help:

  • Reduce agitation and restlessness
  • Ease anxiety and supporting nervous system regulation
  • Improve relaxation and quality of sleep
  • Provide comfort and soothing physical aches or tension
  • Support emotional wellbeing through connection, presence and being heard
  • Offer non-pharmaceutical support alongside existing care
  • Encourage a sense of safety, grounding and calm
  • Support gentle abdominal comfort where digestion feels slow or uncomfortable due to immobility, tension or dehydration
  • Reduce feelings of loneliness or isolation through regular therapeutic contact
  • Create moments of connection, dignity and relief within challenging circumstances

When someone is unwell, ageing, or nearing the end of life, much of the support they receive is focused on practical needs. Compassionate Touch offers something alongside this: a space to slow down, soften, and receive care that is centred entirely around how they are feeling.

Sometimes healing is not about cure. Sometimes it is about comfort, connection, relief, rest and feeling seen, heard and human in the midst of it all.

Who is Compassionate Touch for?

This work may support:

  • Care home residents
  • Nursing home residents
  • People living with dementia
  • Bedbound individuals
  • Hospice and palliative care patients
  • Those recovering from illness or surgery
  • People living with chronic pain or neurological conditions
  • Housebound individuals needing therapeutic support at home
  • Individuals living alone who would benefit from regular therapeutic contact
  • Families wanting additional support for a loved one

How sessions work

Sessions are typically 30 – 60 minutes and take place bedside, in a chair, or wherever the person is most comfortable. All touch is offered through clothing and adapted to mobility, comfort and energy levels.

Sessions can be arranged for individuals, care settings, or family-supported visits.

For lighter wellbeing-focused massage sessions in residential settings, you can also explore my Residential Care Home Massage offering.

Areas covered

Whitstable, Herne Bay, Canterbury and surrounding areas in Kent.

If you would like to explore whether this support could help someone in your care, or someone you love, please get in touch.

Rooted in lived experience

This offering has grown not only from my therapeutic work, but from personal experience supporting loved ones through hospital stays, hospice care and end-of-life transitions.

Alongside this, I have worked with bedbound clients and people living with dementia, witnessing first-hand how meaningful gentle touch, presence and being truly listened to can be.

These experiences have shaped my understanding of how deeply human this work is.

It sits at the heart of Rooted Wellbeing’s wider philosophy: that healing begins when we feel safe enough to soften, listen and reconnect.

Fees

Fees vary depending on the setting, number of people being supported, session length, travel, and whether visits are arranged privately or through a care setting.

As a guide:

  • Individual sessions from £25 – £45
  • Home visits and bedside support priced according to time and travel
  • Half-day and full-day care setting visits available at bespoke rates

My intention is to keep this work as accessible as possible, while recognising the care, time and presence it asks of me.

Please get in touch to discuss what support feels needed.