How to Charge for Psychic Readings Without the Guilt

"No longer are we being the broke light worker or the psychic medium who is just doing readings for a donation."

I said that on my podcast, and I meant every word.

If you have ever wondered how to charge for psychic readings without feeling like you are doing something wrong, this one is for you. Because I know that feeling. The knot in your stomach when someone asks how much. The urge to say "whatever you think" or "oh, don't worry about it." The little voice that whispers a real medium would never ask for money.

Let's talk about where that feeling comes from, and what changed it for me.

Why charging for psychic readings feels so uncomfortable

Most of us picked up the idea, somewhere along the way, that a spiritual gift should be given away. That if you take money for it, you have somehow made it less sacred.

When my friend Melissa Mills came on the podcast, she explained it so clearly. Long ago, the community looked after its spiritual people. The priest, the shaman, the healer were cared for by the tribe, so there was no need to earn. That is not the world we live in now. In Melissa's words, we live in a reality where

"money is a vibrational exchange. It is divine compensation for the level of service you are bringing the world."

Feel into that for a moment. Not payment as a dirty word. Compensation. An exchange of energy, flowing back to you for what you bring through.

I grew up the eldest child, and my parents did the very best they could, and there were times when the money simply wasn't there. I remember asking Mum for things and hearing that we couldn't, until I stopped asking at all. That sinks into your body. So when spirit came knocking and I started doing readings, asking to be paid felt enormous.

Maybe you know that one too.

Your worthiness does not equal money

Here is the truth that turned it around for me. I gave a whole podcast episode to it:

"The money that you receive for any services will never, ever equal your worthiness."

This cuts both ways. Your price is not a measure of your worth, so charging very little does not make you more humble or more spiritual. And charging more does not make you more important. It is an exchange. That's all. When you stop tying the number to who you are, the fear starts to loosen its grip.

I know this because I lived the opposite for a long time.

Before mediumship, I was a hairdresser, and I didn't know my boundaries. I'll never forget one client who wanted her hair done when my baby was only a few weeks old. I told her I needed to be with my family. She said she would just have to go somewhere else. And I was so desperate for that small amount of money that I said, don't worry about it, I'll fit you in.

That night I walked outside and had a full panic attack. I remember thinking, all of this, for someone's hair? That moment taught me more about worth than any book ever could.

So yes, I have been the woman who said yes while every cell in her body said no. That's exactly why I talk about this now.

Why free readings burn you out

Here is something I notice over and over again:

"Now people go, I'm not about the money. And then they go do readings and they burn out because they didn't charge."

Mediumship takes energy. You show up, you open, you hold the space, you deliver messages that matter deeply to someone's heart. If nothing flows back, you run dry. Or as I put it on that same episode:

"I don't do what I do for the money. But there has to be an energetic exchange. Otherwise, you will lose your head."

Melissa shared something I loved about this as well. In her experience, when someone puts very little into a reading, they can only take in so much from it. When there is a true exchange, people arrive differently. They come ready to receive.

And I want to be really clear here. The exchange is not about how much of yourself you hand over. I give the same love to every person I sit with:

"I will always give my all, it is not based on the money that you pay."

Love and an energy exchange are not opposites. They belong together.

How to charge for psychic readings from a place of worth

I'm not going to give you a number. There isn't a magic one, and measuring yourself against the medium down the road will only pull you out of your own energy. Instead, here are three things I come back to again and again.

Feel it in your body. Sit with a figure and notice what happens. Does it feel expansive or contracted? Is it a good stretch, the kind that makes you a little nervous and a little excited? Or does it make you want to hide? Your body knows before your mind catches up.

Serve yourself first. I call this a golden key. When you are rested, resourced and not running on empty, you have so much more to give the people who come to you. Charging for your time is one of the ways you look after the channel, and you are the channel.

Hold your standard with love. When someone pushes back, you don't need to defend yourself or explain. Your price is a boundary. Boundaries are a kindness, to you and to the people you read for.

Giving from the heart, on your terms

Charging for readings doesn't mean you never give freely. I give away a lot. Free readings online, this podcast, free classes, all of it comes from my heart and I love doing it.

The difference is choice. Giving because you want to feels completely different from giving because you are afraid to ask. On the podcast I said it like this:

"It doesn't mean that you give yourself away. You only give what you're available for."

So here is my invitation. Grab your journal and sit with three questions. What did I learn about money as a child? What do I believe about being paid for my gifts? And what is my true belief, my soul belief, about my worth?

Notice what comes up. Notice where your body softens and where it tightens. That is your information.

You were born with these gifts. They are not something to hide, discount or apologise for. And who you are was never up for negotiation in the first place.

"We are sensory. We are gifted. And we are worthy just because we are."

Victoria Bond was a hairdresser in a small New Zealand town until she woke up to her gifts at 33. Author of Everyone Is a Medium. Read her story.