{"podcast":{"title":"The Thinking Practitioner","slug":"the-thinking-practitioner-958450","podcast_index_feed_id":958450,"rss_url":"https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com/feed.xml","website_url":"https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/6037716/ttp_cover_art_1400x1400px_20191001al.jpg","author":"Til Luchau & Whitney Lowe","episode_count":175,"summary":"For the practitioner who’s never stopped being curious. Til Luchau and Whitney Lowe bring together leading researchers, master clinicians, and big questions from across bodywork, massage, and manual therapy — exploring not just what we do with our hands, but why it works and how to do it better. Smart, grounded, and genuinely useful conversations for the somatic arts and sciences. For professional practitioners in bodywork, massage therapy, structural integration, chiropractic, myofascial and myotherapy, orthopedics, sports massage, physical therapy, and osteopathy — as well as yoga, strength and conditioning, and allied professions. This podcast is not medical or treatment advice.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T18:19:44.451763+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450"},"episode":{"title":"175: The Affection Question (with Kory Floyd)","slug":"175-the-affection-question-with-kory-floyd","published_at":"2026-07-22T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/175-the-affection-question-with-kory-floyd","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450","url":"https://www.thethinkingpractitioner.com/e/175-the-affection-question-with-kory-floyd/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/tb85ijnkgbjcfkpr/TTP_175_audio_20260710b52zp.mp3","summary":"🎙 The Affection Question (with Kory Floyd) How many of your clients come to you, week after week, not just for their shoulder or their low back — but because yours may be the one space in their life where they feel truly touched, attended to, and seen? Roughly 40% of people report not getting enough affection in their lives. And research suggests that for our older clients, that number is likely even higher. To explore what that means for our work, Til sits down with Dr. Kory Floyd — professor and chair of human development at Washington State University, and one of the world’s leading researchers on affection and human connection. He created Affection Exchange Theory, wrote The Loneliness Cure along with more than a dozen other books, and makes a striking case that affection isn’t a luxury or a nicety — it’s a biological need with measurable consequences for our health. Drawing on his own recent experiences of loss and loneliness, Til turns toward something that sits underneath almost everything we do as bodyworkers but that we rarely name out loud: the simple, profound human need to be touched, cared for, and connected to. ✨ We talk about:• Affection deprivation — the gap between the affection we need and what we actually receive, and why roughly 40% of people report not getting enough• Why age (not gender, education, or geography) is the strongest predictor — and what that means for our older clients• How deprivation erodes our sense of safety, fueling hypervigilance, poor sleep, and a weakened immune response• Why — to the body — professional touch and intimate touch aren’t so different, as long as it feels safe• What lives inside the therapeutic “boundary”: validation, normalizing, listening, attunement, and a felt sense of being seen• Transference, counter-transf…","meta_description":"🎙 The Affection Question (with Kory Floyd) How many of your clients come to you, week after week, not just for their shoulder or their low back — but beca…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3349,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/episodes/175-the-affection-question-with-kory-floyd/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner-958450/175-the-affection-question-with-kory-floyd.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}