The power of touch
Therapists attempt to confront HIV+ stigma with a pop-up spa
Healing House, the world’s first HIV+ spa pop-up, is now open to the public, for free and by appointment or walk-in, Friday November 30 and Saturday December 1, timed to coincide with World AIDS day. Part of Casey House’s #SmashStigma campaign, the pop-up offers spa services — hand or neck/ shoulder massages and a mini facial — performed by 12 newly trained healers who are all HIV+.
“We’re asking Canadians to think about what it means to touch,” says Joanne Simons, the CEO of Casey House. The pop-up is an opportunity for interactive, experiential learning, designed, as Simmons puts it, to “challenge Canadians, to open their minds and their hearts and engage with us in a different way of raising awareness.”
Sharing space with someone, looking into their eyes, talking and experiencing skin-to-skin contact, Simons says, is an effective way to show, rather than tell, about the stigmas people living with HIV face.
“The actual evidence is clear: science shows that there is no possible transmission of HIV skin to skin. It is not in saliva. So sharing a glass, you can’t transmit HIV. Our population deserves the same respect and dignity and love and compassion.”
The community outreach follows some pretty depressing research done by Casey House. The findings showed that while 91per cent of Canadians believe it is in our nature to need positive touch, but more than half, at 51 per cent of the population, indicated they were willing to share skin-to-skin contact with a person who has HIV/AIDS. It has been more than 20 years since life-saving combination drug treatments have transformed the disease from fatal to a chronic, manageable condition. The transmission rates continue to be high, says Simons, as more than 1.8 million people will be newly diagnosed globally this year. But the accompanying stigma suffered by those affected by the disease has not changed, even as our scientific understand and treatments continue to improve. Hence the slogan for the spa: Lie down and make yourself uncomfortable.
Melissa Doldron, who is an RMT for the Blue Jays, stepped up to train the Healer team. “Learning through touch is more powerful because it adds a deeper layer to the understanding of what people living with HIV might experience,” she says. Simons agrees. “These are people who can feel invisible, and disregarded, and here there is a real sense of love.”