Today we’d like to introduce you to Lorri Gifford.
Hi Lorri, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
It started with my grandfather.
I was 10 when my parents divorced, and he stepped in. He was an equal mixture of Yoda and Archie Bunker, wrapped in a brown cardigan sweater. He complained and groused about everything, but he never stopped showing up for me. When he died, it was the first loss I had ever experienced, and the idea that I would never hear his voice again was something I couldn’t accept.
The summer after he passed, a friend took me to a local psychic fair. The reader described my grandfather so clearly, right down to the cardigan and the fact that he was deaf in one ear, that shifted something in me. I left feeling connected to him again. That week, I bought my first tarot deck.
I kept it mostly to myself for years. Then a friend in Rochester introduced me to a reader named Carol, and during that session she paused, looked at me, and said: “You can do this too.” She handed me her deck and asked me to read her. I was terrified. But she held space with such unconditional acceptance that I tried. We spent the rest of the afternoon together while she turned away clients to sit with me. Within six months I had moved to Rochester and joined the Rochester Psychic Center as their youngest member.
That was over 40 years ago.
I eventually served as Spa Director at the Chopra Center, I went on to write 90 Days to Learning the Tarot, and my online course has reached thousands of people worldwide. From the outside, it looked like I had arrived. But in 2007, I was completely burned out. I showed up to work one morning with stabbing pain in my side, collapsed on the cold tile floor when I got home, and knew I was done. Soon after I moved back to the East Coast.
A year later I was hospitalized with pneumonia and no insurance. Lying in that bed, I had a conversation with God: “If I still have something left to offer, show me. If I’m done, I’m ready to go.” The next morning I woke up fever-free. Two weeks later, on my birthday, I received a letter saying the hospital would cover 100% of my bill.
I wept. I knew I was still here for a reason.
I started writing again. I found a spiritual teacher. For the first time, I was living from my intuition instead of just teaching it to others. A few years later I came across a YouTube video of someone recommending my book, and I cried again, because it wasn’t just a book. It was a bridge from my pain to their power.
That’s what I do now. I support women who are in the middle of something big, a loss, a transition, a life that no longer fits, and I help them get clear on what’s next so they can move forward with confidence instead of fear.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No. LOL. I am a work in progress and very much a “learn as I go” type of person.
I have firsthand knowledge of childhood trauma. My mother was mentally ill, and I became the mother of the household at 10. I babysat and worked as soon as I was old enough so I had spending money, and I paid my own way through college. I know what it feels like to have no one but yourself to count on.
I mentioned this earlier… I once worked at a world-renowned wellness center, teaching yoga and meditation, and from the outside it looked like I had it together. But I was completely burned out. One morning I woke up with sharp pain in my side and could barely breathe, and I still went to work. I walked up the stairs crying in pain until someone sent me home. I couldn’t even make it to my bed. I curled up on the cold tile floor and knew I was done. Shortly after that I moved to Asheville, North Carolina.
That winter I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and no insurance. The first night there as I was in and out of consciousness, I had a conversation with God: “If I still have something left to give, show me.” The next morning I woke up fever-free. Two weeks later, on my birthday, I received a letter saying the hospital would cover 100% of my bill. In that moment, I knew I was still here for a reason.
Those experiences, those struggles, made me into who I am today.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I believe that thought generates experience, fear distorts the lens, and my role is to help someone see more clearly, and from that clarity, move forward. That is the through-line of everything I do.
I’ve been doing that as a Professional Intuitive Reader and Certified Spiritual Counselor for over 40 years and with tens of thousands of clients. I offer one-on-one intuitive readings, spiritual counseling, and hybrid sessions that combine both. My clients are mostly professional women who are in the middle of something big, a loss, a transition, a relationship that’s not working, or a life that no longer fits. They come to me when they’ve reached their “enough is enough” point and they don’t know what to do next.
I specialize in and LOVE helping people see more clearly. It’s not about predicting a fixed future, but showing someone the thought patterns and emotional responses that are currently generating their experience. When that lands, something shifts. My favorite part of the session is the end. My clients often arrive foggy and shutdown. When they leave they are lighter, clearer, and have a next step they can move forward with.
Part of what makes my readings different is a framework I’ve developed over decades of work. Every experience we move through follows a sequence: a thought lands, it generates a feeling, that feeling builds enough charge to move you, and sustained movement builds something real. In tarot, that follows the path of the minor arcana: the Swords, Cups, Wands, and Pentacles. Most people aren’t stuck in their lives, they’re stuck in one of those four places. They’re looping in their head without feeling anything. Or they’re drowning in emotion and can’t translate it into action. Or they’re endlessly inspired but never building. Or they’re so entrenched in protecting what they’ve built that nothing new can get in. A reading helps point out exactly where the sequence broke down, and that’s where we start.
What sets me apart is that I don’t operate from fear, and I don’t plant it either. A lot of people in this field can share messages that leave you more anxious than when you arrived. That has never been my intention and it never will be. I work from a place of forgiveness and non-judgment, and that’s essential. It’s what makes people willing to say the thing they haven’t said out loud yet. The shameful thought. The thing they’re afraid makes them a bad person. I don’t flinch. I don’t condemn. And clients feel that.
What I’m most proud of is the longevity and the loyalty. I’ve been doing this for over 40 years, and over 70% of my clients come back again and again, not because they’re dependent on me, but because they know this is a space where they can be completely honest and leave feeling like themselves again. I’ve watched clients rebuild their lives after heartbreak, leave situations that were crushing them, and find their way back to themselves. That never gets old.
I’m grateful for my book, 90 Days to Learning the Tarot, which has been recommended globally on YouTube and reached thousands of people worldwide. I also co-created the Flip the Script Oracle Cards, a deck designed to help people interrupt their own fear-based thinking and come back to themselves. And I recently launched Journey through the Tarot, a free series available on both my Instagram and my YouTube channel that comes with a free workbook. On my YouTube channel I post free weekly readings and go deeper on tools, teachings, and honest conversations about intuition, the tarot, and navigating life’s bigger moments. It’s my way of making this work accessible to anyone who is ready to begin.
I built all of this on my own terms, rooted in faith, with clean energy and honest work.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Bossy. LOL. I was the big sister and very much in charge, especially after my mom’s mental illness meant I was running the household by age 10. I grew up fast out of necessity.
But when I could escape, I escaped into books. Reading was my refuge. Around other people I was a natural leader, and I absolutely marched to my own drum. I remember once my mother told me I could go swimming as long as I didn’t get my pants wet. In her mind she pictured me rolling up my pants and wading in the water. What I did was take my pants off and go swimming. My shirt got soaked, but my pants stayed perfectly dry. Technically I did what she asked…
That story pretty much sums me up.
I also remember just knowing things before they happened. Someone would be about to stop by and I would know it. The phone would ring and I already knew who it was. I thought that was completely normal, that everyone experienced life that way. It took me a while to understand that it wasn’t.
Looking back, I think I developed my intuitive gifts as a form of self protection. When your home environment is volatile, unsupportive, and unpredictable, you learn to read the room before you even walk into it. You become attuned to energy out of survival. What I didn’t realize until much later was that the very thing that helped me navigate a hard childhood would become the foundation of my life’s work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.readingswithlorri.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/readingswithlorri/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReadingsWithLorri
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@readingswithlorri
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@tarotreadingswithlorri?lang=en
