About Nik
Niksen “Nik” Kurtz
They | Them | Elle Pronouns
Massage & Movement
CMT #50844
“I'm work in progress, mosaic of a human being, seeking my greatest potential. I hope you will join me!”
Welcome!... I'm so glad you made it here!
I had my first Esalen Massage in 2010, this session left me in a state of awareness I had not experienced before.
My mind and my muscles were relaxed and my whole body felt at complete ease.
I thought, "What was that and where could I get more of it?"
In 2012, I began my massage training and in two years I completed over 1200 hours of body-awareness education. I lived, worked and I focused my studies on Esalen® Massage, Deep Bodywork®, Craniosacral, Gestalt, Soul Motion, 5 Rhythms and many other modalities. I found massage to be a gift for my own healing as well as the gift I wanted to share.
The land of the Essalen people’s, the community at Esalen, the rhythm of the ocean and the comings and goings of people in workshops supported me to grow deeply internally until it was time for me to leave.
After leaving Big Sur, I moved up and down the North Coast until I landed in Berkeley where I worked for Beau Spa in Oakland and Yoga Tree in Berkeley. It wasn’t long after that I began my 6.5 year practice out of my home. In 2020 things changed for everyone globally with Covid. I had just moved my practice a week before and had to shutter my practice. which lasted almost 2 years. Since then I have had to move my practice 5 times (Berkeley, Albany, Sebastopol, Rohnert Park and …to be determined). I am learning the beauty and challenge of resilience.
A little about me… I'm currently living in Santa Rosa CA
I'm a heart connector through and through and the body is my pathway to expressing myself. Movement and Touch have been some of the deepest part of my healing and supporting others in this journey is a true gift. I'm a partner, a sibling, a friend to many, a person who prioritizes seeing the body through the lens of individual, interpersonal and systemic perspectives.
I'm a dancer, a facilitator, white, queer, trans, gender expansive, chemically sensitive (MCS), a person who enjoys laughter, connecting deeply in conversation, in love with my cat Luna of 17 years, a learner of new things, an artist, a bit of an introvert with extrovert tendencies, a connector, a heart relater, an explorer and a curious being!
Specialties
Scent / Fragrance Free space and practitioner. On a weekly basis, massage clients come to me in pain, with a desire to create more range of motion, curiosity to increase awareness of self ("emotional awareness"), to relax and most often to be seen and heard through a different medium. Having an embodiment based education, I do not simply offer a massage. It is my biggest wish to support you in creating wellness for your whole being. I offer tools to put into action between sessions, I encourage a routine in receiving massage and doing regular movement as well as offer support in re-patterning thoughts that no longer serve you. My specialties include: Working with Gender Expansive / Non-binary / Trans folks, folks who Bind, those who are pre/post chest/breast surgery (Top Surgery / Mastectomy), pre/post natal for all genders, support in nervous system regulating, alleviating/decreasing lower back and hip pain, opening the chest to allow upper back to relax, TMJ release, diaphragm/belly/breath work, creating more flow and ease in the neck and helping energy move smoothly throughout the entire body system.
Trainings & Education
2024 ~ Advanced Hip and Back - Deep Bodywork
2017-Present ~ Turtle Tank an Incubator for Radical Love and Freedom
2023 ~ Opening the Chest and Freeing the Breath -Deep Bodywork
2021/22 ~ Guest Facilitator for Holistic Resistance - Disrupting our whiteness
2020 ~ Holistic Resistance - Disrupting our whiteness 4 month program
2019 ~ Seeing the Racial Waters
2019~ Assisted Esalen Weekend workshop at Mckinnon
2019 ~ DanceAbility Teacher Training Month long summer Intensive
2019 ~ Trans/GNC/NB/2S/I + Healers retreat
2018 ~ Axis Dance Company Summer Intensive (improv/choreo/teacher training)
2017/18 ~ Queer Yes! Jam
2018 ~ Seeing the Racial Waters
2017 ~ Practicing Justice
2017 ~ Process Work: Looking deeper at White Privilege
2016/18 ~ Women Identified, Trans, Gender non-conforming - Meditation with Arinna Wiseman
2014 ~ Sacred Alchemy for Leaders
2016 ~ Queer Grief Ritual
2015 ~ White Awake: 5 month series
2015 ~ Interplay: Art and Social Change for Millennials
2014/15 ~ Soul Motion Teacher Training