How to Prepare for a Psychic Reading and How to Tell the Real Ones From the Rest
Written by Julie Zdravkovski, Spiritual Advisor & Medium
Julie Zdravkovski is a spiritual advisor and thought leader redefining how we engage with intuition, transformation, and personal power. Known for her direct, no-bypass approach, she challenges spiritual narratives and guides people back to grounded, embodied truth.
There is a moment that almost everyone has at some point in their life when they consider having a reading. Perhaps a friend has recommended someone. Perhaps you have seen a name come up in your feed one too many times to ignore. Perhaps you are in the middle of a season of your life that has left you looking for insight beyond what your own reasoning can offer.
Whatever brought you to the possibility of sitting in front of a reader, there is often a quiet uncertainty that accompanies it, because unless you have grown up in a family or a community where readings were a normal part of life, you may not know what to expect, how to prepare, what will actually happen, or how to tell whether the person you are about to see is the real thing or someone who has learned how to sound convincing.
This piece is written for the curious reader who has been circling the idea, has perhaps already had a reading or two but has never had anyone actually explain what any of it was meant to be, or how to receive it well. It is written from over three decades of doing this work, and it is written with the intention of demystifying something that has been made either far too mystical or far too dismissible by the wider conversation around it, when the truth of what it actually is sits somewhere quieter, more human, and more useful than either extreme.
The different types of readings, and what each is actually for
Before you book a reading, it helps to know what kind of reading you are actually booking, because the word covers a wide range of very different experiences, and knowing which one you are looking for will save you time, money, and frustration.
A mediumship reading is a session where the reader connects with those who have passed. It is often what people book after a loss, whether recent or long ago, when they are looking for confirmation of survival, closure on something left unsaid, or simply the felt experience of being connected to someone they love who is no longer physically here. A good mediumship reading brings through evidence, personal detail, and the tone or personality of the person who has passed in a way that makes it undeniable to the sitter that a genuine connection is happening.
A psychic reading is different. A good psychic reader is not reading you as a person; they are working with the energetic information around your life, the timelines that are forming, the influences that are present, and the possibilities that are unfolding based on the trajectory you are currently on. Psychic readings tend to be forward-looking, though they will often include insights about what is happening in your life right now and what has shaped the current chapter you are in.
A spiritual advisory session, which is a form of work I offer, sits at a different level altogether. It draws on all of the above, but its reach is much wider because it taps into universal consciousness itself to access information beyond this life, this timeline, or this particular version of your reality. A spiritual advisory session can address what is happening now, what is coming, and how to work with its energy. It can also unravel the existence of parallel lives, past lives, multiple dimensions, and the higher levels of consciousness that are quietly shaping the story you are actually living.
Because of my investigative experience in cold cases and missing persons, the delivery of that information tends to be more structured, more grounded, and more precise in the actual details and next steps that come through, because information of that depth is only useful when it is brought through with the discipline to be acted on, not left to sit as something abstract or mystical.
Beyond these, there are tarot readings, oracle card readings, astrology readings, Akashic record readings, energy healing sessions that include intuitive guidance, and many other forms. Each of them has its own particular strength, and each of them will serve you differently depending on what you are actually looking for. The clearer you are on what you want, the better you can choose who to sit with.
How to prepare for a reading
Preparing for a reading has very little to do with what you eat, drink, or do in the hours before the session, because a real reader is not reading your physical state to do their work. Preparing for a reading is about your inner posture. It is about the willingness to actually be present, to receive what comes through, and to release the need for the reading to unfold in a particular way.
You do not need to prepare a list of questions unless you genuinely want to. Some readers appreciate them; others prefer to work with what arrives first and address specific questions later. What matters more is that you have thought, even briefly, about what you would most like to understand, and that you have released the need for the session to follow the script you may have quietly written for it in your head.
Bring an open mind, a willingness to be surprised, and the honesty to be present with whatever arrives. If you can arrive in that state, everything else will take care of itself.
What to expect during the reading
Every reader works differently, and part of preparing well is understanding that no two readings look the same. Some readers work quietly and speak only when something specific comes through. Others speak almost continuously, describing what they are receiving as it arrives. Some use tools like cards, crystals, or other divinatory objects. Others work entirely from what they are perceiving. None of these approaches is more or less legitimate than another. What matters is whether the information landing in the room is accurate, useful, and honest.
During the reading itself, you may feel a range of things. You may feel emotional, sometimes overwhelmingly so, particularly during mediumship readings or when something long buried is being spoken to for the first time. You may feel physical sensations, tingles, warmth, or tears without knowing why. You may feel relief. You may feel confusion. You may find yourself laughing at something surprising or crying at something you did not know you had been holding. All of it is normal, and all of it is part of the reading doing its work.
The part almost no one tells you about is how messages actually land
Here is the piece almost no one prepares you for. A reader can only pick up on what you are allowed to receive in that moment, and what comes through will very often arrive in a shape that is different from what you were expecting to hear.
Most people go into a reading with a quiet narrative already running in their mind. They want to hear about a particular person, a particular decision, a particular outcome, and they are, whether they realise it or not, listening for the words that will match the version of the story they have already been telling themselves.
When the reading arrives in a different shape, when the message uses different language or points at something they were not expecting to explore, they often dismiss it, try to bend it to fit the narrative they came in with, or leave feeling that the reading did not land, when in fact the reading landed exactly as it was meant to. They were not open enough in the moment to receive it as it was.
This is one of the most important things to understand. Listen to the nuances. Listen to the threads that come through, even when they do not immediately make sense. Let the messages land without trying to fit them into a box and without changing the narrative to suit what you needed to hear.
Because what tends to happen, again and again, is that a piece of a reading that did not resonate in the moment will suddenly click into place weeks or months later, when the situation the reader was pointing at actually unfolds. You find yourself remembering what they said and realising it was more accurate than you had allowed yourself to hear at the time.
The reader is not there to tell you what you already believe. The reader is there to bring out what is actually present in your energy, your path, and the layers of your life that you cannot always see for yourself. The more open you are to receiving that in its own language, and the more patient you are in waiting for the messages to reveal themselves in their own time, the more valuable your readings will become, both in the moment and long after they have ended.
How to tell a real reader from a fake one
This is the section I most want you to read carefully, because there are people offering readings who have no gift, no training, and no genuine interest in your wellbeing, and they can be extremely difficult to spot from the outside. But there are also patterns worth knowing.
There are three general types of readers you will encounter. Some are naturally gifted, having grown up with a strong perceptive ability that comes through them without a great deal of formal training. Some have trained deeply, starting with a lower level of natural sensitivity but developing it over years or decades through study, mentorship, and disciplined practice. Some are neither gifted nor trained but have learned to sound as though they are, and this is the group to be cautious of.
The gifted and the trained often produce readings of similar depth and accuracy because the same underlying skill is at work; one has arrived at it differently from the other. The distinction between those two categories does not really matter to the person receiving the reading. What matters is whether the person in front of you is either genuinely gifted, genuinely trained, or ideally both, or whether they are performing rather than perceiving.
A real reader gives specific, personal detail that they could not have known. Names, small facts, particular memories, precise turns of phrase, unique family dynamics, or moments that could not have been guessed at from anything visible about you. General statements that could apply to almost anyone are not evidence of ability; they are evidence of a lack of it.
A real reader is comfortable saying they do not know something or that they are not receiving a clear answer on a particular question. Anyone who claims to have complete access to every aspect of your life, past, present, and future, and never encounters a moment where the reading pauses or comes up blank, is very likely performing.
A real reader does not push fear. There is a specific and unfortunate pattern in which a reader will tell you there is a curse on you, a dark energy following you, or an ancestral pattern that only they can remove. It will conveniently cost you a great deal of money to have it addressed. This is a sign to leave. Real spiritual work does not operate through fear, and no legitimate reader will hold you hostage to something they claim only they can solve.
A real reader does not tell you what to do. They may share what they perceive, what patterns they see, and what possibilities are forming, but the decisions are always yours. A reader who tells you that you must leave your partner, move to another city, make a specific decision, or return to see them repeatedly to avoid disaster is overstepping in a way that is a red flag every single time.
A real reader honours your intuition alongside their own. If something they say does not feel right, a legitimate reader will invite you to sit with it, consider whether it lands over time, and trust your own knowing above theirs. They will not insist that you accept what they say simply because they said it.
And finally, a real reader leaves you feeling more yourself, not less. You may leave a reading emotional, tender, opened, moved, or with a great deal to think about, but you should not leave a legitimate reading feeling smaller, more anxious, more fearful, or more dependent than when you walked in. The direction of good work is always toward you becoming more of who you are, not less.
What to do afterwards
The hours and days after a reading are often more important than the reading itself, and this is another part almost no one prepares you for. A good reading opens things. It stirs energy. It brings up emotions, insights, and awareness that may take time to settle. Give yourself space afterwards.
Do not schedule a heavy afternoon of meetings, do not rush from your session into a social event, and do not spend the evening dissecting every word with a friend before you have had a chance to sit with it yourself.
Write down anything that stayed with you, particularly the pieces that did not immediately make sense, because those are often the ones that reveal themselves later. Allow yourself to feel whatever came up, whether that is grief, relief, hope, sadness, or a strange mixture of all of them at once. You may feel tender for a day or two, and that is completely normal. Something has shifted, and shifts take time to integrate.
Do not book another reading immediately. One of the patterns I see most often is people who move quickly from one reader to another, hoping to get confirmation or additional insight. What tends to happen is that the multiple readings begin to blur together, contradict each other, or reinforce a dependency on external voices at the expense of your own knowing.
A good rule is to let a reading breathe for at least a few months before returning, unless something specific has genuinely arisen that warrants a follow-up.
What you already know
You already know what you are actually looking for from a reading. You know whether you are hoping for connection with someone you have lost, whether you are seeking clarity on a decision you have been avoiding, whether you are wanting to understand what your soul is moving through, or whether you are simply curious about a world you have not yet explored.
And you know, underneath all of it, whether you are ready to actually receive what a reading might offer you, or whether you are still hoping to have your existing story confirmed.
The most valuable reading you will ever have is the one you arrive at with an open mind and the willingness to let the messages land in their own language. The rest, the choice of reader, the type of reading, and the tools they use, all of it matters less than what you bring to the room yourself.
Because a reading is not a performance you are watching; it is a conversation you are participating in, and the depth of what comes through is always partly a reflection of what you were willing to allow to reach you.
A note from me, and an invitation
If something in this piece raised a question you have been carrying, about a reading you have had, a reading you have been considering, or the wider question of how to work with this kind of guidance in your life, send it to me.
Each month, I choose questions from readers and channel a response in this column. You will not be named; you will be heard, and through you, others sitting with the same thing will be heard too.
Send your question to julie@moderndaymedium.com.au.
If at some point you want to work with me more directly, you can find ways to do so at www.moderndaymedium.com.au, where spiritual advisory sessions, classes, books, and more are available when you are ready, not before.
I am Julie. I am a medium. I am genuinely interested in what you already know but have not yet trusted.
Follow me on Instagram for more info!
Julie Zdravkovski, Spiritual Advisor & Medium
Julie Zdravkovski is an international spiritual advisor, teacher, and thought leader known for challenging the norms of the spiritual and self-development space. With over 30 years of experience, she cuts through surface-level spirituality to deliver grounded, direct insight that prioritizes truth over comfort. Beginning as a child medium, Julie has spent decades refining her intuitive abilities while also building a corporate career in leadership and human behavior. This dual lens has allowed her to bridge spirituality with real-world application in a way that is both practical and transformative, propelling her in building a professional, spiritually-led business, Modern Day Medium.
