Welcome to my website. It is intended to explain my work, and to help people decide if they think my work sounds like the kind of massage they are looking for. My massage is not a fluffy, nurturing or sensual type of massage. It is a straight forward, therapeutic type of work. It is deep, but not heavy handed. It is my intention to go in and work out all the tension I can get to, and to do so in a manner which doesn’t violate your sense of what you can handle. It is challenging but should not be traumatic. It should also take you deeper than less challenging work, as it causes you to be actively passive, to work at letting go as opposed to just lying there. What at first seems intense becomes less so as you learn to let go, to not resist. This is where I feel the real value in my work lies. It is a form of bio-feedback in which you let go at deeper and deeper levels. This mechanism is called the relaxation response. It takes practice to engage it because under stress our instincts will always take us into sympathetic response. This is the default mode of a nervous system under stress and is designed to keep us safe. It is all about self preservation and animalistic defensiveness. We can, with practice activate the other aspect of our nervous system, the para-sympathetic response. This is characterized by relaxation and a sense of peace and well being, and an ability to trust and to let go of control. As I’ve said it’s not where we go naturally, we fall into stress patterns as a result of constant stress, and our ability to get to this centered place gets harder and harder as we age. Fortunately, with practice we can go there more and more often instead of less, we simply have to pay attention and work at it.

    I am convinced that we have the potential to live much better lives in terms of our physical health and longevity. It is a matter of using simple tools in various aspects of our lives to affect change.  This potentially creates momentum which basically reverses what we think of as inevitable deterioration in our quality of life as we age. Changes in nutrition, engaging in vigorous exercise, and deep relaxation can create synergy in which these various tools reinforce each other and wind back the clock. This sounds perhaps, too good to be true, but it’s not. You will, however, pay a price. None of these things will make you comfortable which is what our instincts tell us is good. Comfort eventually becomes a straight jacket, leading only to less and less functionality, and therefore less vitality. We need instead to expand our parameters,  and to push the envelope, despite all of our instincts to contract.

    Discomfort is an inevitable part of this process, the trick is to subject yourself to only tolerable amounts of it as you learn to embrace it. As time passes you get better at it and it  becomes less uncomfortable and more palatable. I believe this is how we can remain vital throughout our lives. I can help with the relaxation part of this formula through my core structural bodywork, and coach you on the rest. I certainly try to practice what I preach, and I love to talk about this stuff, it helps me understand more about human nature, and how to help people affect change in their lives similar to the change I’ve seen in mine.

                     3939 Bee Cave Rd.,  Bldg. A,  #201   Austin,  Texas, 78746

                                  kipduvall@me.com                   964-1447