Shari Dworkin-Smith’s journey into the metaphysical realm started with early experiences of hearing voices and feeling presences. Overcoming personal challenges and utilizing her psychic abilities, she now offers healing through psychic readings and hypnotherapy. Shari’s approach focuses on shifting perspectives to cultivate joy and spiritual connection, emphasizing love and guidance. Her story highlights the power of trusting in one’s gifts and spiritual guidance. Read more about her in this Psychics4U.net interview.
Table of Contents
- Discovering My Psychic Abilities
- Healing and Joy through Psychic Readings and Hypnotherapy
- From Grief to Guidance: My Story as a Psychic Medium
- Advice for Beginners in the Metaphysical World
- Contact Shari Dworkin-Smith
Discovering My Psychic Abilities
How did your experiences with hearing voices and feeling presences evolve over time, and how did they ultimately lead you to understand your psychic abilities?
I have always heard voices in my head or felt others were talking to me from somewhere that only I could hear. As a young child, I spent a lot of time alone, but I was never lonely. My stuffed animals and toys would talk to me and move around my room. I never told anyone because who would believe me anyway? As I got older that didn’t happen so much but, when I went to college the voices got louder, a lot louder, and brought with them a level of precognition I was not prepared for.
This was in the 1980s and there was no such thing as Google or Facebook. Even if there was, what could I have asked? I thought about the library but didn’t have the vocabulary to even know where to start without sounding like a crazy person. I hadn’t heard of words like metaphysical, medium and certainly not empath. I felt very alone and overwhelmed so I asked for all of it to go away. Years later, I learned that Rochester, New York was a center point for the rise of Spiritualism in the United States. I had spent four years at the University there, next to one of the largest historic cemeteries in the country. It was no wonder the voices got so loud, but I wasn’t ready to listen. Somehow, I knew whoever the voices were, would still be with me if I ever decided to open myself back up to them.
In 2008, my husband and I were in the middle of refinancing our home. Unfortunately for us, our bank, Bank of America, was also in the middle of merging with Countrywide Bank. When they migrated onto Countrywide’s computer systems, we, and likely others, were lost in the process. We had been regularly paying our mortgage until one day, they called to say we owed them twelve thousand dollars in back payments, or they were going to foreclose on our home. It was crazy! We fought them for three years and finally did get our loan refinanced but the battle took a huge toll on my mental health, and I fell into a deep depression.
When you’re down at the bottom of darkness, it can be so hard to find the light and it’s then that we’re able to fully surrender to Spirit. It was a very dark time for my soul, I felt totally depleted and found myself saying, “I know you’re there, what are you waiting for? Help me!” Of course, they did. Guides I thought I’d imagined as a child began to reveal themselves, along with human teachers placed in my path at “just the right time.” I worked hard to release my anger and sadness and celebrate our victory over the bank. I learned to appreciate how strong I’d been and how far I’d come, and I wanted to bring joy back into my heart. During this time, two important things happened, a dear friend passed from cancer and my Twin Flame suddenly reappeared in my life.
Michael had been ill for a while but, by the time he finally went to a doctor, his cancer was everywhere. The funeral was six weeks later, and I was gutted by the loss. Not long after that, I heard his big voice and booming laughter in my head! He was trying to get my attention, but I didn’t know why. We had spoken before he passed and said our goodbyes, what else could there be? At the same time, a childhood friend, a boy I’d had a serious crush on back in school, contacted me out of the blue. He was several years older than I so we never had the opportunity to date, plus he was painfully shy. Suddenly, there he was in my DMs. Our connection was instant, intense and at times overwhelming. I could feel almost everything about him, when he was happy or sad, when he woke up or went to bed, even when he was sitting in traffic in his car.
I had never heard of this kind of connection and reached out to a psychic I sort of knew. Like many people, we were “Facebook friends.” We had many friends in common, people I’d known forever and knew I could trust. I didn’t know what else to do and thought perhaps she could help. She did.
Vanessa not only helped me understand that Michael was trying to communicate, she shared some great tips on how to connect to him on my own. She also explained that my school friend was likely my Twin Flame and connections like ours were not unusual among Twins. It was a lot of information to take in and somehow it all made sense. A few months later, Vaness shared that she felt I would be doing this work myself within the next few years. My initial reaction was to discount her words, but they continued to rumble around inside of me until one morning, from an urge I could not explain or ignore, I found myself in the local booksellers, purchasing a deck of Tarot cards. As I looked through them, flashes of memories, past life visions and a surety of knowing flowed through me. Some part of me remembered, this is where I belonged. Through regressions I learned about many past lives as part of metaphysical communities, so it wasn’t hard to understand why these things always feel familiar to me.
Healing and Joy through Psychic Readings and Hypnotherapy
How do you plan to shift perspectives on spiritual connections to bring joy, and what sets your approach to psychic readings apart from others in the field?
I’ve always felt I was a pretty normal person; I mean as much as anyone can be. I’m a wife, mom, we’ve got dogs and cats, all the normal craziness that anyone else has. Even still, I know so many people feel desperately alone, and the truth is, we’re not alone at all. We are so incredibly loved and, there’s a whole host of loved ones in spirit, guides, angels, and so many others that are there to help us and guide us, *if* we’re willing to ask for their help. People have been taught that these things are bad or somehow connected to the devil when none of that is true. The Universe is built on love, that is the power behind everything and when we can tap into that, so many things become possible. I want people to know there is nothing wrong with connecting to the other side. If they could talk to their Mom or Grandad while they were alive, they can talk with them now. My goal is to change the “woo woo” into “Whooo Hooo!” so people can find joy in those connections rather than sadness. If people could truly understand how loved they really are, regardless of race or orientation, religion, all of it, all of us, what an amazing world ours could become.
How do your psychic readings and hypnotherapy sessions support people in their healing journeys?
As a psychic, I know that we all have intuition and some level of psychic ability. I want my clients to believe in that part of themselves and build relationships with their own higher guidance. In mediumship, I help people understand that death is a transition, not an end. Our loved ones are not gone, they’re just communicating with us in a different way. They’re around us, paying attention and helping when they can. It’s an honor to facilitate this connection and what a gift it is to know the soul continues.
As a hypnotherapist, I help people to shift the beliefs of the subconscious mind, to let go of negative patterns and replace those with more positive, supportive beliefs. People are amazing. But too often it seems that somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten about that. Hypnosis can help us let go of those beliefs that are no longer serving us and remind ourselves how strong, smart, capable, deserving and wonderful we really are. The transformations can be really incredible.
Our nation, all nations really, are still coming back from the Covid Pandemic and it’s wonderful to see but we can’t lose sight of the fact that, in this country alone, over a million people died. That’s on top of those who’ve passed from age, cancer, addiction and so much more. That is a lot of grief, and our instant gratification society is not set up to understand or handle grief. People are expected back to work or to be “over it” in mere days when that’s not how it works. People can get lost in their grief, not knowing if they’re “doing it right” or even how to understand what they’re feeling. As a grief educator, I help navigate through many types of grief and help folks make their way through some really difficult days. There are so many raw and complicated feelings around grief, and it’s not all tied to death. We can grieve the end of a relationship, a job, even a move. It can be overwhelming and confusing and having someone to walk with us can make it a whole lot easier. We will all deal with grief at some point in our lives and while it’s never easy, it doesn’t have to feel like a tidal wave, and we don’t have to do it alone.
Every day I can see the impact of the work I do, how its helping folks heal in a variety of ways. In the end, that’s what it’s all about, helping people heal, to know they’re loved, they’re on the right path and their loved ones are with them, always. It humbles me every day that I’ve been given this path, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to help.
From Grief to Guidance: My Story as a Psychic Medium
How has your personal journey influenced your work as a psychic and spiritual healer?
This work is not always easy but I know, not only am I helping others, I’m healing aspects of myself as well. My husband and I have two beautiful boys, both of whom were delivered under very challenging circumstances. After my youngest was born, our doctor came to us and strongly suggested we not have any more children because each delivery put both my life and the life of our unborn child at greater risk. I loved our boys and we had been through two complicated emergency C-sections to get them here, so I wasn’t too upset to never go through any of that again. Until I found myself unexpectedly pregnant.
I’ve always been strongly pro-choice, a person’s decisions on how to handle their own body should be between them, their partner and their doctor, period. Still, it is not an easy decision or one to be made lightly. We talked, we prayed and spoke to medical professionals. Ultimately, we decided it was not worth the risk to my life or the future of our family.
I felt that my obligation was to protect and care for our children who were already here, so I ended the pregnancy and moved on. My sister was also (intentionally) pregnant at the same time and our due dates would have been very close together. I’m reminded every time I look at my wonderful nephew what I might have given up and I buried the sadness down very deeply and tried hard not to think about what might have been.
As my relationship both with Michael, in spirit, and my twin flame were continuing to strengthen, one day the voice in my head said, “I am the boy.” I didn’t know what it meant but it felt important. I sat on the floor and opened my heart to whatever was trying to come through. I heard Michael’s rich laugh and then I heard it again, “I am the boy.” “What boy?” “Your boy.” And in that moment, I knew he was the child I did not carry. Heartbroken, tears streamed down my face as thin slivers of film dropped all around me from above. They looked like the transparency pages teachers used to use for overhead projectors when we were in school. They were everywhere. I picked each one up in my mind, examined its image and began to understand the story he was trying to share.
His name is Matthew, and he was never meant to be here in the physical world. He came to be part of my spirit team, to guide me and assist me in becoming a medium. He comes into my readings, often bringing children who passed too young to speak for themselves. He’s always with me and enjoys playing with the lights in his big brother’s room. We’ve even had friends come into our home and ask, “who is the boy in spirit who hangs around?” Matthew and I connect regularly and he’s a great help when I’m working. On days when depression or sadness starts to creep in, he is there with a giggle or silly face to make me smile. He reminds me every day, we made the right decision, both for our family and in listening to the guidance our spirit team was trying to share.
Advice for Beginners in the Metaphysical World
What advice would you give to someone starting out in the metaphysical world, based on your own experience?
SLOW DOWN – I think one of the biggest mistakes I made when I was rediscovering this part of myself was trying to do everything all at once. I wanted to take every class on every subject that had anything to do with the metaphysical world. I loved all of it but I was also going in too many directions. We can’t do it all but, once we decide which direction we feel called to pursue, the rest will fall into place. I can’t tell you how many times I tried to take a Reiki I class. I must have signed up four times and every time, something would happen with either my schedule or the class and it just didn’t happen. I understood it wasn’t supposed to be my focus just then and that another class would present itself when the time was right. After I had established myself as a strong, reliable psychic medium, an opportunity came to take a Reiki class with Vanessa, my friend and mentor who helped guide me along this path. The synchronicity was undeniable.
I tell people all the time, slow down, take a breath and see which direction feels strongest for your next steps. The rest will be there when you’re ready. We don’t have to learn everything all at once before we’re able to go forward. Having said that, it’s also very important to be well trained! No one should be taking a weekend seminar thinking that’s all they need before working with clients. Being a good, grounded and insightful practitioner takes time. It’s worth everything to hone your skills and really know how to work with people before getting started. You won’t be 5-Stars for everyone, no one is but, doing this work ethically and from the heart, from a sincere desire to help, is an absolute must.
Where do you teach and share your expertise in the spiritual community?
Folks can learn with me, either online or in person. I am honored to be invited to teach for The Journey Within Spiritualists’ National Union Church in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey and I am also a regular presenter and reader for Church of Spiritual Awakening in Kissimmee, Florida. It is a great honor to be invited to represent both wonderful organizations.
Contact Shari Dworkin-Smith
Shari Dworkin-Smith Certified Psychic Medium, Transpersonal Hypnotherapist, Grief Educator.
Website:
sharidworkinsmith.com
Email:
sharidworkinsmith@gmail.com
Facebook:
facebook.com/empathshari
Linktree:
linktr.ee/sharidworkinsmith