CuddleLA
Home of Cuddle Party in Los Angeles
Lifeguards
CuddleLA assures the quality of its Cuddle Party events by choosing its Cuddle Lifeguards — the facilitators of Cuddle Party — with care and discernment. They are selected for their honesty, integrity, communication ability, respect for boundaries, and ability to create safe space.
Andrew Schwartz is a certified Cuddle Party facilitator who founded CuddleLA in 2005. Known for his gentle yet firm (and only sometimes goofy) demeanor as a leader, Andrew brings to his facilitation a mission to empower and teach self-acceptance to others. He was educated at Harvard, studied jazz at the Manhattan School of Music, and received his degree in psychology from Antioch University. Andrew has also worked as a certified massage therapist and spent two years counseling individuals and leading therapy groups for Didi Hirsch.
Sonia Kranwinkel is a Cuddle Party facilitator-in-training who graces CuddleLA with her gentleness and talent for creating safe space. She has taught ballroom dance, trained extensively with Anthony Robbins and other lights in the personal development field, and spent three years volunteering for the Peace Corps as a health worker in Central America. She hails from San Diego.
Elizabeth West is a Chicago native who moved to Los Angeles in 2003. After enjoying a successful career in administration and animation production, Elizabeth changed paths in 2006 to express the more artistic aspects of her spirit, and now works as a set dresser, prop-master, and costumer in film and television art departments. As a younger woman, Elizabeth led and mentored teen and college youth groups, and is happy to be re-invigorating those facilitation muscles in her capacity as an assistant Cuddle Lifeguard for CuddleLA!