Today I'm interviewing Julie Cobb, owner of High Heart Healing in Boulder, CO. I received my first reading from Julie in 2012. She was the inspiration for my own path to becoming an intuitive, and I completed her training on how to read (energy, not books) earlier this year. Welcome, Julie!
Mari Melby: Tell me about the work that you do and what sets you apart from other psychics and intuitives.
Julie Cobb: There are lots of psychics and intuitives out there and I think the work that I do is different because I’m very clear on where I get the information. Also, the intentions that I create have a certain container for a reading. I believe the most powerful thing that I can read is that person’s intuition. Everyone has an intuition, whether they call it their higher self, their spirit, or their soul. But that intuition guides them. So why not read what is guiding them? Why not read this essence of them that says “I’m going to guide you in a certain direction in your life so that you can have the most possible healing”? So I’m very clear on where I get the information and I intend to get it in a specific place. The intention of the reading is to be healing. I want to come out of the reading feeling good and inspired. I want them to come out feeling good and inspired—like they have a path to getting what they want. What comes up in a reading that has an intention of being healing are gifts that the person has, lessons that the person has, what’s in the way of them having what they want, and how I can help them create a different perception to get what they want in this world. But it’s all about intention, and I would say that’s what sets me apart from other psychics out there—what I’m intending to get from the reading and where I get the information.
MM: How did you get started with giving intuitive readings?
JC: I went through a huge life change. I went through a big break-up that was very heart opening for me. Through the pain of the break-up, I started investigating ways to better connect, ways to feel better, and ways to feel more trusting. Throughout that process, I found myself taking a course in reiki. I was in software at the time, so it was very different from what I would typically do. But I got my reiki certification, and when I was practicing on people, I would get information. I would tell them—it feels like you’ve got some stuck energy in your hip, and here’s where it’s coming from. But I was getting a lot of information from people and they wanted to come back not for the reiki but for the information. I really wasn’t connected to doing the reiki anyway. So a friend said, “What are you going do with this?” and I kind of blurted out, “I think I want to be a psychic.” She led me to Psychic Horizons in Boulder, where it was very validating for me to take some courses there and really validating for the way I do readings. The way they teach is a little different from the way I do it, but that’s really what lad me in this direction. Then I just started practicing and doing it and it just kind of exploded.
MM: What do you like about this work?
JC: What I like the most about it is the way that I feel. And it’s a selfish way of looking at it, but say you have some extra money at Thanksgiving or you give something to someone else or you volunteer your time. In the end, we all do it, not necessarily because we know it’s helping other people, but because it evokes a feeling within us. And I would say that’s why I do it. I have this rich, healing connection with another person where I get to trust myself enough to give them a different perspective through reading them. But in the end, I feel good because I do it.
MM: Tell me about your relationship to the word “psychic” and why you decided to use it.
JC: I grappled with that for a long time. I felt very insecure using the word psychic, and I even looked up the definitions of the words psychic and intuitive. At first, on my website, I said I did intuitive readings. The truth is, I looked up the definition of the word psychic, and that’s really what I do. I knew that there was a poor connotation around the word “psychic” out there. It’s kind of like soothsayers or people who are reading the future. But the truth is, I wanted to be authentic with what I do. And the reality is, I actually do psychic readings. But I obviously do them very differently than other people. And I thought that, if I was good at this, I could maybe break a stigma of what the word psychic is out there. It just felt better for me to break my own insecurities by using the word psychic.
MM: Have you gotten any negative reactions from friends or family when you tell them about the work you do?
JC: A lot of people are interested and some people are scared by it, obviously because of the negative connotations out there. People don’t want to know when they’re going to die—and you know what, either do I. The truth is—yes—especially from my family. They don’t really inquire much about what it is that I do. I don’t necessarily get a negative reaction from them, but I don’t get a very intrigued or interested reaction. I just trust that they are where they are and I get to learn how to love them for where they are. Outwardly, I’ve never actually gotten a negative reaction from someone. If they’ve had a negative reaction than they’ve held it in. People are more often intrigued than they are repulsed.
MM: What advice would you give someone who is interested becoming a psychic?
JC: I would say take a course. See what you’re drawn to in order to validate your own intuition. The learning of it is actually minimal. Trusting yourself is really the key, because I don’t believe that I have a gift that other people don’t have. I don’t have something special. What I do is I trust what I feel enough to tell someone. I would say trust a place that you’re drawn to develop your intuition, but in the end, trust what you feel, and if you’re in a place that feels good and expansive and you get to be who you are no matter what—then you’re in the right place. If the learning feels rigid and structured and there are lots of rights and wrongs, then maybe question that. I really just trust what I feel and I trust what I feel enough to tell other people.
MM: What is the most interesting reading you have given?
JC: I read a past life of a woman and she was carrying marble on her back. Her family owned a marble mine. At the end of the call, she said she was tearing the marble out of the bathroom and replacing it with granite, because she can’t stand marble. And it was very interesting to both of us, to be like—wow, marble is this beautiful stone and she couldn’t wait to get rid of it—it’s very odd for someone to want to do that. But the initial part of the reading was about her really suffering over this stone, so it was really interesting. Stuff like that is really validating and fun. The worldly, kind of universal learning that I get to experience is really what drives me and creates a lot of fun for me. Things like knowing that you really do have zero control over another soul. We all choose how we’re going to die. We all choose how we’re going to live. But we really have no control over another soul’s life. That really excites me because it helps me learn and navigate my own life. It brings a lot of peace knowing that the power of our destiny really resides within us but we really have no power over anyone else’s destiny. And we think we do, once we get into our human bodies. But what’s really exciting about readings and what stands out as crazy to me is what I get to learn from it. And the little validations along the way are really fun.