Maybe its time for the backwards hug! Thanks for the clarification on the progress you've made. You're right, for me too, it seems like in the middle of moving forward is when it was the scariest. I havent asked for a backwards hug in a looooong time. (The backwards hug is t wrapping his arms around me, my back to his chest, sitting down, no "fancy" body parts touching).

A book and magazine writer from michigan who now lives in new york and who teaches writing (how i met her) and writes about love and life and psychotherapy and stuff, said her t wrote her a prescription to have her husband hold her for an hour like every day or something. No canoodling, just holding. An hour seems excessive to me, i certainly didnt expect that from my t, but do you think your h would be up for that? Like try it one time and see how it goes?