Relationship therapist Hannah Tyer believes there's a better way to get to the heart and soul of your sexual differences, and she's crafted a deck of cards to show couples the way.
Touch Therapy features 30 guided exercises for sexual and emotional connection. This isn't your average, everyday give-him-a-BJ-in-a-kitchen-chair card game, though. Tyer is a professional in the art of healing trauma and shame, and she's found a unique recipe for spicing things up that doesn't involve ridiculousness.
I liked the idea of sharing these therapy practices in a way that felt tangible and well-designed.
“Touch Therapy grew out of my real-life work with couples as a sex therapist,” says Tyer. “I’ve had a private practice since 2018, and for years I’ve used the same core exercises with the people I work with; practices that make intimacy feel more approachable and help couples connect with greater depth and presence. I watched these exercises change relationships in meaningful ways, even for those in which sex had become extremely fraught.”
Tyer sought a way to share these healing modalities with people beyond her therapy practice. She pitched her wife, an artist, on the idea of turning her tried-and-true therapy methods into a retail-friendly product. Tyer's wife agreed to handle the artwork and design, and Tyer was soon on her way to becoming the pleasure industry's next entrepreneur.
“I liked the idea of sharing these therapy practices in a way that felt tangible and well-designed,” says Tyer. “My wife and I worked on it in our spare time, and I honestly couldn’t have predicted how well it would be received or how central it would become to our lives!”
Touch Therapy won't send couples scrambling for ice cubes and whipped cream or digging through their drawers for kink accessories to explore each other's bodies. Tyer explains that her card game isn't so much a “game” as it is a deck of creative ways to connect with a sexual partner.
“At its core, Touch Therapy is rooted in well-established sex therapy principles. Sensate focus, mindfulness, somatic awareness, nervous system regulation, and consent-based touch all play a role,” explains Tyer. “The goal isn’t a specific outcome or act but to help couples slow down enough to feel what’s happening in their bodies and between them.”
When engaging in Tyer's card-based activities, no silly striptease is needed.
“Each card offers just enough structure to help couples feel supported, especially if intimacy has felt hard or awkward,” says Tyer. “The prompts invite curiosity rather than performance; they encourage noticing sensations, checking in, adjusting, attuning to your partner and staying present.”
Tyer's card prompts invite couples to linger over small, intimate moments that might seem unremarkable at first but can lead to incredible changes that Tyer has seen firsthand in her therapy sessions.
Pull a card from the Touch Therapy deck, and one might be asked to place a hand over their partner's chest while silently sending them loving thoughts. Another card suggests sensually dissecting a kiss one movement at a time, “lingering at each point of contact,” as the card illustrates, while noticing the texture of a partner's lips.
Another card invites players to explain three unique ways they'd like to be touched, while another draw might have couples hover a favorite toy over their chosen erogenous zone, building anticipation that culminates in something more explosive.
“One of the most common things I hear is that Touch Therapy helps couples shift gears,” says Tyer. “It creates a bridge between the busyness of everyday life and intentional connection. People tell us it gives them permission to slow down in a way they didn’t realize they needed.”
Tyer's own personal experiences in love also shaped the outcome of her therapeutic card game. Touch Therapy doesn't include any genital or gender-specific references that could exclude anyone who is truly in need of a bedroom breakthrough.
“I’m a lesbian, and many intimacy games simply didn’t work in my marriage,” says Tyer. “They assumed specific body parts or gendered roles that didn’t reflect our relationship at all. With Touch Therapy, we were very intentional about keeping the focus on intimacy skills rather than anatomy.”
The cards don’t specify body parts. Instead, they emphasize communication, consent, attunement and somatic awareness.
“Those skills are relevant for every couple, regardless of gender, orientation, or identity,” Tyer said. “I wanted people to feel seen without needing to translate the experience for themselves.”
Tyer's journey from therapist to B2B sales and marketing executive was more challenging than expected. Touch Therapy is now in its fourth printing. While Tyer is thrilled that her cards are available through more than 20 retailers less than a year after their creation, reaching this point required significant effort and back-and-forth.
“One of the biggest challenges was realizing how complex the production process actually is. It wasn’t as simple as creating a design and sending it to print,” she admits. “There were countless revisions, proofing rounds, and long conversations with manufacturers. It required a lot of patience and trust in the process.”
As the year progresses, Tyer is focused on creating more card games with novel themes and, most recently, on two massage oil candles designed for a ritual to help couples slow down, connect and maintain presence together.
“Intimacy works best when the nervous system feels safe, and jumping straight into sexual activity can increase anxiety rather than foster connection,” Tyer emphasizes. “When couples slow down enough to be present with each other, they’re often surprised by how many things they might have labeled as 'not sexual,' such as touch, closeness, or shared attention, can become arousing over time. The game places strong emphasis on broadening the definition of intimacy beyond penetration.”
