Shinkyu University

Heather “Maya” Suzuki is a vibrant, passionate, and dedicated acupuncturist, with the endless energy that allows her to juggle her colorfully filled life. Maya is a wife, a mother, a business owner, a teacher, a translator, and a lifelong student.

Maya didn’t know it yet, but her early fascination with doing acupressure on LI 4, as a way to diffuse her childhood migraines, put her on the road to becoming an acupuncturist.

Then at the age of 14 Maya’s father introduced her to the Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Filled with great excitement and fascination, she went to their student clinic and got her first acupuncture treatment. It was after that acupuncture treatment at the school’s clinic that her desire to be an acupuncturist crystalized for her.

Before Maya would start any formal acupuncture training, she first graduated from The University of Colorado, with a degree in Japanese Language and Civilizations. The next big event in her life was in 2007 when she got a job working abroad for the Japanese government. But Maya’s government job didn’t last long. Once in Japan Maya knew her sole focus would have to be spent learning acupuncture in Japan. With sheer will and determination, Maya managed to pull off the rarefied feat of starting an apprenticeship under a Japanese acupuncturist prior to graduating from acupuncture school.

After a year as a full time apprentice, where she put in a full 40 hours a week, Maya enrolled in Toyo Shinkyu Senmon Gakko; Tokyo, Japan (Eastern Acupuncture and Moxibustion Trade School). During this time Maya continued her apprenticeship, while simultaneously being fully enthralled as an acupuncture student. In 2011 Maya graduated from Toyo Shinkyu Senmon Gakko, got licensed, and started her practice as an acupuncturist in Japan.

In 2017 Maya returned home to Colorado to raise her family and set up her acupuncture practice in the States. Her unique skill set and perspective on being an acupuncturist trained in Japan, plus being immersed in the Japanese culture for 10 years caught the attention of the Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine. They quickly made Maya an offer she wouldn’t refuse and brought her on as an instructor to teach her unique style of Japanese acupuncture.

Coming back full circle from where her interest in acupuncture was first sparked, Maya found great joy and fulfillment in spreading her meticulous, detail-focused Japanese acupuncture techniques to the eager Colorado acupuncture students.

As an instructor at a prominent US acupuncture college, as well as volunteer work she did with the In-Touch Japan seminars Maya started to notice that most acupuncture students with an interest or predilection for a Japanese style of acupuncture had very limited resources to them. And even licensed acupuncturists who knew and respected Japanese acupuncture as a powerful style that could be very beneficial for them, were faced with few options when it came to learning real Japanese fundamentals. It was out of this realization that the idea of a bigger program to teach Japanese acupuncture started to blossom in Maya’s mind.

And out of her determination, passion, and Japanese sensibility, Maya started Shinku University. Shinkyu University is a bridge that connects you and every acupuncturist that is curious about the gentle power of Japanese acupuncture with the information, skills, and mentorship that until now did not exist outside of Japan.

Shinkyu University is a community that brings together students from across the US and abroad, to learn new and amazing ways to treat and heal your patients. Shinkyu University is here to teach you the foundational basics of Japanese acupuncture and moxibustion. And the way Shinkyu University does this with a lifetime mentorship and a supportive community. The only other way to get this deep level of training in Japanese acupuncture would be if you were willing to uproot yourself, move to Japan, petition for an apprenticeship, and navigate through 4 years of acupuncture school as a lost in translation foreigner.