172. Medium and Psychic: What's the Difference with Medium and Psychic Karen Docherty

"Authentic mediums know how to put someone's mind at ease." Karen Docherty said it simply, and it is worth sitting with.

Karen Docherty, a medium and psychic from Scotland, has been working with her gifts since childhood, seeing spirits in her grandmother's kitchen as young as seven, and was invited into a development circle as a teenager after years of quietly "picking things up."

Website: https://www.karendocherty.com/ 

What is the difference between a medium and a psychic? Mediumship connects with those who have crossed over. Psychic work connects with you, your path, past, present, and potential. "Every medium is a psychic, but not every psychic is a medium," Karen explains. Which you need depends on what you are looking for.

What should you expect in a session? "If you ever leave feeling frightened, then I don't think it was authentic," she says. Real mediumship is about healing, not performance. A live viewer asked whether Karen could help her understand what happened to her son who had taken his own life. Karen's answer was clear: "We all go to the spirit world. Every single one of us, no matter how we cross."

On developing your own gifts: "You must be able to understand your own power before you even try to understand that of the spirit world." A consistent practice, even a meaningful object, becomes a signal to yourself that it is time to connect.

Karen Docherty Bio: Since the discovery of her abilities, Karen has worked tirelessly to bring the word of Spirit to those who need it most. From the UK to the USA, from Asia to Australia, clients from all over the world meet with Karen to receive readings, enrol in mentorships and share a space for discussions on the power of Spirit. A woman with spirit and a breath of fresh air, Karen offers a contemporary approach to psychic work and mediumship based on traditional principles. Filled with love and compassion, she stands as one of the most reputable and skilled mediums in modern times. here. Karen offers 1-2-1 sessions as well as mentorship. She also gives public demonstrations of mediumship. 

Website: https://www.karendocherty.com/ 

FB: https://www.facebook.com/mediumkarendocherty 

IG: https://www.instagram.com/karendochertyspiritmedium/ 

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-docherty-4a1922224/ 

JJ DiGeronimo is an award-winning author, speaker, and intuitive guide dedicated to helping people trust their inner wisdom and align with their gifts. As the host of the Together WE Seek Podcast, JJ creates sacred spaces to explore light, energy practices, and ancient wisdom with healers, mystics, and spiritual leaders. Through her authentic conversations, she empowers listeners to remember their intuition, embrace their unique gifts, and elevate their frequency for a more enjoyable journey.

SEEKING - JJ's 3rd Book: Seeking: 74 Key Findings to Raise Your Energy, Sidestep Your Self-Doubts, and Align with Your Life’s Work

Website:  https://jjdigeronimo.com         
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Transcript

172. Medium and Psychic: What's the Difference with Medium and Psychic Karen Docherty

Hello. Hello. JJ DiGeronimo here with Together We Seek, and today's topic is mediumship. One of my favorites, I started going to a medium when I was about fifteen years old in Lily Dale, New York. And I really think this is such a great topic for us because so many people ask me, JJ, do you think it's okay if I see a medium?

What does that mean? Does that go against my religion? Does that, you know, challenge me if make me, you know, do things or say things I shouldn't say? So I'm so excited to have Karen Docherty here today with me. She is with me from Scotland, which is so exciting, and she has been…granted the gifts or has chosen the gifts of mediumship, and she's also a psychic.

So, Karen, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me here today…

Well, I get a lot of questions from people. Like, what is the difference between mediumship and psychics…

Yes. And, you know, not a lot of people know that there is a difference. And I think really in the scheme of things, do they need to know? But I always like to kind of educate as I work because I think it's important. So mediumship is definitely all about connecting with those that have crossed over.

So people that are in the spirit world already, the departed, that's for mediumship. The medium will connect with with them directly. Psychic is where the psychic or medium will connect with you. So if you go for a reading and you really want guidance or things about your own life situations, past, present, and the potential for things to come, then a psychic can work that way. You know, it's a psychic link.

They're linking in with your soul, your spirit, and they're able to look at your path. So it's two different faculties of it, but doesn't mean that every psychic is a medium, but every medium is a psychic because we have to have both. It's just the way that it works. It complicates it, but it's the way it works. Oh, this is so juicy.

So every medium is a psychic, but not every psychic is a medium. So when you think of mediums and mediumship…

when would people determine when they wanted to work with a medium…rather than a psychic? So I would always say that if someone's seeking out validation and proof that there's a life after this physical life, then that's when you would go to a medium. That's what a medium does. And years ago, um, it used to be that a medium would only work with the mediumship. And if there was, like, somebody needing a psychic reading, they would send them to a psychic.

It used to be very separate years ago. But now mediums do both. You know, if someone comes to me for guidance or things about their own life, I can do that equally as well as connect with with your loved ones. But mediums do the work of connecting to the spirit side…

That is powerful. so many people obviously have one or more people that have crossed over to the other side and are sometimes yearning to just make that connection. So people that come to you? Is it many of their first time? Or I feel like I get some hesitation of people of concern of, like, what will this do?

Is this good for me? How do you handle that, and what type of conversations sometimes are you having before you jump into your mediumship? I think it's always important to whoever comes for for the medium to kind of describe what's going to happen and what it's about. Because like you say, people are nervous, they're vulnerable, they maybe are just lost in a way and they don't know who to reach out to. And other people I've had people in the past clients that are religious and their religion doesn't agree with mediumship because, you know, for different reasons.

And they're, like, a bit frightened of it as if to say, you know, what if I do this, what does this mean for me? So I always like to explain to people that connecting with a medium and connecting with your loved ones, you know, we're all part of the same thing regardless of religion, regardless of life experience. We are all connected by spirit. So there's never going to be anything happening that shouldn't happen. There's never going to be anything that's gonna frighten anyone or at least there shouldn't be.

If you're ever going to a medium and you have an experience where you leave feeling worse or you leave feeling frightened, then I don't think it was authentic. Because authentic mediums know how to put someone's mind at ease and how to explain it. So I always do. I always take time to kind of explain, look, there's nothing to worry about. There's nothing there's nothing going to happen after the session.

In the session that we have together, it's really about connecting the two worlds for that period of time…

That just feels so good. And I just love your approach. And…if anyone wants to check out the YouTube, Karen and I are it's just the energy that you exude just on the camera is so nurturing. So I really appreciate that because I think it brings a lot of peace to people that might be sitting on the fence thinking about they wanted to do this, but didn't know who to even connect with. So the fact that you're on the podcast and people are listening to you, I hope they reach out to you.

All your links are below. Your sessions are very affordable, and I feel like for a lot of people, that's exactly what they need to just get that…validation, sometimes a missing piece, sometimes just wanting to have that thread. Yeah. Exactly. And I think one thing I feel strongly about is mediumship now is seen as an entertainment sometimes because we have social media, which in one way is amazing to get the word out there and to show people that you're here for them and that they can connect.

But the flip side of that is there's a lot out there that's really not authentic. And I feel like it can throw people or they don't know what to expect, you know. So I always would say go to an authentic medium, someone that's reputable or you know is genuine even by word-of-mouth. But the nurturing side of it for me comes in because that's exactly what it's about. It's about healing people.

It's about bringing that healing forward in their soul, their life so that they can handle things differently or handle things in a slightly different way because they have the knowledge that they need, that their loved one is safe, that their loved one is there for them. So that nurture for me should come quite naturally with genuine mediums, and it does. There's many excellent genuine mediums out there that do that. So beautiful. So tell us a little bit about your journey.

I'm just curious, how you even knew that you had this connection. Did it come early on when you were young? Is it something that popped in your life in your teens? Tell us a little bit about how this manifested for you. When I was young, meaning three or four, round about that age, I remember having certain experiences that…

kind of told me that there was something else. That's the only I I can't articulate it and put it into words, but I knew that there was another place. And then as I kind of grew seven, eight, nine years old, I used to see spirits in my grandmother's house mainly. And I used to tell her, oh, there's a lady in the kitchen and she would say, oh, the dead don't harm you. Don't worry about it.

You know, she just understood. I realized later in my life my grandmother was very mediumistic. Her and I talked about it when I was a teenager. But before that, it was really just an understanding that I seem to have that, yeah, they're from the other place. That's okay.

And it wasn't every day and it wasn't every week. It was quite sporadic at that point in my life. But coming into my teenage years, I started to just pick things up for friends and family, and I would see things a lot more. And I still didn't know I was a medium. I I really didn't ever think I was a medium.

I just felt like, oh, yeah. Okay. That's what I see. But I followed mediumship by that age. I read Doris Stokes.

She was an English medium, fantastic medium. I read her books at the age of ten. And, you know, when it came to mediums being on TV, John Edward was one of the first mediums that, you know, I ever started to watch, and I was just fascinated. But it still didn't tell me that I was a medium. I just thought that I kind of picked up on stuff.

So it got to a point in my late teens where it became really overwhelming. I was hearing a lot of voices. I had a lot of spirit people talking to me, and I went and spoke to a local medium about it because I used to go to this church, this spiritualist church. And I said to her, look, this is what I'm getting. And she said, well, that's because you're a medium.

And I said, no. No. I'm not a medium. Because straight away, it was like, that's a huge responsibility. I I'm I can't do that.

And she said, yes. You are. So come into a development circle. Is a group of people that sit together to develop their mediumship. And so I went, and the first week that I went, it just all felt like home.

It just all made sense. All the years of it, it just all fell into place. And I realized, yes. I'm a medium, and that's when I started to work with it…

Wow. So tell me, how did you get to this woman that invited you to the development circle? Do you remember? Like, did you know her? How did that connection because that to me is such an instrumental connection for you.

How did that come about? Well, in Scotland and the UK, there's a lot of spiritualist churches and centers that you can go to. So I visited my local one quite often because I used to go and watch mediums working, and she was the she was the person that ran that that center. So I kinda knew she was a medium, and I thought, well, if I'm gonna ask anyone, I'm gonna ask her. So that's what I did.

I just struck up a conversation with her and told her what had been happening with me. And she had a lady that was part of the same center that ran a development circle, and she said, you're gonna have to go into Margaret's Circle, and you're gonna develop this. Um

, so they really did get me started. And then really quickly, it really turned down very quickly for me. I was only doing that for maybe two or three months, and I was starting to get asked to do readings and do work. And and I just kind of went with the flow on it. And, really, from there on in, I just have worked with it full time ever since then…

So what have you learned about yourself? Because I feel like this is not a common journey. You know, for us here on Together We Seek, it seems like all of us have these gifts that we're leaning into. But I think every you know, most of the population are not even present nor are they even recognizing the gifts that are still within them. So what have you learned about yourself…

The the personal side of it is the bigger side of it. And I always say to my students, when you embark upon this development journey of mediumship, what you learn more than anything else is personal development. So you really have to face yourself through your development journey. You know, you really have to look at your shadow self and look at your traumas and look at the way that you've kind of, um, expressed yourself in life and and reasons for that. So you really do go through a very deep, uh, development journey personally.

And I think, you know, even as far back as your childhood, you just start to realize bigger things, uh, meaning there's there's a bigger world out there. There's a bigger reason for things, and it makes you look at yourself a bit differently. And I think for me, honestly, the biggest thing for me was the feeling of, this life is so temporary. It's so temporary, and I'm not gonna sweat the small stuff, and I'm not gonna look at the small stuff anymore. I'm just gonna embark upon what this is.

Now that doesn't mean that I don't have trials and tribulations the same as everyone else, but it just made me realize that I have to deal with things differently and I have to open myself up to spirit in order to work as a medium. I can't help other people if I don't know the stuff. So it really does make you face things a lot. So the personal side of it is huge…

Yes. I I agree. I'm…finishing a piece of work that's the six phases of spiritual awakening, and I feel like the first couple phases is all about, letting go, leaning in, being honest with yourself, dealing with childhood trauma or, you know, decisions that, had brought you down past that you need to unwind. Absolutely. And it's hard.

It's not easy. And I think anyone that's on a journey like that would say that, it's worth it. And it's a continued thing. Like, the journey of mediumship's continued.

I learn every single day about my mediumship still, and I've worked with it for years and years. And I trust Spirit more than I trust anything else. Like, whenever things are going wrong or I think that something's going to happen or something happens in my family, it's like, okay. What's the bigger picture here? Let's just wait and see.

So it does put you in that position of being able to surrender a little bit more…

Wow. Yeah. It's no easy road, and most of the guests that I've had here on the podcast have talked about the challenges. I mean, for as connected as they are and as awakened in some cases, they still have had pretty tumultuous paths…

Yeah. And I think that's the thing. I think when people come into your life at a time where you're already awakened or you've been working your way through your journey and they think, oh, that's amazing. You know, you're so, like, chill or you're this or you're that. And you're like, yeah.

Took time to get there as well and there's still more to come. Um, but I think that people just assume that you were always like that. You know? Oh my god. You know?

You're a medium and this is what you do. And I'm like, yeah. It's been hard work. You know? And and why should they know that side of it?

Like, that's that's a personal journey. But it does make you who you are. You know? It is who you are. It's it's all encompassing.

And I always say to people, well, my friends and family and loved ones all know that being a medium is me. It's not a job. It's not a choice. this is who I am. This is every part of me.

And if there's periods of time, even like if I go on vacation holidays or take time out for other reasons um

, I always miss it. I'm always the one saying, I haven't connected with spirit. I don't feel connected. I'll have to go and connect. You know?

So it's just part of me. That's so beautiful. And I just love the fact that you have gifts that you've chosen, that you've leaned into, or have shown themselves so early. And I think people listening, we all have gifts that we've picked and chosen to come down with. And, really, some of our work down here is to dust those off, figure them out, and lean into them because oftentimes, do they not only help ourselves, they help others that cross our path.

Yeah. And I think that's what it's all about. You know, you don't know who you're going to help. You don't know even if people think that being a medium, like, you can sit and talk to people about x, y, and zed and it helps them, but anyone can do that. Anyone can sit and have a conversation with someone and help them without even realizing they're helping them.

You know, there's many times over the years that I haven't exactly been working as a medium in a in a situation. It's maybe that I bumped into someone in the supermarket and something's happened, and we trigger a conversation and it goes into deeper stuff. But it but that's not me saying, oh, I'm a medium and I can help you do this. It's just normal conversation. But within the depths of that conversation, you're actually helping someone.

So I think that really anyone can do that if they're aware of their own awakening process, if that makes sense. It makes sense, and I know exactly what you're speaking of, and I really appreciate that. So so many people often say we have a spirit team, you know, some or soul contracts. do you believe that in the work that you're doing? Does that make sense to what you communicate with on the other side?

Spirit teams for sure. Soul contracts, I've never gone down the route of soul contracts. Not that I don't believe them or do. It's just not something that I talk about or feel drawn to talk about. But certainly, spirit teams, a hundred percent.

You've got different teachers at different times in your life. It's like when you go to school. If you're in year one, you get a year one teacher. If you're in year five, you'll get a year five teacher. Or there's teachers that will come in for different reasons.

If there's an emotional thing, a teacher will come in. If there's a physical thing, a teacher will come in. So I think that we all have that team. Every single one of us, not just mediums. Every single one of us have a spirit team that are working to help us and guide us throughout our life here on the earth, um

, depending on what and when we need that. Um, I don't feel we can rely on our guides and helpers. I hear a lot of people saying, I want my guide to sort this out for me. And you're like, well, that's not really the deal. The deal is that you're here to sort things out for yourself and be present in your life.

But you can certainly ask for guidance, and you can certainly ask them to show you things to, like, please show me this way or show me the way I'm supposed to go. And your spirit team are absolutely on hand to help you do that. But you've also to remember that you're your own powerful guide too because we are spirit in human form. So our spirit is just as powerful as a guide that's in the spirit world. So therefore, if we learn to go into our own power, which is a really amazing thing to do, then we have our own guidance on tap.

Our soul knows the way through this life. It knows what's happening in this life. It knows what we're gonna do, uh

, where we're gonna go, where we're gonna end up. So tap into that. Learn to tap into that…

Well, for those listening on the podcast, we record live on YouTube, and we did get a question, if I could ask you, Karen, from one of the live viewers right now. Uh, our guest that is watching live, um, her son took his own life, and she is wondering, you know, if she schedules a session with you, are you able to explain what happened, um, to his soul when they first pass over in this way? I certainly can. I can certainly work through that with with her. Um, I think that suicide passings, um, need to be discussed.

You know what? I feel like there's definitely an element of people don't mention it or people don't know what to say, and that's perfectly understandable. But as a medium, I've worked with that hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times, unfortunately. Um, but it is you know, I feel like it really does help people to understand…the process. we all go to the spirit world.

Every single one of us, no matter how we cross, we all go to the spirit world the same way. I think sometimes religious backgrounds and other cultures might see things differently and, you know, and say, well, like, I've heard lots of people. I had a lady actually whose son, uh

, crossed over that way and she'd said she'd been told that he was, like, in a limbo and he wasn't in the spirit world and and it's nonsense. Uh, the minute we cross over from this physical body, we all know where we are because we have come from there. Um, so I I would be more than happy to, you know, talk talk to her about that and and kind of put her mind at ease about that. Well, that's already reassuring, and I thank you for just validating that for me and us and everyone listening that there is no middle ground that's named many things by many religions that we all cross over back to the light. Absolutely.

And I think, you know, we're met with love. We're met with understanding you know, there is part of it where you can see when someone crosses over abruptly or they're not expected to pass, then…when they cross over, they'll know where they are, but they're still connected emotionally. So there's time. It takes time for it's not like we just cross over and we know where we are and we're all like, hey. It's fine.

I'm here. You know, we've still got all of these emotional things to go through and work through and and acceptance that we're no longer physical, that we're no longer in the physical sense. We can't hug our family or, we've still got to come to terms with things, but it's a different kind of grief than it is in this world. So there's a lot more reassurance from that side of things. That is so helpful, Karen.

Thank you so much. And for anyone who does have questions or wants to connect with loved ones, please use the links below. Karen's website is very easy to schedule. I know, Karen, as we're closing up that you are teaching other mediums now. Yes.

And I yes. And so for anyone out there that thinks they might have these gifts more profound profound than others, is there any advice that you can give them something to work on, um

, as they're working and leaning more into their gifts? Yeah. I would say that, you know, meditation is talked about a lot, and you hear people talk about meditation. And people seem to think it means like just sitting in a quiet room and trying to switch your mind off. Well, that doesn't work because you can't switch your mind off.

So it's more about centering yourself and building up understanding your own power. So for those that are developing, you must be able to understand your own power first before you even try to understand that of the spirit world because it's that part of you that's going to connect with the spirit world. It's not the human side of you. So unless you know that side of your self well and you know what your reactions are to things and you know how you feel about things, you're not gonna quite manage to develop your mediumship. So it goes hand in hand.

So I would say to everyone, just sit within your power. Get learn your own energy. You know, feel your own energy and how you are, and that will set you in good stead to go forward with your development…

I love that. I did take a lot of mindfulness classes and meditation, and I agree. You cannot shut the mind off, but you can…sort of dodge…the pitfalls of deep thinking, grocery lists, all the other things you have to do. And so finding that quiet time to connect with self. One of the things that I do is I have a beautiful necklace that I got in Jamaica.

And when I put this necklace on, it is sort of a message to myself that I am connecting now. Yeah. And that's an amazing way to do it. And it's almost you can do it in your mind as well. You can do it with an object or you can just say, okay, when I'm sitting in a certain way or I'm, you know, Monday night at seven o'clock, this is when I sit.

It's it is signaling to you that this is the time for you. So it's a really good discipline to get into. Things like your necklace is a very good discipline. That's a good idea too is having a set time where that time because I do have a lot of energy that comes to my office. The light goes on and off, on and off.

I'm like, okay. But I haven't been really great at, stopping working and making time to connect. So I think I know. That's the hard that's the hard part. And now and, you know, I'm I'm saying all this, you know, but like you, you know, life gets busy and we don't always make the time for it.

But, I also set for trans mediumship, the altered state. So when I set for the altered state mediumship it's so beautiful sometimes that I don't actually want to come back. It's like I'll just sit within this space for a long time. So when you do get your discipline going and you do get into it, it's really worth it. It really is worth it. Well, that is an amazing reminder for me, Karen.

I feel like that was a message I needed to hear right now. And for everybody listening, I hope you reach out to Karen. She is such a beautiful soul, and I'm often asked who to connect with for people that have crossed over. And I just am really so excited that you visited us here on the Together We Seek podcast. We have some great comments and people that will connect with you.

Karen, what is the best way to connect with you? The best way is through the website, which is karen doherty dot com. Wonderful. And that is listed below. She's also on Instagram.

And, um, we hope you have a great year, and I look forward to the many people that listen to this, connect with you, and just continue to share your light and love with the world. Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me. Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

And for everybody listening, if you love the episode, be sure to rate it. Be sure to share it for someone who might need it. And as always, we encourage you to reach out to Karen and all the practitioners as their gifts are so powerful and often of the light you need to move down your path. So thank you so much. Thank you