Help me start my career in the art of healing

Hello everyone, thank you for taking the time to check out my page...

let me begin by telling you a little about myself :)

My name is Liz, I am 22 years old. I have always had an interest in Eastern Philosophy and healing modalities. At the age of 12 I became interested in yoga and would watch Wai Lana yoga on PBS after school daily, it became routine, soon after my mom signed me up for kids yoga at the local YMCA. I loved the practice but it wasn't until High School that I learned about the spiritual significance behind yoga, it also sparked my interest to delve more into Eastern philosophy, Chinese medicine, Qigong and all of these practices theraputic aspect on the body and soul. 

After High School I had some difficulties with my family and left to move to Portland, Oregon, where I attended community college in hopes of attaining a degree in photography. I worked the night shift to pay for my rent, living expenses, and college tutition but it was very difficult to balance both without the emotional and financial support of my family. After a year of school, I could no longer afford to pay my rent and go to school and after reconciling with my family, to a certain extent, they still did not believe in my degree choice and refused to support me in that sense. Throughout this experience the one thing that I found support in was my yoga practice.

After much inner debating on my career choice I decided to leave college for good, so I saved some money and traveled to India. In India I lived in an Ashram and studied yoga, upon returing I had obtained my Yoga Teacher Training Certificate and soon after began teaching at a nearby studio. Unfortunatley the studio I worked at closed after a few months and as much as I loved my job, I could no longer support myself on teaching yoga alone, so I took up odd jobs, working up to 70 hours week, but this led to a feeling of unfulfillment and unhappiness. 

After much meditation I knew I was wasting myself working these unfulfilling jobs leading me nowhere, I looked inside myself and knew my calling was to help people heal, so I decided to volunteer.  I volunteered in rural France at L'Association de Centre de Beaumotte. It is a communal Centre that hosts French people with social difficulties as well as international volunteers, together we work to fight social exclusion, and also work and host community projects and volunteers create informal lesson plans for the people living in the home. I stayed in Beaumotte for 8 months and absolutley loved my experience. During my stay there I realized a lot of residents living in Beaumotte, residents that are labeld "problematic people" by society just needed someone to listen to them and teach them how to listen to themselves. 

Upon returning I knew I needed to find a career that allowed me to aide in the healing of others and also carried the spiritual foundation that I was looking for. I will always incorporate aspects of yoga into whatever I do but I needed something that allowed me to reach a wider demographic and that would have the theraputic aspect of  a healing touch. I realized during my volunteering that sometimes people need someone to help them look within. That's when I found out about Zen Shiatsu. 

Shiatsu is a an alternative therapy that orginated in Japan but is influenced by Chinese medicine. It is like a concious massage, but unlike massage or other healing modalities, Shiatsu is meant to help cure not just the physical pain but it gets to the root of the problem on an emotional level. I like to think of Shiatsu as going through a session of yoga, because not only does it stretch muscles and relieve pain but also allowsthe reciever to be conciously aware of the origin of the problem, however unlike yoga, essentially a solitary activity that helps in personal development and awareness, Shiatsu has the same benefits but in relation to another person. The practicioner aids in helping relieve phyiscal ailments through working and stretching merideans but also brings up the the possible emotional culprit to the the recievers awarness, thus both work together to heal the problem.   

This is why I am on this site, I need help in paying for the program tutiton, I have funded my previous endevors myself but I am in need of help this time as I am not doing very well monetarily but would not like this to hold me back.

This is my dream and my life's purpouse, I feel passionte about Shiatsu, and aiding people in recognizing their own healing energy held within themselves. Anything helps! Thank you so much for being here and taking your time to hear my story :)

Namaste,

Liz