About Psychic Sarah & How She Works
ABOUT Sarah Barry – Psychic Sarah
I am professional tarot reader working from my private tarot office on King St, Newtown, Sydney.
I have a unique, nonsectarian tarot reading style that is open, calm and grounding, while also nonjudgmental, insightful and inspiring.
I became a professional tarot reader in 2002, and transitioned to being a full-time tarot reader in May 2003. Since 2020 I have also been working as a mortality doula (also known as a death doula or end of life doula), holistic funeral director & funeral celebrant with Life Rites Funerals, so since 2021, I have been working three days a week of tarot to make space for this other work, which I also love. Update November 2023: I now do tarot readings on Sundays only.
Working with the tarot is a career that helps me understand the complexities of humanity, and I very much enjoy the huge cross-section of society that I have the good fortune to meet.
I am a free-thinking tarot reader and compassionate in my approach. With a healthy dose of humour, I connect with you on an authentic heart-to-heart level.
HOW I WORK
As for how I work, every tarot reader works differently. During your reading I will use the tarot as a tool rather than a definitive source in itself. It is my intuition/psychic ability that allows me to translate what I see unfolding for you. The cards are used as visual flash cards primarily to make the reading more accessible to you. You can see what cards are appearing and can have your own way of responding to them.
Tarot cards have an ancient history. They have their own way of working that can be very beautiful, synchronistic and relevant. The longer I use the cards, the more I learn about their mysteriousness, and I find that using them in a reading allows for a more grounded and straightforward understanding.
I often use metaphors as a way to help you reflect on how those examples can apply to you and your own life. We can also use the cards to look at pros and cons of certain situations. I am flexible in my approach and can work with vast and existential questions as well as those regarding everyday life. If you do have specific queries, I prefer to work with them from an angle that is expansive and empowering. For example, instead of “Will I find love?”, we can frame the question as: “What can I do to help myself find love?”. Or instead of “Will my work situation change?”, how about: “What can I do to change my current work situation?”
If I mention a future possible event during a reading, I say it because there appears to be a strong likelihood of it unfolding. Although many clients have given me affirmative feedback that things mentioned in the reading did indeed eventually come to pass, please note, there is no possible way for me to 100% guarantee that this will be the outcome for your reading and your circumstances. If there is a God, I am not them!! Of course your own free will, actions of others and the everyday changes of life can and will affect outcomes. What I hope for though when people come for a reading with me, is that there is less emphasis on inactively waiting to see whether things will ‘come true’, but rather, inspiration for ways you can lead your life that will result in positive outcomes for you, as well as encouragement on to how to deal with more challenging situations. Getting a tarot reading is not a passive experience – the more willing you are to be introspective and engaged, the more you will get out of your reading!
I prefer to receive no information from you for the first 5 – 10 minutes, to ensure that I approach your reading from an intuitive level. I will then check in to see if there are particular areas on which you would like to focus. Clients often find that I have already started talking about what they would like to get clearer about, so that check-in point can be used to either expand upon what is already unfolding, or to introduce something that I have not yet focussed on, to the reading.
If you want me to just ‘go-with-the-flow’, I am happy to do this. However, if this is the approach you request, please be absolutely sure that there are no burning issues you really want me to talk about. If they are important to you, it is better you mention them upfront, rather than waiting to see if they crop up. Make the most of your time with me – 30 minutes, 45 minutes and 60 minutes can fly by very fast!
I do not expect you to subscribe to any particular belief system in order for the reading to make sense. I am nonsectarian in my approach and I refer to energy simply as energy without creating a particular name or image for it. To this end, I do not refer to spirit guides, gods/goddesses, animal totems, angels, deceased people, past lives etc. This is not to deny others’ relationships with those particular references – more just a way of keeping the reading universal, and as grounded in reality as possible.
MY BACKGROUND AND CURRENT-GROUND THAT SUPPORTS ME TO SUPPORT YOU
I have been a professional tarot reader since 2002 – I was full-time 2003-2021, and I now work one day a week of tarot to accommodate my other much-loved career (see below):
Since 2020 I have been working as a mortality doula (also known as a death doula or end of life doula), holistic funeral director & funeral celebrant with Life Rites Funerals where we offer holistic, personalised end-of-life support, living wake, funeral and ceremonial services.
I have supervision every month with an experienced psychologist so that I can discuss any aspects of my work in a confidential and safe environment, and continue to grow as a responsible practitioner.
I have been practising Vipassana meditation (in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, as taught by S.N. Goenka) since 2005. I do 10-Day silent meditation retreats annually and serve (volunteer) on 10 day courses. To maintain this practice I meditate in the morning and evening, every day.
I completed a basic Counselling Skills course facilitated by Aurora Hammond of the College of Holistic Counselling, circa 2002.
I have been studying and practising Nonviolent Communication (NVC) since 2007, which included 7 years in a fortnightly practice group (2007-2014).
I volunteered weekly at the Sacred Heart Hospice in Darlinghurst from 2005 – 2009.
I continue to study tarot doing various online study with seasoned tarot professionals, reading online and in-hand literature, and attending tarot conferences when I can. I went to the Readers Studio in NYC in 2015 and 2016 – arguably the biggest tarot conference in the world, and the UK Tarot Conference in London in 2018. I was invited to host one of the two Breakfast Roundtables at the Readers Studio in 2016 – this involved presenting a topic relevant to tarot readers, and facilitating the lively discussion.
I completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (majoring in Printmedia) at the College of Fine Arts (now known as UNSW Art & Design) & a Master of Arts in Photomedia (years of study 1997 – 2001).
I offer face-to-face tarot readings, as well as readings via Phone, Video call and Email. For more information go to my Book A Tarot Reading page.
For more information about how I work go to my FAQ page and Policy & Ethics page.
In May 2013 I celebrated 10 years of being a full-time tarot reader. I wrote a short story as to how I came to be a tarot reader, and what was happening as I made the decision to go full-time. Read it here 🙂
Tarot Readings with Psychic Sarah 