  Given a geodesic metric space $X$, we construct a corresponding hyperbolic
space, which we call the contraction space, that detects all strongly
contracting directions in the following sense; a geodesic in $X$ is strongly
contracting if and only if its parametrized image in the contraction space is a
quasi-geodesic. If a finitely generated group $G$ acts geometrically on $X$,
then all strongly-contracting elements act as WPD elements on the contraction
space. If the space $X$ is CAT(0), or more generally Morse-dichotomous, that is
if all Morse geodesics are strongly-contracting, then all generalized
loxodromics act as WPD elements, implying that the action is what we call
``universally WPD''.
