How to Choose a Mediumship Teacher

If you're at the stage of looking for a mediumship teacher, congratulations, you're about to make one of the most important decisions of your development. The right teacher can shave years off your journey. The wrong one can knock years off your confidence. And the difference between the two isn't always obvious from the outside.

I'm going to give you the honest version of how to choose well, with stories from my own search (some of which I'm still not entirely proud of having put up with), the criteria that actually matter, the warning signs that should send you elsewhere, and the slightly uncomfortable truth that you will probably need a different teacher at different stages of your development.

I've been through good teachers, bad teachers, and several in between. I've also taught for years now myself, which means I see this from both sides. Here's what I genuinely think matters.

Start with what you actually want to learn

This sounds obvious but it isn't, so it goes first.

A lot of developing mediums sign up for whatever teacher is in front of them, then feel frustrated when the teaching doesn't match what they wanted. They wanted evidential mediumship, but the circle is doing spirit guides every week. They wanted feedback on their development, but the course is mostly group exercises with no individual coaching. They wanted to work on platform demonstration, but the mentorship is one-to-one readings with the teacher every session.

None of those teachers are wrong. They're teaching what they teach. The problem is the student signed up without checking whether what's on offer is what they actually wanted.

My first teacher was a wonderful medium called Jill. Truly wonderful. But she ran a healing-focused circle, and I really wanted to work on evidential mediumship. I sat there week after week thinking maybe this week we'd cover it, and never asking her directly, never moving on to a different teacher, never taking responsibility for what I needed. That was on me, not her. But it cost me time.

Before you choose a teacher, get clear on what you actually want to learn. Evidential mediumship. Healing. Trance. Spirit guides. Platform demonstration. One-to-one readings. Card work. Then look for a teacher whose specific focus matches yours. If you're not sure what you want, that's a sign to do a few different short workshops first to find out.

Watch them work before you commit

This is the single most important thing on the list.

If you can't see your prospective teacher doing the work they're going to teach you, that's a warning sign worth taking seriously. A teacher of evidential mediumship should be able to demonstrate evidential mediumship. A teacher of platform demonstration should be willing to go on platform. A teacher of healing should have a healing practice. The principle is simple: if you can't see them do the thing, why are you paying them to teach you how to do it?

The most reliable signal is a teacher with a visible body of work. They demonstrate publicly, online or in person. They have video of their work somewhere you can watch. They run regular paid readings with real clients. They show up in spaces where they have to actually do the job they're teaching.

I once heard of someone running a mediumship circle in a local church who refused to demonstrate. The committee eventually had to say "you can't teach a development circle for something you're not willing to prove you can do." They were absolutely right. The credibility lives in the work.

This isn't about demanding free readings from your prospective teacher. They're not obliged to read for you to prove themselves. But they should have demonstrable work somewhere in the public domain that you can evaluate.

If you can't find any examples of them working, the most likely explanation is that they stopped doing it themselves a long time ago and are now teaching what they used to do. Mediumship is a living, evolving practice. A teacher who isn't actively working is teaching you yesterday's version of the work.

Look for a teacher who wants you to succeed

I'm going to tell you a story I'm not particularly proud of having lived through, because it might save you the same experience.

I was on a course with a teacher I genuinely admired. The course was going well, until I accidentally clicked a button on Facebook that invited all my contacts to like my business page. (Don't ask. It was an unfortunate moment of admin chaos.) From that moment, my teacher could see how many followers I had on Facebook, which was rather more than him.

His attitude towards me changed completely.

A few weeks later, I was in a Zoom breakout room trying to give an evidential reading to a particular student (who, ironically, had spent every previous class loudly thanking the teacher for his amazing teaching), and she was saying no to everything. The teacher dropped into the breakout room, which almost never happened. I said, "Please help, I don't know what I'm doing, she can't take it." And he said, in front of her, "You're not as good as you think you are."

I was devastated. I didn't think I was good. I was there because I wanted to learn. I was there because I wanted to be a better medium.

And then, somehow, I signed up for another course with him after that. Because I'm an idiot. Because I thought I deserved it. Because I told myself that was the firm teaching I needed.

If I told you that story about your teacher, you would tell me they weren't the teacher for me. But when it happens to us, we somehow convince ourselves it's appropriate. Don't make my mistake.

Your teacher should want you to succeed at least as much as you want to. They should be visibly invested in your development. They should be pleased when you do well, not threatened by it. They should be willing to share what they know rather than gatekeeping it for the next course.

If your teacher gets uncomfortable when you grow, or seems to pull back when you start to flourish, that's a sign their ego is bigger than their commitment to your development. Find someone who's secure enough to celebrate your wins.

The right teacher for your stage may not be the right teacher forever

Worth being clear about this, because it's one of the most useful things I've learned.

You will probably need different teachers at different stages of your development. The teacher who's right for you in your first year may not be right in your third. The teacher who got you through the early stages may not be the one to take you into demonstration. That doesn't mean either of you failed. It just means you needed different things at different times.

For me, the most transformational teacher I had was Minister Lynn Parker. I came to her after years of hard, sometimes harsh teachers, and what I needed at that point was someone who believed in me. Lynn held a space that completely changed my work, not because she pushed me, but because she had no jealousy of where I wanted to be, no agenda about controlling my development, and an absolute steady belief that I could do this. That was the right teacher at the right time.

Earlier, I'd needed firmer teachers. Later, I needed peers. At every stage, the teacher who worked was the one whose energy matched what I actually needed.

So when you're choosing, don't think "the teacher I want forever." Think "the teacher I need now." It's an easier decision, and it's the right one.

The temperament question

Some teachers are direct. Some are gentle. Some are firm. Some are nurturing. Some combine all of the above in different proportions.

I'm direct. That suits some students and absolutely doesn't suit others. The students who thrive with me are the ones who want to be told the truth honestly, who can hold their nerve through critique, who want to be pushed. The students who don't thrive with me are the ones who need a softer hand at this point in their journey, and they'd genuinely be better served by a more nurturing teacher.

There's no universally correct temperament for a mediumship teacher. There's the temperament that suits you, at this stage, with what you need to develop. Working out which is which takes some self-knowledge, and usually some trial and error.

A useful question to sit with: do you tend to grow under firm challenge, or under warm encouragement? Most of us need both at different times, but most of us also have a default that works better. Match the teacher to your default, especially at the start, and revisit it as you develop.

What a good teacher actually does

Let me try to describe the texture of a good mediumship teacher, because it's specific.

They give personalised, truthful feedback. Not just "lovely, lovely, lovely" after every attempt. Actual coaching on what worked, what didn't, what to refine next.

They tell you when something didn't land instead of validating it to be polite. The "yes" you get from a teacher should be a real yes, not a face-saving one. Otherwise you'll never know what you got wrong.

They challenge you to step up while supporting you through it. Not just pushing without scaffolding. Not just nurturing without ever stretching you. The balance.

They're present and engaged when you work. Not on their phone, not checking out, not absent from the room. Watching, listening, taking notes about what to address with you.

They share what they know freely rather than gatekeeping. The teachers I've worked with who tried to keep their best techniques behind another paywall ("we'll definitely cover this in level two") were almost always doing it from a place of lack. Good teachers want you to know what they know.

They're open to learning from you too. The good ones see teaching as a two-way exchange and don't get threatened when a student raises something they hadn't considered.

They're not judgmental about other mediums or other approaches. The teachers I've worked with who started every lesson with "I saw someone doing this online, it was disgraceful" created a horrible frequency in the room. Real confidence in your own approach doesn't need to put others down.

They allow you to get things wrong. They actively make space for mistakes. They understand that you can only develop by going past your current edge, and your current edge involves getting it wrong sometimes.

Warning signs worth taking seriously

A few patterns that should make you reconsider.

The pyramid-of-courses teacher. You sign up expecting them to teach you a particular skill. By the end of the course, they haven't covered it, but say it'll definitely be in level two. Level two doesn't cover it either. By level three you're still waiting. The carrot keeps moving. This is a pattern, not an accident.

The teacher who tells you who can and can't be a medium without telling you which they think you are. I genuinely heard of a teacher who told students "I can tell who of you have the ability to be mediums and who doesn't, but I'm not going to tell you, you'll have to work it out yourselves." Charging people for development while privately judging whether they're worth it. Horrible energy. Run.

The teacher who introduces fear. Curses, attachments, dark forces, dangers of working without protection. Good mediumship doesn't operate from fear. If a teacher's selling spiritual fear, they're either deeply confused themselves or actively predatory.

The teacher who can't take a challenge. A student gently questions something, the teacher gets defensive, snippy, or shuts the conversation down. Tells you everything you need to know about their ego.

The teacher who's always the centre of attention. Every class starts with their stories, their best readings, their accomplishments. Fifty minutes of every ninety-minute session is the teacher talking about themselves. You're paying to learn, not to listen.

The teacher who's noticeably checked out. Leaves the room when students work. Looks at their phone. Doesn't engage. I've genuinely been in a course where the teacher fell asleep after lunch while the students worked. That's not teaching; that's collecting fees.

The teacher who won't take your spirit links. If you're in development and you're delivering evidence in a circle, your teacher should be willing to accept that information when it fits them or someone they know. A teacher refusing to take a clearly relevant spirit link out of jealousy of their student is a horrible person to be developing under.

Any teacher whose work you can't see. Already covered, but worth repeating. If they don't demonstrate, don't read, don't have visible work, what exactly are they teaching from?

The certification question

Worth a quick word, because people ask.

You can be a "certified medium" in the sense that someone has given you a certificate after a course. Whether that means anything depends entirely on who gave it to you and what they're certifying.

The bigger spiritual organisations (like the SNU in the UK) have formal certification processes that involve sustained assessment. Those certifications mean something specific within those traditions. Outside those organisations, "certified" usually just means "I attended a course and got a piece of paper."

A certificate alone is not a reliable signal of teaching quality. Far more reliable: their actual work, their reputation among working mediums, what their students go on to do, and how they treat you in a trial session. Look at the work, not the badge.

Trust your gut, and don't override it

This is where I'm going to be most direct, because it's where most developing mediums (including me) go wrong.

You will know, often quite quickly, if a teacher isn't right for you. Your soul will tell you. You'll feel resistance, frustration, a sense that something's off. You'll find yourself making excuses for them, telling yourself the discomfort is just your nerves, telling yourself you should stick it out because you've paid.

Please listen to the gut. Don't override it.

I've stayed too long in courses I should have left. I've internalised teachers' bad behaviour as my own failing. I've kept paying for development that was damaging my confidence rather than building it. Every time, the gut had told me weeks or months earlier. Every time, I'd talked myself out of trusting it.

Mediumship development rests on the ability to listen to subtle internal signals. If you're already practising overriding those signals in your own life, the very work you're trying to develop will struggle. Treat your gut about a teacher as a piece of mediumship practice in itself. Listen to it. Honour what it's telling you. Move on when it tells you to.

How to actually do this in practice

If you're at the start of your search, here's the practical version of all of the above.

Get clear on what you want to learn. Specific skill, specific stage, specific type of work.

Look for teachers whose work you can see publicly. Demonstrations, videos, podcasts, recorded readings, regular client work. The visible track record matters more than the badges.

Try short workshops or sample sessions before committing to long courses or memberships. The trial is much more informative than the marketing.

Notice how they handle questions, especially challenging ones. Defensive responses tell you about ego. Welcoming responses tell you about confidence.

Notice how they treat other mediums, other approaches, other teachers. Generosity is a good sign. Constant judgment is a warning.

Notice how you feel after sessions. Lifted, encouraged, stretched: good. Crushed, anxious, dependent: not good.

Be willing to change teachers as you develop. You're not betraying anyone by needing different support at different stages.

Trust your gut, even when it disagrees with your wallet.

A last honest word

You will probably need a few teachers across your development journey, and you will probably make a few mistakes along the way. That's not failure. That's part of how you learn what works for you, by experiencing what doesn't.

The teacher who's right for you is out there. They're the one whose work you can see, whose feedback is honest, whose ego doesn't compete with your growth, whose temperament matches what you need at this stage, and who treats your development as their genuine commitment rather than their income stream.

Be patient. Trust yourself. Don't override the signals. And know that finding the right teacher, once you do, will accelerate your development more than almost any other single choice you can make.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I look for in a mediumship teacher? Visible work you can evaluate (demonstrations, recordings, client work), honest feedback, willingness to share what they know rather than gatekeep, genuine investment in your development rather than their own ego, and a temperament that matches what you need at your current stage. Their actual practice as a working medium matters more than their qualifications.

Should I see my teacher demonstrate before I sign up? Yes, where possible. A teacher of mediumship should have visible examples of their work. If you can't see them demonstrate, read, or work somewhere publicly, that's a warning sign. You're paying them to teach you how to do something; you should be able to verify they can do it themselves.

Are certified mediumship teachers better? Not necessarily. A certificate tells you someone attended a course and met that programme's standards. It doesn't tell you whether they're a good teacher, a working medium, or a decent human being. Far more reliable signals: their visible work, the development of their students over time, and how they treat you in early sessions.

How do I know if my mediumship teacher is right for me? Notice how you feel after sessions. A good teacher should leave you feeling supported, challenged, and able to grow. A wrong teacher will leave you feeling crushed, dependent, or anxious. Notice whether they want you to succeed and share what they know, or whether they seem to hold things back. Trust your gut more than your loyalty to them.

Can I have more than one mediumship teacher? Yes, and many developing mediums benefit from multiple teachers over time, sometimes simultaneously. Different teachers have different strengths. You might have one for circle practice, another for specific workshops, another for one-to-one mentorship. Diversity is healthy as long as the teachings aren't actively contradictory.

What are the warning signs of a bad mediumship teacher? Refusing to demonstrate, fostering fear, gatekeeping techniques behind endless paid upgrades, being defensive about challenge, putting other mediums down, getting jealous when students develop, falling asleep or checking out during student work, and any sign of pushing you into dependency on them. Trust your gut on any of these.

Is it okay to leave a mediumship teacher? Yes, and it's sometimes essential. Developing mediums often need different teachers at different stages. Leaving doesn't mean the teacher was bad or that you've failed; it usually means you've grown out of what they offered. A good teacher will support that transition. A poor one will guilt you for it, which is itself information.

Should mediumship teachers also be active working mediums? In my view, yes. Mediumship is a living, evolving practice. Teachers who stopped doing the work years ago tend to teach an outdated version of it. The most credible teachers are those who continue to work with sitters and audiences themselves, so their teaching stays grounded in current practice rather than memory.

If you want to hear how I think about mediumship teaching in much more depth, including the relationships I've had with my own teachers and what I learned from each of them, my podcast covers these topics regularly. Worth a listen if you're navigating this decision and want some honest company on the journey.