About Empirical Knead

Science-Informed Medical Massage · Functional Structural Integration · Neuromuscular Therapy

Empirical Knead is a clinical bodywork practice offering research-informed manual therapy for pain relief, postural restoration, and improved functional movement. Our work is based on the understanding that structure and systemic inflammation shape how the body feels, moves, and heals.

We help you move from pain and compensation into balance, ease, and strength — whether you are an athlete, office professional, recovering from surgery, or navigating complex health conditions.

What Is Functional Bodywork?

Functional bodywork means treating muscles and connective tissue in the direction that best supports the individual and the tissue itself.

This approach restores tissue that has become displaced or disorganized over time, allowing posture to neutralize, alignment to rebalance, and movement to become more efficient.

Examples:

• Someone with collapsed medial arches benefits from tissue being encouraged upward to support lift.
• Someone with high rigid arches benefits from downward tissue work to release tension.

The same principle applies to the back, hips, legs, shoulders, and neck.

Your tissue pathways adapt to your posture, habits, injuries, and gravity.

Functional bodywork restores these pathways to optimal organization and function.

The Science Behind the Empirical Knead Model

Founded by Dedric Carroll, a published researcher with 17+ years of clinical experience, the Empirical Knead Model is a science-informed, fascia-based approach designed to:

• Resolve musculoskeletal pain
• Restore postural alignment
• Improve functional performance
• Reduce systemic inflammatory load

It is not massage in the traditional sense —

it is a clinical method built from research, physiology, fascia science, and movement mechanics.

Foundations of the Empirical Knead Model

Clinical Research

• 13 years of published clinical collaboration with Emory University
• NIH-funded research demonstrating that informed, rhythmic manual therapy can reduce systemic inflammation and improve cancer-related fatigue
• Co-authored peer-reviewed publications on inflammation, touch, and quality-of-life outcomes

Clinical Practice

• Nearly two decades of neuromuscular therapy & structural integration
• Treatment protocols refined through thousands of clinical sessions
• A focus on functional movement, pain reduction, and whole-body integration

Scientific Influence

• Understanding how posture, fascia lines, nervous system regulation, and inflammatory physiology interact
• Treatment designed to influence both structure and the systemic environment behind it

Fascia & The Anatomy Trains System

Your body is connected through 12 major myofascial meridians — fascial pathways that shape posture and movement from head to toe.

Fascia:

• Contains a dense nerve supply
• Responds to stress, adaptation, emotion, and injury
• Links muscles across regions, often meaning the source of pain is not its site
• Adapts over time, creating imbalances, spinal deviations, and chronic strain

Understanding these pathways is central to our work.

When fascia is re-educated, posture reorganizes, and pain patterns resolve.

How We Work

Neuromuscular Therapy

Releases acute spasms, trigger points, and pain cycles.

Fascia Re-Education

Restores coordination between the nervous system, muscular system, and skeletal alignment.

Postural Alignment

Softens restrictions, restores neutral relationships, and rebalances compensatory patterns across the body.

Systemic Inflammation Support

Structured, rhythmic bodywork has been shown to regulate the autonomic nervous system and reduce inflammatory load, contributing to improvements in energy, recovery, and whole-body function.

The Emotional Layer

Fascia has deep neurological connections.

When restrictions are released, clients often experience:

• Emotional lightness
• Mental clarity
• A sense of relief or “exhale”
• More ease in their relationship to their body

Physical and emotional tension are intertwined; bodywork often unlocks both.

Why It Matters

Layering research-backed science with skilled manual therapy, the Empirical Knead Model is a complete system designed to:

• Resolve pain
• Restore structural integrity
• Improve movement
• Reduce inflammatory stress
• Support deeper wellbeing
• Improve quality of life

 

Peer-Reviewed Research:

Massage Therapy Decreases Cancer-Related Fatigue: Results From a Randomized Early Phase Trial (Cancer, 2018)