On a quiet street corner, a neon sign promises psychic readings, fortunes told for a small fee. Some signs advertise crystals, tarot, reiki or clairvoyance, a never-ending list of tools to peer into the other side. 

Denver hosts a wide variety of psychics across the metro area. Though their work is often unseen, each practitioner brings their own set of skills to help give insight to their clients. 

Starting out

Littleton-based practitioner Jen Welte grew up in a haunted house. She said her first connections to the other side were the ghosts that lived in the home with her. 

“I believe that everywhere that we're at has spirits around us all the time,” Welte said. “It's just that I was able to see them. So when I was 5, 6 years old, I would see the spirits walking up and down my hallway.”

Though Welte had an early connection, it wasn’t until she attended a mediumship development class in 2016 that she began to hone her skills. A friend was going to the class, so Welte tagged along, not knowing what the class was for. 

“I was just kind of her wingman because she was nervous to go by herself,” Welte said. “It was a mediumship development class. I had no idea there were classes for stuff like this, I didn't even know that I was a medium at this point. I just thought that I knew things and saw things.”

Mediumship is the practice of enabling communications between the living and the dead. Mediums may have messages conveyed in a variety of ways, such as clairaudience, hearing messages, clairvoyance, seeing messages, or claircognizance, simply knowing the message. 

Welte continued to learn, taking classes from another local psychic — Kim Moore — and then a year-long mentorship with another psychic — Anthony Mrocka. Her mentorship occurred in 2020, which gave her the time to focus on developing her skills. 

"I mean, the whole country was shut down,” Welte said.  “I had no other responsibilities... So I took a year-long mentorship with Anthony. And he really, really helped me to refine my abilities.”

For Broomfield-based practitioner Andarta, the spiritual path started with tarot card readings as a teenager. She continued to learn, receiving training to become a Reiki Master and becoming a Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids — a spiritual organization based in England.

Reiki is a form of energy work that facilitates healing. Practitioners guide energy through a client's body to help them heal.

Andarta’s spiritual and academic paths have been connected, primarily through becoming a Priestess of Avalon.

“I've done a lot of studies on more of the Avalon path,” Andarta said. “Because that is not only my spiritual interest, but also my PhD is in medieval literature. What got me into medieval literature to begin with was my interest in the Arthurian legends, and Avalon and, and all of that, so I've really sort of crafted a lot of my own classes around that just my own personal studies, both from my academic background as well as my spiritual.”

Lakewood-based practitioner Lizanne Flynn’s path was shaped by her time volunteering in an animal shelter. After taking several years off from working to raise her children, Flynn wanted to see what returning to work would look like for her. That desire led her to volunteer at Table Mountain Animal Shelter — now known as Foothills Animal Shelter. 

“It was a good experience for me,” Flynn said. “What I didn't expect was that when I went through the doors of the shelter, is that I would start to hear the animals. I would start to feel the animals.” 

She would hear animals — particularly those that had been surrendered — asking for their families and homes. 

“It was like there was an extra room and I had been given the keys to the door of that room that I could walk into,” Flynn added. “There was this telepathic communication with animals that was available to me, it still feels like that to this day.”

Getting to work

Welte — who started her business online during the pandemic — then applied to work with Discover Your Spiritual Gifts when she saw an opening for a reader. 

“It is an amazing little shop,” Welte said. “I really enjoy being able to work there and (meeting) the people that have come in.”

Welte does tarot and psychic readings, but the main focus of her work is mediumship. 

“What I want to do the most is be able to deliver to people without a shadow of a doubt information that there is life still beyond this, and that their loved ones are not in some tortured, horrible place there," Welte said. "They're right there with us.”

As a former college professor, Andarta’s switch to full-time work as a psychic was recent. Though she had been working part-time while teaching, she transitioned out of higher education this summer. 

“The fact that my psychic business is more stable than higher education, I think is a pretty crazy idea for our society,” Andarta said. “Sometimes there’s a struggle of adapting, complete career change is a little scary. And yet, I feel that there is more of a call in our society for alternate spiritual practices, and different beliefs, especially earth-based religions.”

Flynn’s work began with animal communication in 2008, but soon after that, she added a physical touch. Flynn became licensed as a canine massage therapist. Canine massage is similar to massages performed on humans, helping to relieve tight muscles and stress in dogs. Flynn combines the techniques, communicating with the animals as she massages them.

 She felt that the universe continued to push her towards new methods, such as Reiki, and incorporating them into her practice. 

“This is such a classic example of the universe going, ‘OK. Here's your next step. Just go here,’” Flynn added. Her work now includes a wide variety of practices, including animal communication, mediumship, Reiki and more. 

As a Master Healer, Flynn resisted the title that goes with her work for a while. However, she came around to it once she realized the value of being a healer. 

“The actual definition of a healer that I really vibe with is someone who holds space,” Flynn said. “A healer is someone who opens the door, they might turn on the light for you. But they're not going to necessarily tell you where to look. They're not necessarily going to tell you what to do.”

The impact

For Welte, working as a medium has given her an opportunity to connect people, both living and dead. 

“I love my work, I love helping people,” Welte said. “My main goal is just to help and let people know that we're really not alone, that we really are all connected and that we really will get through this a lot easier if we're just kinder to each other and more loving and more compassionate.” 

Welte added that she wants to be a place people can come to heal through her work. 

“For me personally, it's very, very heart-centered,” Welte added. “I will sit there and I will cry with my clients, I will check on my clients, I will bend over backward because it truly comes from a place of love.”

Similarly to Welte, Andarta’s work is geared towards giving clients a space to heal. 

"I call them clients, and yet I still see them as souls,” Andarta said. “I have great compassion for people. I think that people really resonate with that, that they know that I am there to try to help them.”

In addition to providing readings, Andarta teaches several classes related to spirituality. Her work as a teacher often means empowering her clients to engage in the services Andarta typically provides without her. 

“What happens a lot of the times is that I have clients that work with me for quite a while, and then they're like ‘Hey, I'm good,’” Andarta said. “I’m like, ‘Then go, go do it (yourself).”

This is not just to keep milking people for money,” Andarta added. 

For Flynn, her work gives her an opportunity to give animals a voice, speaking for them and communicating with their owners. She emphasized the importance of simply asking animals what they’re feeling — and listening to what they say. 

“Inside my animal communicator, self is going, you could just ask,” Flynn said. “I think (animals) would be happy to tell you, (for example) the life of the bee and how that works.”

While Andarta, Flynn and Welte’s practices differ, they all stressed the same idea — their talents are not unique. 

“Every single human who has a physical body on this planet can do the work that I do,” Flynn said. “Absolutely everyone.”

For Andarta, Flynn and Welte, being able to do their work is simply a matter of practice and training.

“I feel like everybody has a connection to the other side, or whatever you want to call it,” Welte said. “Everybody has a connection to spirit and that we are all connected.”