Written by Endeavour College of Natural Health | Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Zarah Adaniel always felt in tune with nature and the human body, but her cultural background propelled her into a career in banking and finance. Later, realising the profession involved long hours for little joy, Zarah decided to change her path.
“At first, I didn’t know what to do, but I’m a hands-on person, and I enjoy helping others, so I did beauty therapy and massage,” Zarah said. “After I had children and started working part-time, I decided to study naturopathy part-time. At Endeavour, I stumbled on Chinese Medicine and jumped ship! I like that the profession is accredited and that everything is evidence-based.”
“Chinese Medicine requires intuition and care. Some of the skills I used in banking and finance are also useful – like attention to detail,” Zarah said. “You’ve got to be on the ball when you’re putting needles in people. You also need empathy to be able to read what a person is trying to say, sometimes without saying it.”
Zarah is now in her fourth year at Endeavour and enjoys the student clinic. “With Chinese Medicine, I love that I can see the results straight away. People walk out of the clinic feeling better than when they walked in,” she said. “I am learning so much from my clinic supervisors and my fellow students.”
“The beauty of Endeavour is that there are people of different ages and from different career backgrounds. As a mature-age student, it was important to me that everyone is welcome. In the clinic, we partner with another student to deliver treatments. Each student comes to a case with a perspective, and they are all willing to share their knowledge.”
When she graduates, Zarah would like to pursue a career in an established Chinese Medicine practitioner in a busy city practice and perhaps spend another day in her home clinic. In the meantime, she’s got several willing participants at home when she needs to practise her skills. “My two sons are really into acupuncture and always volunteer, and sometimes I catch my husband between his work shifts,” she laughed.
Most importantly, she has found joy. “I’m fascinated. There’s always something to learn. I love reading classic texts, some of which are about techniques that are more than 3000 years old. Today, with the amount of research that’s taken place since then, we’ve also got the evidence base to support these traditional practices.”
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Endeavour College of Natural Health is Australia's largest Higher Education provider of natural medicine courses.
The College is known as the centre of excellence for natural medicine and is respected for its internationally recognised academic teams and high calibre graduates. Endeavour offers higher education Diplomas in Health Science and Bachelor of Health Science degrees in Naturopathy, Nutritional and Dietetic Medicine, Acupuncture Therapies and Chinese Medicine.