exercise · all tools
Touch My Elbow
Partners take turns asking to be touched somewhere specific, in the manual's form 'I would like my <blank> to be touched', and the other lightly does so, or declines; a declined spot you touch yourself. Hands stay where they land, Twister-style, until moved. Squeamish players may name a sleeve or a shoe. About respecting yourself by asking, and by saying no, says its creator.
- The manual's aside that 'you don't have to touch with your hand' and its 'adventurous' framing take this well past elbows; the facilitator sets what is in play before the first request
- Declining is built in and so is a consequence — touching the spot yourself — which is a design choice a person should look at
Practical
- Time
- 10-15 min
- Group
- 2–∞ · pairs
- Settings
- in-person
- Mechanisms
- somatic-awareness, behavioral-rehearsal, dialogic-encounter
- Change scope
- state → skill · repeatable
Instructions
- Where
- authrev.org/ar-games-manual — Authentic Relating Games Manual, paid
- Availability
- In the source document — the instructions live inside the material linked, on its terms
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0 (Authentic Relating Games Manual)
Source link checked 31 Aug 2026 — unchanged since we recorded it on 29 Aug 2026
This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.
Origin
Walt Stein (Austin Love Juggernaut) — Authentic Relating (Authentic Relating Games Manual, 2025 edition)
In this directory via Authentic Relating Games Manual
Related: The Giving Game ("Would You?") (pairs-with)
Variation in the manual: As You Like It — request the kind of touch too.
status: checked · added 2026-08-31