Care Through Touch Institute History & Book
Discover the history of Care Through Touch Institute (CTI), a San Francisco nonprofit providing free, trauma-informed massage to unhoused and marginalized communities since 1983.
Learn about CTI’s work and its book, “Caring in the Margins,” featuring stories and photographs celebrating the transformative power of touch.
Our Origins
Care Through Touch Institute (CTI) was founded in 1983 at the Graduate Theological Union Seminary, introducing students to holistic approaches to healing that centered the human body as an essential part of care. In 1993, CTI relocated to San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, evolving into a massage training program focused on serving people experiencing homelessness.
Over time, CTI shifted from a training-centered model to a primarily service-based organization. Today, CTI operates as a collective of trained massage therapists providing free, trauma-informed chair massage to low-income and unhoused individuals across San Francisco. For nearly 40 years, CTI has been present in communities where healing touch is most needed, meeting individuals with compassion, dignity, and consistency.
Caring Through Touch: Caring in the Margins
Caring in the Margins tells the story of CTI’s journey—from a small interfaith nonprofit in Berkeley, CA, in the early 1980s providing massage to people living and dying with HIV/AIDS, to its relocation to San Francisco in the late 1990s, and its continued work through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The book highlights how CTI’s mission has always been to bring care through touch to people relegated to the margins of society—whether due to poverty, homelessness, chronic illness, or the challenges of aging
Stories of Healing and Connection
The transformative power of massage comes not only from the hands but also from the heart. Stories in the book showcase this impact:
Jackie, who was dying of cancer, said massage carried her mentally and physically out of her pain to a place she never thought could exist.
Wayne described massage as an essential part of his mental and physical medicine on the path to recovery.
Quinn highlighted the importance of the relationship with the therapist, while Milton shared, “It’s the connection between the therapist and the client that’s so important.”
These stories reflect the unique, human-centered approach that CTI has cultivated over decades—trust, presence, and care as central to healing.
Creating the Book
Caring in the Margins was a labor of love, created over nearly five years by Jane Ebaugh, a CTI graduate, and John Verner, a fine art photographer. Traveling repeatedly to San Francisco, they captured the spirit of the Tenderloin and Mission neighborhoods and forged trusting relationships with the people featured. As the creators noted, “…it was a labor of love and a joy to create.”
Get the Book
Caring in the Margins is available for purchase directly from CTI:
$25 – 1 copy
$45 – 2 copies
$60 – 3 copies
$75 – 4 copies (3 + 1 free)