Hope You Can Hold: The Comfort Cub

The Comfort Cub is a weighted therapy bear, scientifically proven to reduce stress after a person has faced an extremely tragic event. The founder, Marcella Johnson, created The Comfort Cub in 1999 after her son George died hours after his birth due to a congenital heart disease. Marcella was forced to leave the hospital empty handed. She went home emotionally broken, and suffered from Broken Heart Syndrome, where she experienced heart attack-like pain and her arms also ached because they had been preparing to hold a baby for nine months and then they never did.

She picked up a terracotta pot someone left her at George’s gravesite and immediately noticed her arm pain reduced and her heart physically felt better. After speaking to her doctor, she learned that deep touch pressure, from carrying around the plant pot, helped heal those real aches and pains in her body from the trauma she experienced losing George. She couldn’t carry around a pot forever so she created a teddy bear, added a few pounds to it, and that is how the weighted Comfort Cub was born, to help heal her heart.

While the initial intent of The Comfort Cub was for child loss, evidence shows it provides profound relief for any traumatic life event. This includes having to leave the hospital while your baby is still in the NICU, the loss of a spouse, parent, loved one or even a beloved pet. It has also been effective for stress associated with anxiety, depression, adoptions, autism, domestic or child abuse and those experiencing divorce or any other form of loss or trauma.

The deep touch pressure from holding The Comfort Cub triggers the brain to release key neurotransmitters  and “the cuddle hormone”, which causes the body to relax and feel comforted. The Comfort Cub has been scientifically proven to decrease heaviness in the chest & aching in the arms, as well as other physical manifestations of a distressing loss. Their goal is to get the Comfort Cub into the arms of as many people who are suffering from a broken heart due to significant loss or trauma in their lives as we can.

The cub has since provided relief for many victims of trauma, including helping doctors and nurses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when they were at the end of the ropes watching patients die and their families unable to be there for them due to hospital restrictions in the ICUs.

You can purchase a Comfort Cub on their website or if you have lost a child you can fill out their Child Loss Form to receive a gifted Cub. Watch Marcella’s story here too: