Spiritual Spotlight Series
Discover a world of healing, holistic, and spiritual modalities with the Spiritual Spotlight Series podcast. Every week, we introduce you to diverse spiritual practitioners, including psychics, energy healers, life coaches, spiritual thought leaders, and witches. Each episode offers inspiration and enlightenment through the unique journeys, experiences, and divine abilities of our guests. Perfect for those on a path to spiritual awakening, this podcast blends science and mysticism to expand your understanding of spirituality. Our mission is to open your eyes to the world around you, making complex concepts accessible and enlightening for anyone seeking spiritual growth. Whether you're new to spirituality or looking to deepen your knowledge, the Spiritual Spotlight Series is your go-to resource for awakening and transformation.
Spiritual Spotlight Series
Karen Docherty's Guide to Mediumship: Trusting Signs and Spiritual Growth
Unlock the secrets of the spirit world with our fascinating guest, Karen Docherty, a respected psychic medium and mentor. From her first encounters with non-physical beings in childhood to her professional journey as a medium, Karen offers a compelling narrative that is both enlightening and inspiring.
You'll hear firsthand how she overcame imposter syndrome and embraced the significant responsibility that comes with bridging the gap between the physical and spiritual realms. Karen’s insights into recognizing and interpreting signs from loved ones on the other side will empower you to trust your own intuition more deeply.
Learn the intricacies of evidential mediumship, where Karen's commitment to authenticity and accuracy shines through. Experience the profound peace that comes from successful spiritual connections as she explains how spirits communicate through various senses—whether it be hearing, visuals, or sensations.
We tackle common misconceptions and skepticism, providing a transparent look into the world of mediumship. Karen’s passion for delivering concrete evidence of spirit presence offers a reassuring perspective for anyone curious about the afterlife.
Tackle the ethical dimensions of mediumship as Karen discusses maintaining spiritual hygiene, setting boundaries, and avoiding energy burnout.
Discover why it’s crucial to obtain permission before conducting readings and debunk the myths perpetuated by TV shows about mediums being "always on." Karen's practical advice on balancing professional and personal life, alongside her encouragement to explore and develop your own psychic abilities, provides a powerful guide for anyone on a path of spiritual growth.
This episode is not only a deep dive into mediumship but also a call to self-awareness and empowerment through understanding our spiritual potential.
Connect with Karen: https://www.karenpsychic.com
We hope you found the episode to be enlightening and insightful. Our goal is to create content that not only entertains but also helps you grow spiritually and connect with your inner self.
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We believe that by sharing knowledge and insights about spirituality, we can help to inspire positive change and personal growth. So, if you find our podcast to be meaningful and informative, we encourage you to share it with your friends and family.
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Hello everyone, welcome to our Spiritual Spotlight Series. Today I'm joined by Karen Dougherty. She's a psychic medium and mentor. She supports souls on both sides of the veil by bridging communication between the physical and non-physical world. She is passionate about the healing power of these conversations for who was left earthside after a loved one has passed, as well as for the soul who is now on the spirit side. She also teaches others to skillfully and reliably use and trust their own intuitive, maybe even psychic, abilities so that it can be fully connected to the guidance from within and beyond. Karen, thank you so much for coming on the Spiritual Spotlight Series. I'm so happy you're here.
Speaker 2:I'm happy to be here and thank you so much for inviting me.
Speaker 1:So can you? We're just going to jump right in. Can you maybe share the story of how you first discovered your psychic abilities and realized that you could bridge the gap between the physical and non-physical world?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, I mean, it took a lot of time. It was something that, if I go back to my childhood, I was always aware of other people that I knew weren't from here. I didn't know where they were from it's not like I had this kind of inner knowledge that you know they must be from a spiritual realm but I just understood that they weren't physical, but I could still see them and hear them, and so throughout my childhood that continued, and then into my teens, where it became more intense. You know, I would pick things up about people that I didn't know, and so I knew that there was something going on, but I didn't really understand that it was a mediumship or that I could connect in that way.
Speaker 2:And that came a little bit later, because I followed mediums work, I read books, I, you know I was just so drawn to mediumship all the time from a young age. And when I started to speak to a medium who was serving like a local spiritualist church we have quite a lot of them over here in the UK she said, oh, but you're a medium. And I said, oh, no, I'm definitely not a medium. And she said, oh, you are very much a medium. So she asked me to go and sit within a development group and the first day that I went, I just suddenly felt like oh, this is what it was. And I just felt like me, I felt like I was home, I felt like the penny had dropped and from that moment onwards I have worked with Spirit continuously.
Speaker 1:I love that and I also appreciate the fact that you were already drawn to mediums and maybe didn't quite have a connection yet to what it was, but that you were guided by mediums within your area and probably internationally. I'm somebody who really loves Sylvia Brown.
Speaker 2:When she was on Montel Williams I loved how she was like very stern, but it's like you respected her you know, yeah, I remember watching her many times and other tv mediums and one, john Edward, he was one that I watched a lot, um, very drawn to his mediumship from a young age, and just feeling like that completely speaks to me.
Speaker 2:But even when I felt that it wasn't because I felt I could do that, even though I knew I could on some level, but I never would have called myself a medium and I guess it's that human part of you as well that thinks I'm not good enough to do that. You know I don't have that special gift. You know that I could go and do that, but I was so in awe of other people doing it. So when it finally made sense and clicked, I was like you have done this your whole life and you just didn't realize you were doing it. So then it kind of gave it a name for me, you know, and it gave it some focus and dedication and then I just worked from there.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that and I also like the fact that you kind of humanized your abilities, like maybe you didn't trust in them and maybe a confidence thing. I know it's for psychics and mediums and healers and regardless of any profession. Sometimes they have an imposter syndrome thing going on, but then it's like no, I can really do this yeah, imposter syndrome is huge.
Speaker 2:You know it's like anything, isn't it? Even for, maybe, artists or singers or actors. You know you've got that side where you know that you can do it and it's within you and it's a natural thing. But there's also that human side to your mind saying really, can you? You know it's that fear and I think, particularly with mediumship. For me I knew that it was a huge responsibility. So, straight away I understood it's going to be with vulnerable people. It's going to be people that are in grief or lost in life or whatever. You need to make sure that you can do what you say you're going to do. So for me it was a real moment of realization of this is huge.
Speaker 1:So you know you've got to know what you're talking about so one of the things that you connect with is obviously loved ones on the other side, so often they communicate through signs. Can you maybe give us some guidance on how to recognize these signs and how to maybe interpret them effectively?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know it's signs. You know, people often say they don't get signs, or they've had a sign but they're not sure. If it's a sign, you know, and we tend to like take it into our mind and let our mind question it. And the one thing I would say is, if it felt like a sign right in that moment for you and you felt the presence of that, then trust that. That is the truth.
Speaker 2:Now, the spirit world cannot, like just be big and bold all the time. I mean, it's very rare that you're going to get that type of communication. But they can give you signs like music, pieces of music coming on when you're thinking about them, and it's their song. Or coins is another one. I call it pennies from heaven, where, you know, suddenly you're finding like small coins in places that you know there shouldn't be any, um, birds, you know butterflies, all of these things are signs from spirit. Dreams is a big one. You know loved ones visiting within dreams, and it's all because they cannot penetrate very easily this physical world, they cannot just appear. If they could do that, they would all do that, and then we would have no room to doubt it on any level. We wouldn't need mediums, um, so they can't do it like that, so they do come in a more subtle way, but to recognize. I would say, if you feel it within that moment, within yourself, then trust that it's a sign oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:I will say that my grandmother likes to leave dimes in the dryer and I'm like, yeah, hi, grandma, yeah, exactly, and you know the thing is, you believe it. And your grandma and the spirit side is like, yes, you got that sign. And that's the thing that we forget sometimes. You know our loved ones in spirit. They're elated when we recognize the sign or feel that they have been there, whereas if we keep saying, oh well, you know, I kind of thought it was a sign, but maybe not, then that person in the spirit world is like, oh, I'll try again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. Mediumship is often described as a healing practice. Can you maybe elaborate on how your work as a psychic medium brings healing to both those on the spiritual side and those here on earth?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think you know, the biggest part of mediumship is healing.
Speaker 2:That is the purpose of mediumship and I think these days, because there's so much out there now, because there's a lot on social media and you know everyone's doing live readings and it's all about the communication I think that people forget that actually, the biggest part of mediumship is to heal, and I feel very strongly about the healing on both sides.
Speaker 2:So what I mean by that? If I have a woman coming to see me and she wants to connect with her father, let's say that communication really does heal her because it helps her with her grief and it lets her understand that her dad hasn't died and that he's still alive in a different form. He gets to say what he wants to her. So he'll get to say what he needs to say that he didn't maybe get to say before he left this earth. And so I can feel for the father the healing that took place on that side, because he is now at peace, that he got to talk to his daughter, and the healing for the daughter is that she knows her dad's there. So it does bring healing on both sides of the veil, it's not just one or the other, and for me being the conduit to that and me being part of that is a huge blessing for me and I absolutely love my work because of that, because I can feel what it does.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this what do you love most and what is most challenging about your work?
Speaker 2:And what I love the most, I should say, is the feeling of you know, just that peace that I was able to help in some way, that peace of knowing that I have managed to granted. So when I do a reading or work in any way audience readings, whatever it might be I know in the spirit side they are pleased with it. I know that I've done my best for them. That doesn't mean it has to. You know, it can go to plan all the time. There's times where it doesn't, or the connection's not strong or whatever, but at the end of the day I am here to do my best for the spirit side of life. So that's what I love the absolute most, and then seeing the results of that play out in someone's life.
Speaker 2:The thing that's most challenging, though, as a medium, is that obviously you've got skeptics out there and you should and I always say to people be skeptical until you feel like you shouldn't be. So you don't know me, I can be. You know you can make an appointment with me and you don't know me and you're just meant to believe me. That can't happen. So it has to be that there's evidence to support what I'm saying. The sceptical side of things doesn't bother me. But the challenge comes when I see a lot in social media or TV or widespread information. That's a misconception or bad mediumship. Mediumship that maybe somebody thinks they're a medium, they're given information. It's really not the way the spirit world work and it does damage and that's a challenge. When people come to me for a reading and they've maybe had a bad experience or a poor experience and then having to kind of put that right and let them understand what takes place, that's a challenge.
Speaker 1:And I like the fact that you brought up that you're an evidential medium and I feel like evidential medium and if you can explain a little bit about what an evidential medium is and why it's. I feel like being an evidential medium is so important when you're getting readings and if you could explain a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the evidential part of things is the most important part of any reading. Because as a medium I can say to someone oh, I have your mother here and she's saying that you're going to move house or that she's saying she was with you last night, but there's no evidence of that. That's just me talking, that's just words. But if I was to say I have your mother here and she passed away when she was 69 and she passed with lung cancer and she was with you at your wedding. That took place after she passed and you are wearing her ring, then that's factual and that's what evidence is.
Speaker 2:And the purpose of evidential mediumship is to prove that they are still here. So likewise, someone might connect, a medium can connect, say I've got your mum here and she worked as a teacher and she drove a pink car and she had three children. Now that's might be factual, it might be correct, but it's still not evidential to support that she's still here, because all those things happened in the past and a medium can pick up those things psychically from anyone. Like I can connect with anyone and know who their family is and kind of what the family entailed of. So to make it evidential, I have to say so all of those things about your mum are correct, but also she is talking about being at school sports day with your son when he won the race, because that happened after she passed and that proves that she's here after the event. So that's what evidential mediumship is.
Speaker 1:I really like how you put that and I guess, to be very honest, I'm not sure if I ever like made that connection of you. Know you need to connect them to events that may be in a body physical body they didn't participate in, but they're there in spirit. I really like that. That's so interesting. I'm having a moment with this, Can you tell? I'm like she's so right, I like it, but it's like you put another layer of evidence on top of the evidence, Like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's what it should be, because you know your mom's going to come forward from spirit and tell you about her life, of course, and our children and everything. But also why wouldn't she say, oh, you're, you know your mom's in your new house? You've bought a new house since your mom crossed over. She's seen it and she loves the Garden Gate. You know that's different than just the past, right?
Speaker 1:Oh, I like that so much. So let me ask you this what is it like when you connect with the spirit world and bring through messages? Can you maybe describe some of the sensations and experiences you go through some of these interactions?
Speaker 2:Everyone in the spirit side that comes forward all communicate their own way. So what I mean by that is I might have a gentleman that steps forward and he will allow me to hear him. He will be able to get the messages to me through my clear audience, which is hearing. And then I might have a lady coming forward who can communicate through showing me her feelings or showing me pictures or symbolisms or things that I can see with my eyes. Someone else might come in and they show themselves to me so I can describe them.
Speaker 2:So it all works very differently for every part. And you know, as an example, if I'm working with a man who worked as a farmer, let's say, I will hear in the background, I will hear cattle, or I will hear, um, you know tractor engines, or you know, I will hear the hustle and bustle behind someone to know, oh, this is what they did. So it can work on every sense. With me, when I'm working, there's like five or ten different things going on all at once. So for me I'm just in that moment like I'm really not very present within the room because I'm more present with your loved one, and then I'm just kind of letting that communication flow through me.
Speaker 1:I like that you are really like psychically in tune with all of your senses, so as being a medium who works with clients, and you said you, you know you give large groups and you, you're a mentor. How do you manage yourself as an energetic being and do you have ways to maybe have boundaries set up, or do you turn it on and off? Like, what are some of the practices that you do to maintain your spiritual hygiene?
Speaker 2:you do have to take care of your energy. You know any energy workers will know that you do have to make sure that you, number one, are not depleted fully, because you need. You need energy for your own life too. So there is that part where you know when I work, I work, when I when I'm not working, I'm not thinking about it, I just kind of switch off, do my everyday things that I need to do at home and and such like. So there is a boundary there, because it can become too much.
Speaker 2:And I remember when I first started, you know, people wanted readings all the time and I would try to accommodate everyone.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to say no to anyone, I didn't want to make them wait even two weeks. So then it became me looking at my diary, feeling completely overwhelmed for the week ahead because I'm like, oh, my goodness, how am I going to? You know, do all of this. So it was a learning curve for me to say no, you know you have to take your time out. You have to understand that this is energy work and I can't leave myself completely empty. Um, so, yeah, you learn that as you go and you know, I feel like I'm good at it now, but I still, you know, I still look at my diary sometimes, and you know my calendar, and say, oh, you forgot that you had already put three extra ones in there, you know, and also because it's for vulnerable people or people that really need help in that moment. It's not easy to say, oh, I can't speak to you for another six weeks, you know. So you do try to accommodate, but you do have to have boundaries as well, or it would be too much it's hard.
Speaker 1:Like you said, as an energy healer and as somebody who's intuitive, sometimes it's hard to say no and it's like, I'm sure, for you it's probably taken years and years of practice and you know we still have our moments.
Speaker 2:We're like yeah, you do, and you know, even in your own personal life, because people know what you do and you know I have sisters and friends and you know people that you know I have in my life, and even they will be like oh guess what happened? What do you think of that, and can you tune in for me for a minute just to see? And they're not doing it in a selfish way, they're doing it in a way like well, maybe you'll be able to offer me some insight, and most of the times it's fine, but there's some days where you're like I can't.
Speaker 1:I will say that you know, I, I'm, I'm. I have a friend who's also a psychic medium and sometimes I'll be like don't Rachel, like she's a human too, and sometimes chill out because she'll say this person just connected in this and I'm like say no, say no.
Speaker 2:But she won't.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're the same, you guys are so nice, and so giving it's a beautiful gift and it's hard not to say yes, yeah and you want to help and you want to feel like I've done the service.
Speaker 2:You know you're working as a service to spirit and if you're influenced to do that and something comes up, you want to do that, you know but, there's just. There is times where, like I'm in the supermarket and people that yeah, I might bump into someone that I've read for in the past or that I know, and they'll, I know they're looking at me, thinking, oh, I wonder if she's picking anything up, and I'm like I don't even remember why I'm in here. You, I've come in for my shopping.
Speaker 1:I love that. And you know what, when you say that, what is coming up to me is that Teresa Caputo and I don't know if you've ever watched her show it's because of shows like that the way people think.
Speaker 2:you're switched on all the time and of course a show like that is edited, it's set up. You know. She doesn't just walk into a room and they just start picking things like she does this like weird thing and you're like that's so, that's not true.
Speaker 1:Like it's not. You're not hopping up to someone.
Speaker 2:Be like your mom, like no you don't do that on a serious note, you know you. Just you shouldn't do that because, ethically, you don't know what someone believes, you don't know what their relationship was with, let's say, their mum. You just can't read for someone unless you have permission to do it. But these shows on TV and there's some over here in the UK as well it makes it hard. You know that's a challenge because people do tend to think that's what mediums do and mediums do not. We do not go about reading or picking up lots of information all at once right.
Speaker 1:I mean, could you imagine if you're going to get your milk and then you're like wait a second, like you don't have time for that, you're? A busy woman too, and you know it's not like you don't, you can't.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've been in places. I was at a concert once and immediately picked up this man in the spirit side I knew it was his wife in front of me. He was telling me that he'd had his leg amputated before he passed, and he was telling me all this and I was saying to him I can't do anything with this information, I can't tell this lady this, you know, and we were in a loud concert venue and so you will, as a medium, naturally pick up on spirit because he was around his wife. So I'm going to pick that up. But it doesn't mean that it's meant to be a message. It doesn't mean it has to be a communication you just brought though.
Speaker 2:A good point, though, about having ethics in mediumship and for you as a, you know, a psychic medium and a mentor like how do you implement ethics within your practices and yeah, ethics are huge for me and it's something anyone that knows me or knows my work know that I go on about this because I really feel there's so much damage that's done from workers that are not ethical and what I mean by that is maybe adding to the person's problems.
Speaker 2:Or I mean I've had people come to me for reasons that I've had a poor experience and you know maybe what they've experienced. You just think that just shouldn't have happened. So ethics for me meaning take care of the client, take care of their feelings, take care of their needs, take care of the spirit person's needs and always remain diplomatic, you know, always remain where you're, not letting someone walk away from the reading feeling worse or feeling that they are in fear. You know you'll get people coming with health questions and you'll get. You'll pick things up like that and you know you you're there to kind of make them better and give them strength, not to let them walk away with more questions or worry. So ethics for me and I do hear it, you know I do hear mediums saying things sometimes and think why would you do that or why would you say that?
Speaker 1:You know that just doesn't make sense to me that you know, I myself and somebody who has experienced, you know, really terrible ratings that made you feel like I'm a terrible human being, you know, and it's like what, what? What benefit is somebody getting when you leave somebody with that kind of damaging message? You know?
Speaker 2:that's coming. That comes more from the medium's own needs and own ego, because if you're truly working in the power of spirit spirit don't do that. They're not going to do that. Whoever is in front of you, even if they're going through a hard time or there is something that they're struggling with in life that maybe they haven't made the best decision, you still don't leave them feeling worse. You, you bring forward information from spirit that can only help them on their journey. So I think that if it doesn't happen that way, it's really from the medium's own insecurities or own ego. It's their take on the situation. It's nothing to do with spirit. Right?
Speaker 1:Well, one of the things that you teach about is how to connect people with their spirit guides. Can you maybe give us four tools on how to sense them, know them and how to communicate with them?
Speaker 2:The biggest one I would give and it kind of covers them all really is meditation. You know it's meditation. Now people hear the word meditation and they automatically will either say, oh yeah, I do meditate, but I don't get a lot of time, or I tried and it doesn't work, and because life's busy and my mind's too busy and I can't switch off. And the biggest thing I would say is you don't have to sit down in a quiet room for an hour to meditate. Meditation is comes in many different forms. So you could go for a walk in the park and you're meditating, you're just chilling out, you're doing some breath work, taking deep breaths, in focusing on the breath, breath, and that is a meditation. You could be standing washing dishes in a kind of entranced state of mind because you're thinking of other things. That is meditation. So reading a book can be meditation because, although you're focusing on the words, you are allowing yourself to come away from this world for a little while. So there's different ways to meditate, but if you can facilitate meditation on some level, then you can learn to connect with your higher self, which is the power within you, which then in turn will connect with your loved ones in spirit, your guide, your helpers, and you can start to do a practice of um.
Speaker 2:The one that I do a lot and I think it helps people is say to them when you close your eyes and go into meditation, just imagine a room in your mind's eye. Just imagine a room, and it might be outside, it could even be on the beach, but just imagine this place where you feel relaxed in that place. Every time you go there now you ask your guides and helpers to step forward, and it might not work the first time and it might not work the second time, but eventually it will work. And what you're doing in that moment is creating a space where you will automatically go with your soul in order to make that communication with your guides, and your guides will know that, so they will blend with you in that space. So that's one of the better ways to do it. I feel that makes a difference to people, that.
Speaker 1:So that's one of the better ways to do it. I feel that makes a difference to people. That's such a. I love that piece of advice like, almost like automatic programming, like, and then when you go in, they'll connect with you it might just take some time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it always takes time and I think that we get impatient. As human beings, we want everything now and we live in this express world where everything's like on tap, at your fingertips and spiritual development. It certainly doesn't work like that. It takes time and it takes dedication and you know it's not I wouldn't say like it's hard work, but I would say it's disciplined, you know you have to be disciplined and you need to be consistent with your practice, very consistent, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I feel like when you're saying that, I think of Amazon and how you know we get same day deliveries and it's like what world are we living in?
Speaker 2:I, how you know, we get same day deliveries and it's like what world are we living in? I can get my cat litter today, yep, and you expect it and that's it. And what that does is it trains our mind to that. Like everything can come like this. Spiritual development can't happen like that. Because you, some people will go into spiritual development to develop mediumship, they want to develop psychic skills, but but actually the only place you can start is developing yourself and to understand your power, to understand your higher self. Where that connection is, where do you feel that connection? That is the connection you need first before any mediumship develops.
Speaker 1:That's so true. Before I ask you the last question, if anyone is interested in learning more about you booking a session, where's the best place for them to go to?
Speaker 2:so my website is karendockertycom and everything's on there. The mentorship that I do is on there and for me the mentorship was important to create programs because when I started by my own development there was not really anyone to ask. Although there were a few local mediums and things, nobody kind of done help with that training, development, that kind of thing. So I made my mind up then one day I will mentor other students and my program is only for the few. So you have to apply for it, because I don't really believe in having 100 students because you have to. Mentorship is mentorship right? It's for the uniqueness to that person and what they need to enhance their skills. So that's what my mentorship is all about. So I've got some programs on there with that. On the website, personal consultations you know, urgent personal consultations are on there as well and just about the work that I do.
Speaker 1:I love that. So, finally, karen, considering your extensive knowledge and experience, what advice or insights would you like for our listeners to offer, for those maybe that seeking to explore their own intuitive or psychic abilities, which may include your mentorship as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I would encourage anyone to do it. Now, some people won't know where to start, or some people might be listening and thinking well, I would like that. I don't know if I have a skill or I don't know if I can do it. Trust me, you will never regret it. There's no one that I've ever spoken to that's done. Development that says afterwards I wish I hadn't done that. You know, it can only improve, and it's not about just communicating with loved ones. It's about understanding your own power, which will enhance your own life a hundred times over, because knowing who you are, knowing that you are spirit form, knowing that you can reach heights, will change the whole outlook to your life. So I would encourage anyone to do that.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. Well, Karen, I thank you so, so much for on this virtual spotlight series. It's truly been amazing to speak with you today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been amazing. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you so much. Thank you.
