Dr. Lauren Thibodeau

Dr. Lauren Thibodeau has been a registered medium of the Lily Dale Assembly since 1996 — the same year she became a licensed professional counselor. She holds an MBA, an M.Ed. and a Ph.D. in psychological counselling; her doctoral dissertation was on near-death experiences. Before mediumship she worked as a communications professional and journalist. Among mediums she is unusual in being a natural psychic medium who then devoted herself to psychology at such depth — precisely because she knows from direct experience how profoundly connecting with deceased loved ones, angels and spirit guides can shape and heal a life. One focus of her work is forensic mediumship: early in her professional career she assisted prosecutors on difficult cases, and she appeared in the television series „Psychic Investigators" (series 1, episode 3), broadcast in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Italy. Her colleague James Van Praagh, whom she met in 1997, includes her by her account on his list of personally vetted psychic detectives. She is the author of „Natural Born Intuition" and „Natural Born Soulmates" and features in several books, among them Christine Wicker's „Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead" and Shannon Taggart's photographic work „Séance". She contributed an appendix on mediumship to Wendy Corsi Staub's series of books for young readers set in Lily Dale. One unusual case from her work with museums: the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art in Staten Island asked for her help because staff were unnerved by unusual happenings. In her first session with the curator and the director she says she communicated mediumistically with the museum's deceased founder; the detailed information that came through eventually led to the recovery of an ancient Tibetan Buddhist stone sculpture some 30 inches high and worth millions, whose disappearance no one had noticed. It had rolled down the steep hill behind the museum and been cemented into a wall behind the house of a retired stonemason, who returned it. She gives sittings at Lily Dale (11 Cleveland Street, a yellow house that is also home to her guest house) and by telephone — for telephone appointments the client calls the business number given in the confirmation at the agreed time. Recording a session is not permitted, given its sensitive nature; she strongly encourages taking notes during or immediately after the reading. Rescheduling is free at any time, and refunds are possible up to seven days before an appointment against a $50 cancellation fee. She does not publish her fees on her website.