Duvall offering massage services

RITZVILLE - Chad Duvall found his passion in life, and those walking into Interconnection Therapeutic Massage are the benefactors of his epiphany.

Duvall was 19 when he first started dating his wife; her father was going to school for massage.

"He needed people to work on. So, he approached me," Duvall said. "I thought, 'I just started dating your daughter; how do I say no?' So, I said, 'Sure. Why not?'"

During the two-hour-long massage, his future father-in-law was learning the muscles - and talking out loud.

"It flashed me back to weight-training classes in high school. All of a sudden, a light bulb went off," Duvall said. "When he was done, it made me think, 'I've always wanted to work on the body, but not be a doctor.'

"Flash forward to his third quarter of school, and he asked me again. I went from this hyperactive kid, bouncing off the walls; to 20 minutes later, I was sleeping. I thought, 'How the heck did he do that?'

At the time, Duvall was a store manager in Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. He knew he didn't want to do retail anymore.

"I picked up the phone book, and called the school to see what do I need to do to apply," he said.

Duvall said the first step was a two-day intensive class to see what it feels like to massage someone you don't know, and to get a massage from someone you don't know.

"After that weekend, I knew this is exactly what I wanted to do," Duvall said. "I just kind of stumbled across it, but ended up being my passion."

Duvall said he never liked the idea of going to school, preferring to just "work his way through life."

"But I thought, 'It's only a year.' And it's a lot of it's hands-on learning, versus reading a book and trying to figure it out, which would have been the end of it," Duvall said. "I'm a very kinesthetic learning. "Having hands on somebody, or having somebody's hands on me, I learn techniques pretty quickly."

Duvall graduated from Brenner School of Massage in Seattle in 1997 with a massage therapy degree, got licensed and opened his business in 1998.

After working at the Salish Lodge in Qualmish, he and a classmate rented a space in Bellevue from an esthetician for two years.

Then he worked out of a chiropractor's office in Seattle.

In 2018, he and his wife, Erin, moved to Wenatchee after she was hired as a nurse practitioner with Confluence Health. He opened a clinic there, where he works three days a week,.

He also rents space in Dr. Warren Kragt's chiropractic office in Ritzville,, where he works two days a week.

Duvall said his cousin, Yvette Sweet, had a massage therapy practice here for about 20 years, before quitting due to health reasons.

"One day, we were chatting, and she said, 'Hey, do you want to take over my practice?'" Duvall said.

He drove over to check it out.

"Within five minutes of me getting out of the car, her, me and Dr. Kragt were in his office, and she looked over and said, 'He's taking over, I'm done. So I drove away with a practice," Duvall said. "Right place, right time, and family."

Although it was Duvall's first visit to Ritzville, he grew up in Othello.

Duvall started working out of Dr. Kragt's office last November, and specializes in treatment massage. He said having both businesses "in the same house" works out well.

"I feel the two go hand-in-hand. One works structure, and the other one works soft tissue," Duvall said. "I see more people in pain, versus people who just want to relax."

Duvall uses a wide variety of styles, including Swedish, sports massage and myofascial.

"With just a light touch, you can do really profound work. Our society thinks, 'No pain, no gain.' People associate a painful massage with a deeper massage, where you're going to get better results, Duvall said.

"But most of the time that isn't the case."