Julie Speetjens

I have an insatiable curiosity about the nature of life and death, the universe, and the roles we all play. I have spent a lifetime trying to gain a deeper understanding of myself and the people around me. Having an open mind, and being skeptical but receptive, has led me to try a multitude of holistic wellness and metaphysical modalities that helped me heal and shifted my life entirely. Being a bit of a productivity junkie, when I get excited about something I'm all in. I've learned that collaboration will take you places that competition never will, and that the support of a strong community is utterly invaluable. Honestly, I'm just thrilled to be part of it all, and to have found the magic that was missing. Every client who trusts me to offer them healing or to connect them with their loved ones, every student who trusts me to be part of their spiritual unfoldment, and every participant who comes to Soul Journey Sundays and trusts the team I've assembled... every one of them feels like an honor. I am truly blessed to have found my soul path and purpose.

Do it scared. You will never feel 100% ready to try something new, to make a big shift, or to put yourself out there and take big risks. Kurt Vonnegut encouraged his readers to be "brave enough to suck at something new". It doesn't have to be perfect to be amazing, so be relentless in the pursuit of your joy and passion. Do what lights you up because playing small never served anyone.

First, be brave. Trust in yourself, and in your spirit team, because we've all got one - guides, angels, and ancestors working with us. They want to work with you and they want you to succeed.

Second, find your community, your people, your tribe, because you will need that support. It is sort of like coming out of the closet when you make that shift - people may have known one version of you as an IT Project Manager, let's say, and suddenly you're telling them, "hey, I'm a Psychic Medium", and not all of them are ready for that. Not everyone has the language or the framework, and some of them are nervous about it. It's a trust fall every day. Not everyone's open to it, and it can be lonely.

And lastly, embrace the subtlety and understand that this work is a rollercoaster. Some days you'll give an outstanding, incredible reading, where you and your recipient are both crying, and you can't say a thing wrong, and you're thinking, "oh my God, put me on a TV show, I've got this figured out!" And the very next reading might be like swimming through peanut butter. You might struggle to bring through that same level of specific evidence and emotional connection. Thankfully, your recipients will remember the "Yes's" while you'll torment yourself over the "No's". So, learning to trust and to power through those difficult days, and leaning on the people around you who get it and can remind you of the powerful impact you make, is vital for success.

Thankfully, mediumship pioneers on TV like John Edward, and other celebrity mediums like Matt Fraser, Tyler Henry, and Theresa Caputo have normalized the craft and inspired great numbers of people to open their hearts and minds to spirit communication. More people seem to be open to the reality of life-after-death, and are stepping out from under some of the limiting fears and beliefs offered by religion. And, thankfully, Zoom has opened up classes to the world. Psychic and Mediumship development was once limited by location, whereas now anyone who is intrigued and drawn to it can study with world-class teachers every day. There is an abundance of exciting opportunities for everyone to tune into their intuition, to practice and remember how to speak the language of their soul. Anyone can learn... just like playing a musical instrument.

Another pioneering aspect of my field is the growing acceptance of Reiki in clinical settings. More than 800 medical facilities in the United States offer Reiki healing as part of their Integrative and Complimentary Medicine programs, including iconic institutions like the Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins, MD Anderson, and others. It is typically offered on a volunteer basis if requested by a patient, and why wouldn't we want the benefits of every tool available to us? Before her passing, Raven Keyes was on the leading edge of this movement, administering Reiki in the operating room with incredible results. Interestingly, she was also on the ground in NYC after 9/11 offering Reiki healing to the first responders for months after the attack. Truly, a hero and an inspiration.

Service has always been a core part of what I do. I was the Program Director for LifeSpark Cancer Resources, a wonderful non-profit that offers free Reiki healing to anyone with a cancer diagnosis and to their primary caregiver. It's all volunteers - hundreds of Reiki Masters who volunteer their time. Through that organization, I was actually able to volunteer in the hospital in Colorado, in the outpatient infusion center. So, as people were sitting there, frequently alone, for 6, 7, 8 hours hooked up to their chemotherapy, I was able to offer Reiki healing to them. And there is a ton of empirical data validating the efficacy of Reiki in clinical settings, reducing nausea and stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. LifeSpark has been around for 30 years, and during COVID, all of the sessions had to be done remotely. One of the really fascinating things about Reiki is that it works from a distance, it boggles the human mind a little bit, but we truly are all connected. When people receive a diagnosis like cancer, they open up to things they might not have tried otherwise. Now, Lifespark has Reiki providers and recipients all over the world. Educating people about the power of Reiki, how it can support them through tough chapters and become a spiritual springboard, like it did for me, is one of my greatest joys.