EXCLUSIVE: Meet New York City’s first professional cuddler

Ali C. runs a snuggle business out of her Manhattan apartment. Her business, Cuddle U NYC, is similar to other cuddle businesses that have popped up in Portland, Rochester and San Francisco. She charges $80 for an hour to lay in bed with her.

Her therapy sessions trade in the leather couch for a memory foam mattress.

Manhattan transplant Ali C. is billing herself as the city's first professional cuddler, holding emotionally-charged snuggle sessions out of her Financial District studio apartment.

"It's a very healing experience,” Ali, 47, who asked that her last name not be disclosed due to privacy concerns, told The Daily News. “People are very vulnerable during the process.”

The expert nuzzler launched her unorthodox venture, Cuddle U NYC, in November and has already had more than 30 clients — all men except for one female — come to her doorman building.

Ali’s cuddle business — she strictly prohibits any unwanted advances or sexual contact with a legal waiver — is modeled after similar services that have popped up in Portland, San Francisco and Rochester, N.Y.

It’s a peculiar phenomenon that is being replicated throughout the country — and uncharted waters for city regulators.

A city Law Department spokesman said the agency wasn’t aware of any statutes on the books that govern cuddling.

The state Office of the Professions, which governs therapy services such as acupuncture and massage in the city, has no regulations or licenses for “snuggling,” a spokesman for Gov. Cuomo said.

Ali’s rates are comparable to a massage parlor: $60 for 45 minutes of spooning, $80 for one hour. An overnight stay, which has yet to be requested, is $500.

She even offers a $200 movie and cuddle package, but is waiting for someone to take her up on the offer before buying a TV for her minimalistic apartment.

A tissue box sits on a metal chair next to her full-sized mattress at all times, she said.

“They're absolutely necessary," she said. “There's a lot of tears.”

Prospective nestlers must make social media profiles and related websites accessible, as well as provide a copy of their driver’s license. A pre-snuggle interview is also conducted.

“My vetting process is pretty stringent,” she said. “My creepy meter is pretty finely tuned.”

Ali first flirted with the idea of touch therapy at a nursing home as a teenager in Detroit. She’d place her hand on the arms of ill people and watch their mood change instantly. She said eventually like to expand her fledgling service to people with disorders such as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“I was a really shy kid, at home there wasn't a lot of affection,” she recalled. “I had nobody to cuddle me and hold me and tell me it's going to be alright."

Read more: nydailynews.com