EPISODE 108: Animal Communication Secrets: Thea Strom on Connecting with Pets and Wildlife

Explore the world of animal communication with Ann Théato and expert guest Thea Strom! Learn how to connect with your pets on a deeper level, understand their emotions, and even communicate with animals in spirit. 

Thea shares practical exercises, stories from her work, and insights into the magical connection we share with animals.

This episode is perfect for animal lovers, pet owners, and anyone curious about the energetic bond we have with the animal kingdom. 

 This Week’s Episode

"Animals don’t send words—they send the energy of what they’re trying to communicate." – Thea Strom

 

Episode 108 Resources
Here are some resources which you may find helpful.

Connect with Thea
Thea Strom's Website: theahealer.com
Thea's Book: Animal Intuition: Communicating with Pets, Animal Spirits, and the Energies of the Natural World(available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and select independent bookstores).
Private Readings with Thea: Information and waitlist available at theahealer.com.
Courses: Thea offers online animal communication courses and in-person classes at horse sanctuaries near Portland, Oregon. Check her website for updates. 

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About Psychic Matters Podcasts

Ann Théato, CSNUt, Psychic, Medium and Spiritual Tutor, investigates psychic development, mediumship techniques, and paranormal science, so that you can come to understand your own innate psychic ability and expand your knowledge, whilst learning to develop a curious mind.

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EPISODE108
You’ll Learn:

• How animal communication works energetically.
• Techniques to connect with animals, including a simple heart-centred exercise.
• Insights into communicating with animals in spirit.
• Tips for understanding your pet's emotions, needs, and behaviours.
• How animal communicators handle missing pets or animal anxiety

 

Transcript

VO: Psychic Matters with Ann Théato. The top ranked spirituality podcast.

Ann: Today, I am delighted to welcome Thea Strom to the show. Thea is a psychic medium, animal communicator, teacher, and author who has been professionally practicing her unique gifts for many years, both locally and internationally. Having developed a profound understanding of psychic gifts and a commitment to helping others through mediumship.

Thea is here today to share with you her wealth of experience, particularly focusing on animal communication. She is the author of a wonderful book, which she very kindly sent me prior to our interview and which I simply couldn't put down. I've got it right here. It's called Animal Intuition, Communicating with Pets, Animal Spirits and the Energies of the Natural World.

And in the studio today, she's going to be helping you to discover how to connect with all animals, both your own pets and animals out in the wild. Thea Strom, welcome to Psychic Matters.

Thea: Thank you so much for having me and what a lovely introduction.

Ann: It's great. Thank you so much for making time to spend with us today, Thea. We really, really appreciate it. Let's just start by asking you, how did this animal communication begin for you?

Thea: So, I was always very interested in this sort of work, whether it was just psychics, mediums, when I was growing up, I wasn't even aware that animal communication was a thing, but I was always drawn kind of into the world of metaphysics and I was always free to explore it as I luckily wasn't, um, from a religious family or any of that. So, I kind of was free to do whatever within the world of metaphysics. And, So I, as a child and as a teen, I went to metaphysical fairs a lot, um, read a lot of books about these things. Um, and even though I was very interested in this sort of thing, I had never had any particularly significant experiences with it.

And when I was little, I know you hear a lot about, for example, mediums who, you know, when they were a child, they see their, their past, uh, grandma at the end of their bed. I never had those types of experiences myself. And so, I took that to mean that maybe I couldn't do this as any kind of work myself but despite that, I was always felt very pulled to it and kept up with my interest in it.

I read books, like I said, um, and so on. Then when I was around 18, I was diagnosed, uh, with bipolar disorder type 2, uh, which in retrospect probably was a misdiagnosis. But at the time I tried meds for it, I was on medications for about a year, and they really weren't working for me, uh, very well, so I decided to approach it from a more holistic perspective.

And, uh, and so I continued therapy and things like that, but also, I started to take meditation much more seriously. And when I did that, I started to have a couple of odd experiences of, visits from random spirits, uh, in the middle of the night. And, um, these were totally unsolicited visits, um, from spirits.

And it freaked me out to the point where I started to think maybe it was a good, a good, uh, idea to take a class in mediumship or something like that to see if I could learn to control it somehow. And so, I started to develop my mediumship abilities initially, and, uh, also psychic abilities, uh, started to go to classes and practice circles.

And as for the animal communication, I've always adored animals, always felt like I had a deep connection to them, all my life, but again, no big experiences with it until I had started to develop my mediumship and psychic abilities. And so, in that time period in which I was learning. we had just adopted a kitten.

My husband and I had only ever had grazers in the past. So, cats who would just eat a little bit throughout the day and stop when they were full. And so, um, I was, so we had adopted this kitten. I was out one day doing errands and I happened to be driving by our apartment. And as I was driving by, I saw an image in my mind's eye of an empty food bowl, and I heard the words, "I'm hungry."

And, uh, it came so out of the blue. Uh, I hesitated, but because it was so out of the blue, I knew for a fact that the cat's food bowl was full when I had left that morning. Um, but just in case, I went home just to see what was happening, and I got home, and sure enough, the food bowl was totally empty, our kitten was sitting right next to it, with a very full tummy, and still looking at me for more food, and so, I learned pretty quickly that, you know, that kitten was not the type to just graze, and um, And so that was kind of my first experience, a little randomly, really, with animal communication, uh, where my cat had reached out to me using her abilities to let me know that she was starving, quote unquote starving.

And, um, and so, uh, that kind of caught my attention and, um, throughout my mediumship practice, I had the opportunity to try out animal communication, on my own initiative where I joined a practice circle, tried it out, tried connecting to somebody else's dog. And it felt so natural to me. It flowed so easily and I just fell completely in love with it and from there, really, I just started to continue to practice it, reached out to others who had animals and, and yeah, just kept the ball rolling from there.

Ann: Yeah, beautiful. What a lovely beginning and very, very interesting. I think it's quite reassuring to know that it hasn't been with you all your life, and it's something that came a little bit later on.

 Going back to that childhood that you spoke of, were the people that were around you very supportive? Were they quite spiritual people? Did you have a spiritual upbringing?

Thea: Uh, yeah, so I consider myself lucky in that, that we weren't religious because I see today lots of my own students who do come from a religious background, it's a huge hurdle to, to cross over in order to allow themselves to experience their abilities.

 but my parents were always, they were always, encouraging of my own interests, whether that was, you know, things just like dance or things within the metaphysics. And they always, if I asked for a certain book, they'd get that for me, you know, that kind of thing. And then when I was around 12 years old, at the time, my dad was living, with a woman who was a medium and a psychic and an animal communicator, and she would actually go on boat trips in the Bahamas and take people with her to go swimming with dolphins, and, she would use her own animal communication abilities during these trips, to facilitate the meetings with the dolphins.

And, one summer, I came to visit my dad while he was living with her. And it was like a magical wonderland of getting to step into her life and see what she did. And I consider that point really the time that really, helped ignite this, this kind of passion, for this kind of thing.

And, and I think that's probably the experience that kind of kept pulling me back towards it, too.

Ann: I mean, wow. Not everyone has a stepmom who does that kind of thing, right?

Thea: Yes. To be clear, she wasn't my stepmom and they weren't dating. They just happened to be living together.

Ann: Oh, fine. Okay. But still, to have, you know, another, you know, around you. Yeah, who can lead you in that path must have been very, very special, very unique. I, I would say, um, in your book, Thea, you mentioned that animals don't send words, but they send the energy of what they're trying to communicate. Can you say a little bit about how they speak to us?

Thea: Yeah, I think, a lot of people have this idea that it's a little bit like Dr. Doolittle, you know, that, when I'm connecting to an animal, I'm hearing full sentences from the animal or like I'm walking down the street and I can hear the animals talking out loud to themselves and it's not quite like that. So, when I am doing animal communication and connecting to an animal, inviting them into a conversation. The way I understand it, is that the animal is essentially sending the energy of what they're trying to communicate. And then, um, that energy is being translated for me in a way that I can understand that. And it will be translated through images in my mind's eye or feelings in my body, sometimes also words in my head. So typically, it's a combination of things, but, seeing as how animals don't, they don't speak English necessarily. I mean, some do understand a lot of English words, of course, but, in general, they don't speak language like we do. They're sending essentially the energy of what they're trying to communicate. And then we understand that through, through those impressions that we're getting.

Ann: And do we need their permission, Thea, to, to speak to them?

Thea: Not necessarily, but I do find that permission is a really important part of it. When it comes to animal communication, I always encourage people to ask the animal if they're open to communicating, first of all, just as good manners, And the more you can show some reverence towards the animal, the more open they'll be to communicating with you as well. And also, just being clear that it's always up to the animal whether or not they want to communicate with you too. I have had, several instances in which, uh, somebody scheduled animal communication with me and we try it out and the animal's just not into the communication that day and they would rather take a nap during that time.

And so, we have to reschedule at a time that works for the animal. And so, it's not, I can never force an animal to take part in a conversation. but asking for permission from the animal is absolutely, I find necessary to have a good experience.

Ann: Yeah. I think that's lovely to ask if they're ready to talk. that's really beautiful. So, Thea, I know that you had this ,wonderful connection with a cat of yours, you mention her in the book, called Clara, and the relationship and connection you described with her in your book was one being unforced and natural. And I thought that was really beautiful and gentle. And I wonder if you could maybe share a little bit more about the dynamics of that beautiful bond you had with that particular animal.

Thea: So, Clara was a cat that came into my life when I was around nine or 10 years old. And we had the type of connection that I think many people have with their animals, actually, which is, you're naturally communicating, but it's not necessarily in a conscious way.

So, you kind of, know your animal to the point where you can feel their feelings for you, they can feel your feelings for them, and it's the type of bond where you don't necessarily need to be talking consciously with each other. It's just kind of this natural bond in that way. So, we had this type of bond, uh, where she was really my best friend for, many, many years, and, around that time, around nine or ten, we would go out into the yard, and we had this space out in the yard that was just filled with, these super tall grasses, and we'd go out there and we'd play Marco Polo.

I'd go and hide and, she'd meow, I'd meow for her to find me, then she'd find me and then she'd run off and go hide in the grasses too, and then I'd come and find her. and this was a deep bond that we had over the years. Eventually, I had to move out, um, from my mom's house. And, uh, at the time, the best fit was for her to stay with my mom.

And, after a couple of years, of me living out of the home and of course coming back to visit a bunch. one time I came back to visit and Clara had actually been missing for a couple of weeks. somehow, my mom lived in these apartment buildings and she had a veranda that went out and Clara could kind of access the roof and she'd walk around the roof of the whole apartment building and somehow had gotten Off of the building fallen off somehow and been missing for a couple of weeks.

And so, I went home to visit my mom and, and when I was there, I just kind of called out to Clara with all my heart. again, this was before I had started to learn animal communication, but just thinking about Clara and calling out to her and asking her to come home or try to find home again. and then that night, she, somehow showed up at the doorstep of these apartment buildings, dirty, very skinny after a couple of weeks gone and, to me, that just kind of showed that type of bond, I guess we had, and I think that's very much something that, like I said, everybody has or can have with their own animals.

It's kind of this understated, connection and communication you have and, and I always say to people too that most of the time you probably are actually already communicating with your animal and you're already picking up on things from your animal intuitively. because when we are talking out loud to our animals, whether it's out loud or even in our minds towards our animals, we're sending naturally the energy of what we're trying to communicate to them.

And they're often trying to send the energy of what they're trying to communicate to us. And, and we're picking up on those things kind of, uh, subconsciously a lot of the time too. And, um, so I already believe that most of us are already doing some form of animal communication, even if it's not in a conscious way.

Ann: Yeah. Yeah, that's really beautiful. What do you think, in your experience of speaking with many different types of animals, what sort of things do they say? You know, what, what do they want to, um, talk about or express?

Thea: Great question. It will very much depend on the individual, obviously, because they're all individuals just like all of us. And so, in my sessions with people and their animal companions, um, it could, it could truly be about anything. Most of the time it's about the things that are just kind of top of mind for them, which are just the necessities of life. You know, how do they feel about their food, their likes, their dislikes, how they're feeling in their body, if they have pain anywhere that they want to bring their human's attention to, how they feel about the other animals in the home, how they feel about their humans, that relationship, and really it's just, the things, the things that they, would like to tweak in their life that's going to help bring them more joy or more satisfaction. Sometimes they'll want to talk about behaviours that they do that they feel like they're human is confused by and that they want to work on with them.

 So, it could really be anything that's important for them to talk about, you know.

Ann: Yeah, yeah, sure. Well, of course, it all makes total sense, doesn't it, when you think about it. I think I've had a couple of experiences with two different animals, and I wonder if there's something whereby an animal can know the future or know what's just about to happen before it happens.

And the two incidents, um, I will say briefly is once upon a time, several years ago, I had the great good fortune to ride a racehorse completely by accident on a beach down in Dorset. And I don't know what I was doing on a racehorse. I was on the beach. I mean, I'm not exactly a brilliant rider. I can just about hold on at a fast trot.

And this racehorse was so responsive. I just had to think something. And it responded before I gave it the aid, you know, to ask what I wanted it to do. I found that absolutely fascinating that it knew what I wanted before I announced it myself, before I had even fully formed the thought, of what I was about to ask.

And then the second example is my little dog. I've got a little Yorkshire Terrier called Faelyn, uh, which is a Gaelic Irish name for little wolf. And I've recently bought a camper van Thea and put a little box in there. It's a proper car seat for a small dog, um, but it's in a box shape. And, um, she was so excited the minute this car seat came and every time I go to the camper van which has just been parked on the drive for a long, long time.

It's as if she knows there are all these adventures ahead and she can't wait to get into that box every time I go outside, even before the camper van had ever left the drive for the first time with her in it. Yes. What do you think about that?

Thea: Yeah, I think this is a great example of the fact that as humans, we tend to broadcast our thoughts. I find whether we mean to or not, you know, if you're thinking about the camper van and you're, you're thinking about, oh, what places do you want to go and how you're excited you're about the bringing your lovely little wolf with you. And, I have no doubt that, your dog has then been picking up on a lot of those thoughts and I find some people just naturally kind of throw their thoughts out into the ether around them and some are maybe a little bit more contained with their thoughts, but a lot of the time an animal in sessions with me, an animal will reference something that their human has only thought about, but hasn't actually told their animal or even like gotten into the stages of planning, uh, planning the thing that they've been thinking about. And so, and that happens quite a bit. and this is also why I say to people that it's really hard to keep a secret from an animal, you know? and so it's always best to just be very honest, with your animal about things. if you're trying to keep a secret, most likely you're not, you're not keeping it a secret.

 

Ann: Yeah, that makes sense as well, because they would be able to pick up our, from our auric field, I suppose, everything that's going on for us, whether it's a good thing or, or not so good thing.

Thea: Yeah, absolutely, yeah and, some, some animals, I find that each animal, because they are very much individuals, they each have their own sort of things that really interest them, and some seem to be very interested in kind of the things that are going on in their human's life, and sometimes they'll even reference things that have happened in their human's life.

That they're aware of, but that hasn't actually happened around the animal. So, for example, a big change in their human's work situation, you know, the animal knowing about that, even if that's something that's only happened at work. for example.

Ann: Yeah, it's, it is fascinating. I've also been looking at this little robin outside on the grass who seems to have made a home in the garden here somewhere, and there's something, you I almost feel an affinity to this robin. I don't know why, but I mean, they're cute, aren't they? Little robins, but, if I was to go outside the back door or even stand at the kitchen window and try to communicate with that robin, what sort of things might they say, I mean, it's all right for a pet because they know me, but what would the robin want to talk about?

Thea: You'd really have to check with that robin, I guess, but, I think that's really one of the main differences connecting to wild animals versus connecting to people's animal companions because the, first of all, there is no, human companion for that animal to like, want to share something with, you know, you are just a true stranger to that robin, um, unless they've started to bond with you, you know, uh, through, through their, uh, habitation there.

But, um, so there's no need on the wild animal's end to communicate anything to them. You per se. most likely. And so truly, it's just a curiosity and need on the human's end who wants to communicate to that, animal. But I think it very much depends. Sometimes with wild animals, it can be, that they want to figure something out in terms of making the cohabitation more, pleasant for both of you.

 Sometimes wild animals will, you know, set up a house, uh, in your own house or outside, right outside your own house, and that might not necessarily be the best fit for you. And I find that animal communication can sometimes be useful in trying to find a good middle ground or helping to encourage the animal towards a different spot that is actually a better fit for them, potentially.

Well, yeah, that Robin, that I don't know you'd have to see.

Ann: I'll report back.

Thea: Yes, I'd love to hear it. Just like with, animal companions, each wild animal has their own personality and their own interests too. And I'm sure that some of them are curious about humans as well in the way that we're curious about them. And so, um, they might be much more open to connecting than maybe. A wild animal that has no interest in a human.

Ann: I had another really interesting experience Thea several years ago where I had an allotment, which is like a little small garden space outside in London that I could grow fruits and vegetables in. And I had a shed at that allotment and under, right inside the doorway and under the floor, a wasp, wasps had decided to build their nest. And I wasn't very enamoured about that because I needed to go in and out of that shed all the time.

Thea: Yeah.

Ann: But there was some communication that went on between me and this nest of wasps where there was this, um, almost, I won't attack them, smoke them out, get rid of them if they don't sting me. I will allow them in and out and, uh, and they will allow me in and out and we will just work together. And that's exactly what I did. I just made sure I wasn't in the flight path of when they were coming in and out. All of that summer, Thea, I didn't get stung, they didn't bother me, I didn't bother them. And we were, you know, inches from each other for the whole summer. I found that fascinating.

Thea: Amazing. I, I commend you. I have a bee allergy. I don't know that I could stay as calm.

Ann: That's slightly different. You have an allergy. Yeah.

Thea: I tend to panic. So, yeah. Yeah.

Ann: Yeah. It was interesting. I was wondering if you can speak to a species as a whole, as a, as a, as a group, as a communion of, you know, animals or insects.

Thea: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think, you know, in that, in that, especially with like things like, you know, groups of insects or groups of wasps or that kind of thing, I do find that, it is much more like connecting to the whole group of them versus the just individual, wasp per se,

Ann: Yeah, I found it just, it was such a beautiful experience and I was so glad I, I didn't, um, you know, I didn't kill them. I hate killing things. Plants, animals, weeds. I'm terrible. I let everything live. Let it live. It hasn't done you any harm. Um, so Thea, going back to your beautiful book, in here, you speak about the merging of bubbles. Can you maybe explain what you mean by that for people? Obviously, they're going to go buy your book and find out exactly what you mean but give us an idea.

Thea: Yeah, so there are a few different ways of going about with animal communication, um, you know, techniques and practices. And one of the basic techniques that I also talk about in my book is connecting out heart to heart to the animals. So, you might visualize even a light connecting out from your heart to the animal's heart and then sending them lots of loving thoughts.

Asking for permission to communicate, seeing if they're open to connecting with you, and so on, and then inviting them into the conversation. and then the technique you're talking about with merging bubbles is another one, which is where after you've connected to the animal, you might want to get a clearer sense of what it's like to experience things in that animal's body.

So, this could be a technique in which you might get a clearer sense of if they have pain anywhere or what's going on, you know, and also how, how do they experience life? And so, merging bubbles is essentially a visualization technique where you might visualize that you have your own sort of bubble of light around you, or you can think of it as your energy field.

And then the animal has their own energy field around them, or a bubble of light around them, and you can visualize those two bubbles of light merging together to become one. And, and like I said, this is a good technique to use to sort of get to experience what it's like to be in their energy or be in their body.

 I have used this technique even to kind of see what it looks like seeing out the animal's eyes. Sometimes, the animal's human has questions about if the animal can see well still, for example. And so sometimes I'll use this technique for that to just kind of see, okay, what does it look like actually to see out of the animal's eyes and, and how can they see, you know, what areas of their sight, are better or worse.

So that's kind of the gist of that, of that technique is it's, it's really based in a visualization, but the visualization just helps you set the intention of merging energy fields, essentially with the animal.

Ann: Hmm. Exciting, exciting. I'm going to ask you to give us a short exercise in a moment to help us communicate, but we'll come to that.

Um, but before we do that, tell me as well, what are your thoughts about communicating with animals? Okay, when they're alive, that's great. But what about mediumistically when they're in the spirit world? How can we communicate with them in that way? If we've lost a pet, say for instance,

Thea: I find it's very much a similar experience to connecting to those that are living. The only difference is that those animals no longer have a body. So, when you're connecting to a living animal, you're connecting with your soul to connect to that animal's soul.

 When you're connecting to those who have passed away, same thing, you are connecting with your soul to that animal soul. Just so happens they don't have their bodies anymore. And, um, so when we're connecting to those who have passed away, their communication to us is coming through those same impressions, those same psychic impressions.

So, images in our mind's eye, feelings in our body, sometimes words in our head as well. and often, you know, there's this question of like, why would they want to connect to us, um, anymore once they've passed away? And I, uh, it's, it's truly, it's, it's, it's, because they love us just as much as we love and miss them.

And so, um, I think that the ability to connect to your own animal companions that have passed away is something that everybody has, and you don't necessarily need a medium to do it for you. You already have that heart to heart, soul to soul bond and connection with them. And I find that even something as simple as sitting in meditation and inviting your past animal to come into your energy field can be a very simple and easy way to connect to them.

 The trick is, of course, or the tricky part, really, is that when we've lost an animal companion, there's a lot of grief, surrounding it. And that can make it harder to stay objective with the communication coming through from our animal. with the grieving process, people tend to get caught up in thoughts of, feelings of guilt around maybe not being there as much as they wanted to for their animal or guilt around some of the choices they had to make for their animal companion and those types of things can really muddy the waters a lot in terms of the communication and it makes it hard to then actually feel the true communication coming through from their passed animal. So, in those cases, if you find that, you're going through a really difficult period with your grief over the loss of an animal, you might want to give it a little bit more time actually to let yourself process some of that grief first before actually sitting down to actively invite in your animal to communicate.

Ann: Do you think they can then go on to become our spirit guide? What are your thoughts around that?

Thea: I absolutely do think they can. I don't think it's a given every time. I think that It's very much up to the individual animal. I find that sometimes when an animal passes, they’ll check in with their humans still and they'll still kind of visit them, but they're not necessarily taking a very active role around their human and helping guide their human necessarily. And then some animals are all about that. They want to be part of helping their human in all kinds of ways, helping their humans with their relationships or their work even and so on. And so, some very much do become a part of the human spirit guide team.

Ann: And do you think they can also be reincarnated? What, what are your thoughts around that?

Thea: Yeah, it's a, it's a controversial topic within animal communication. I find, also amongst animal communicators, we're not all going to agree, in my experience, again, it is very much up to the individual soul and some animals. When they cross over, they decide to stick to the spirit world for a good long while and, they want to be there once their humans cross over too, to greet them and be together in the spirit world.

And then I find that some individual animals, when they cross, they decide to reincarnate and often back into their human's life. It doesn't happen as often, or at least I don't see it happen as often. probably what I see most is that an animal decides to stick to the spirit world for a, for a long time. And, but yeah, I have, it has come up in sessions before the animal does decide to reincarnate back into their human's life and will often give details around when it will happen or how it will happen and, those things then end up happening.

Ann: As a medium myself, I have been contacted by people who have lost pets and they've asked me to try to find out where they are. So, I would be using my remote viewing skills, my psychic awareness, things like that. Now I worked with a lady once, I'm just interested in what you think about this because I wasn't quite sure. where I was with my own work here, but she'd lost a parrot or a parakeet. I can't remember exactly, but I know it was a bird that she absolutely adored. It had flown out of the window one day when the window was open. She wasn't aware and it had flown away and it hadn't returned. Now. I managed to communicate with that, uh, animal bird and bought through some really interesting evidence of its cage, what was next to it, its favourite toy, what it liked to eat, its daily routine, things like that, very interesting. But her question was, is my parrot, let's call it a parrot, is my parrot still alive? And I couldn't make the difference between I'm not sure if I'm picking this up psychically or whether this animal is in the spirit world. What are your feelings on that?

Thea: Yeah. It's one of the biggest questions people have, and it is a tricky thing to distinguish, uh, you're, you're asking, like, how to distinguish between, you know, was I picking it up psychically or was I, was the animal passed and communicating this to you, but then there's also the third option, which is the animal be still being living and actively communicating that to you as well. And so, um, what I find is that, yeah, it can be even hard for me to distinguish is this animal living or is this animal passed actually.

Ann: It felt for me because, sorry to interrupt you, but because I work with mediumship all the time, I know, I know very much when I've got a spirit communicator, a human being who's passed away, who's standing with me, I know that feeling.

Thea: Yeah.

Ann: And sometimes I know it with an animal that definitely passed. But in this particular case, I really did think the parrot was alive. And that's why I said my great feeling is it's still alive. Afterwards, I thought, oh my goodness, what if I'm picking that up in a different way? So that's why I'm asking.

Thea: Yeah, yeah, it is, um, it is a, it's a tricky thing. So, I find that, kind of like you're saying with mediumship, there's a certain feeling to that, where the, that soul is actively kind of present around you and it, it, it. It often feels a certain way, but there are certain, certain things about it where I can, I can't speak to, because I don't tend to connect psychically on this topic, you know, per se, it's either in like communicating with a living animal or communicating with a passed animal.

so, when I'm communicating with a living animal that's missing, often it can feel like I am sending my energy out to connect to that animal, versus when they're passed, it's like they're coming to me, you know, and they're present in my own energy field. Um, I don't know if that makes sense.

Ann: Say more about it. No, don't. Yeah. That's not making sense. Okay. Say a little more about that.

Thea: Yeah.

Ann: Just explain it a little more.

Thea: So, with an animal that's passed, they're able to go wherever they want to, right? so, for me personally, when I am connecting to those that have passed away, I don't have to send my energy out anywhere else, I can just kind of sit in my own room and they will come to me and connect to me and step into my energy field. That does not happen with a living animal. Typically, it's almost like I have to ring that animal up. You know, I have to kind of send out my signal to that animal. Say, hello, my name's Thea. I'm an animal communicator. Your human has asked me to connect to you. So, for me, it can feel a little bit different in that way. And, uh, the other thing is that I also often think of it a little bit in, in shamanic terms, I guess. I'm not, I'm not at all any kind of expert on it, but kind of this thinking of the different worlds, you know, the middle world, lower world, you know, so I kind of think of the spirit world as above me, even if it's all around me, I know, and the living world is very much kind of that that, outward connection, you know, horizontally out around me. And so, that's a little bit also how I distinguish where I'm placing my awareness when I'm connecting to a living animal versus one that's past. So, if I'm trying to distinguish if an animal that's lost, if they're living or past, I can kind of feel, am I drawn to the spirit world or am I drawn actually to the living world that's kind of horizontally out around me?

Ann: Yeah, yeah, I totally understand now what you're, what you're saying. And actually, when I think back on my feelings on that particular case, yes, that animal was alive in that case.

Thea: Yeah, yeah, and, and just in general, talking about, lost animals, I find that often, not always, but often an animal that is missing will be going through a lot of anxiety in the moment, unless they've been found and are just happily living their life in a different situation.

You know, that cothe aniuld also be the case, in which case they're not, probably not going to be in that sort of anxious, state. so, for me, typically if the animal's lost and they're living, they’re in a kind of high anxiety state, I can feel that, and we're just focusing on details that are going to help find that animal.

They don't usually have the bandwidth to share with me, you know, their likes or dislikes in life, that's not usually the case. However, for you, it could be you are connecting psychically, it could be that that bird was talking to you, but also happy to be out and about as well. So, um, it could be that that bird, if they were communicating with you, that they had the bandwidth to talk about those things but with an animal that's passed away, the communication tends to take on a little bit more of the flavour of a typical mediumship session, what their life was like, their commute, their connection with their human, their messages for their human, you know, those types of things don't tend to be top of mind for an animal that's living and missing. Does that make sense?

Ann: Yeah, it does.

Thea: but it could, you know, they're like I said, there are cases in which the animal is lost and they're happily living with somebody who's taken them in and they're good and they have a little bit of that bandwidth to talk about those things. So, it can be still a little bit tricky.

Ann: Yes. Yeah. Thank you for that. That's very, very interesting. You spoke a little bit there about the anxiety of an animal that is lost. Um, but what about animals that are living that have anxiety? Um, if you're communicating with them, can you maybe say a little bit about animal anxiety.

Thea: Yeah, it's a topic that comes up a lot with an animal communication. Uh, and naturally there are going to be some animals out there that struggle with anxiety. And, um, sometimes it's. It's, um, it's due to the human world around them, you know, big sounds and, unexpected things happening in their environment that they're maybe not used to.

Um, there's always a range of anxiety. Some dogs, some, I always think about dogs when it comes to anxiety, but some animals, will have, you know, be so anxious. that, you know, seeing a sock in a new spot in the home kind of sends them into a bit of a tizzy. and then, of course, some just have a little bit of anxiety about certain things, and so there's always a range of things, but I find that animal communication can be really useful tool, not necessarily always the cure for it, but a useful tool to use with animals that have anxiety because you can really use your own communication to help reframe a lot of things for the animal that have been causing them anxiety.

For example, with a dog, let's say, who is terrified of the dishwashing machine. you know, using your own communication to help explain to the animal and reframe to that dog how the dishwasher machine is actually something that really benefits everybody in the home. How, how safe and benign the dishwasher machine is, despite the big sounds coming out of it, let's say, so, so using animal communication can be really helpful to. Reframe things, explain things, um, to help ease some of that anxiety, and also within, you know, topics such as separation anxiety, which is, quite common as well, especially for dogs, using animal communication to explain to the dog, when you'll be back, that you're, if you're going to work, how many hours till you'll be back, encouraging them towards certain activities that are going to help keep them calm while you're gone.

Um, I typically, uh, when it comes to separation anxiety, I tend to, uh, encourage the animals to think of that time away from their humans as their own extra downtime. So, I encourage them to see that as extra time to just relax and nap and take care of themselves and their own energy while they wait for their human to be back, so it's both about reframing things as well as encouraging them towards certain behaviours that actually might. benefit them more than just the pacing and, whatever else they're doing, that's, expressing their anxiety.

Ann: And what results do you get from that, Thea?

Thea: It depends totally on the situation, obviously, and the individual animal,

 Like I said, anxiety can be a spectrum, and some animals have such high anxiety about a situation, let's say separation anxiety, where it is like, they need a lot of support in a lot of different ways to help them manage that anxiety where animal communication itself is not going to be the thing that is going to fully change that.

They need support through medications, potentially, or other sort of changes in their environment and training and so on, as well as the animal communication. But for those who have anxiety, let's take the, Example of separation anxiety for those who are just worried about if they're a human is going to come back, let's say, or they're worried about just being away from their human, but it's not a full blown panic attack kind of anxiety, then, in those cases, animal communication can make a huge difference for them, and they can go, oh, okay, those are good ideas, I'm just going to lay down on the couch and just snooze while I wait for my human to come back, and I trust that, you know, in the past they've come back every time before, I can trust that they'll, they'll be back, every time in the future as well.

And so, so like I said, it will totally depend on the individual animal and the levels of anxiety and what's causing that but it can make a huge difference actually. And I have seen it make a huge difference for some, uh, for some animals who just needed a little bit of a reframe or just a little bit of an encouragement, uh, towards other behaviours.

Ann: Yeah. That's super lovely. I know at the very beginning of our chat; you were very kind enough to share with us that you are bipolar type 2. And I wonder if you've ever come across an animal that has similar, uh, similar feelings or, or exhibits similar things to you.

Thea: Yeah, it's interesting.

 So, with my bipolar disorder diagnosis, um, probably, like I mentioned, it's probably a misdiagnosis, and it's probably more like PTSD, or something similar. But, um, with animals, I do find that, some animals, to me, I can sort of notice in the way their brain thinks and the way they're explaining things to me that there is a little bit of, of a wiring difference in their brains that are causing, some of the issues that they're experiencing.

So, for example, with some dogs, let's say, or other animals too, but some, some, Animals, um, sudden aggression, for example, um, sometimes I'll feel that that is kind of a wiring thing. Um, aggression could be many things and often is, uh, related to pain in their body. Um, but, um, I have, Um, I can notice that sometimes in the way they communicate with me, when they share with me kind of the feeling of how their brain is working, let's take the example of a dog that's kind of going, experiencing a lot of sudden aggression that comes out of the blue, They might be able to explain to me that for them, it feels like it comes out of the blue too.

And like, it's not necessarily triggered by anything around them, but it just kind of happens, for them mentally. So, absolutely, I do think many different animals, can experience mental health issues, absolutely.

Ann: Very, very interesting. Thea, thank you. Just before you go, I would love it if you could maybe give everybody listening or watching on YouTube, um, a small exercise that they might be able to do at home to communicate with their own pets.

Thea: Absolutely. Do you, um, do you want me to talk everybody through it as a, as a meditative kind of exercise or just, just give the gist of it?

Ann: Ooh, ooh. I don't know. Um, well, how long does it take? Let's put it that way.

Thea: Well, I can keep it short, but I am, uh. Yeah, I'm happy to do it either way.

Ann: Um, well, if, a couple of minutes, let's say. Okay. Just so people can give it a try. It'd be lovely.

Thea: Absolutely. Okay, so, if you have an animal companion around you, I would encourage you to sit down with them at a distance that you know they're going to be, feel comfortable with. And, um, take a few deep breaths and close your eyes. And just take a moment to get centred in your own body, just kind of feel what your own body and your own energy feels like right now.

And then I want you to bring your awareness to the centre of your chest, to your heart centre there, and just know that there is a bright ball of light there at the centre of your chest. And it's okay if you can't visualize it clearly, just know that it's there. And then I want you to take a moment to also feel into your own feelings of deep love and appreciation for your animal companion.

And feel free to do this with the wild animal as well if you don't have any, uh, animal companions yourself. And just feeling into that feeling of just love and appreciation for your animal companion. You might see or feel that light at the centre of your chest now expanding out. big and bright and expanding it out to connect to your animal companion's heart centre.

Just setting the intention of sending out your heart centre energy to connect to your animal's heart centre. And as you do so, just sending them lots and lots of love, just sending them feelings or thoughts of love.

Thinking warm, loving thoughts to them.

And if you can also mentally ask them if they'd be open to connect with you and potentially communicate with you as well. So just sending them those thoughts and questions mentally is enough.

And then just allow yourself to sit in that connection there, continuing to send them lots of loving thoughts without any pressure. of receiving any communication in return, just sitting there open to it. And I just want you to sit there and notice any impressions you get visually in your mind, maybe hearing sounds or words in your head, or any subtle feelings in your body, just noticing those and accepting those without having to overthink it, just allowing whatever comes through to be.

And if you're not noticing any impressions, that's okay, too.

Just sitting there with that connection with your animal companion. And I would encourage you to sit there for a little bit, for however long feels comfortable for you. And, um, when you're ready you can thank your animal for connecting with you. And, um, you might see that connection between your hearts kind of fall away.

And then you can just go about your day and I would say this is a good exercise to do regularly with your animal. And again, without any pressure on yourself or your animal companion about actually communicating or receiving communication, just allowing it to be a natural a natural experience, um, whatever happens, just allowing it to happen. And then, um, eventually you might find that your animal opens up more and more with you. You might start to feel like you're getting some impressions from them over time.

Ann: Beautiful. Thank you, Thea. That's so lovely to have something to work with. I'm sure everybody is so appreciative. Um, tell us, where can everybody purchase your wonderful book?

Thea: They can purchase it, uh, most places that sell books. so, Amazon, they can find it, as well as Barnes and Noble if they're in the U. S. and then I do know some, uh, smaller bookshops have it, as well. Um, they can Also find it or find the links to purchase it on my website as well, which is theahealer. com. So T H E A H E A L E R. com.

Ann: Perfect. Um, and what else are you offering on your website, Thea? Have you got courses coming up or do you do private sittings?

Thea: I do private sittings, um, but I also teach quite a bit. And so, I typically teach animal communication a couple of times a year online. Um, if anybody's local to the Portland, Oregon area, I do have some in person classes coming up at some, uh, horse sanctuaries. And so, but I, I, I'm very passionate about teaching. And so that is definitely something they can find, um, information about as well on my website.

Ann: Fabulous. And are you doing private sittings for people?

Thea: I am. I have a bit of a wait list for new clients currently, just so that I can, with animal communication, often people like to kind of do some check ins with their, um, animals, uh, you know, once a year or so. And so, I have to keep a little bit of space for, for return clients as well. So, um, but yes, I, I, I have a wait list that people can sign up for on my wait, on my website as well.

Ann: Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Well, Thea, thank you so very, very much for coming on to the show and telling us all about your work and everything that you know, and sharing your knowledge so generously. It's been really beautiful speaking to you.

Thea: Thank you so much for having me. It's been lovely to share all these things with you, and I've really enjoyed hearing your own experiences too.

You have been watching the Psychic Matters podcast with Ann Théato, the only podcast to push forward the boundaries of human consciousness to redefine the significance of living.  Subscribe now so you don't miss future episodes!

VO: You have been watching the Psychic Matters podcast with Ann Théato, the only podcast to push forward the boundaries of human consciousness to redefine the significance of living.  Subscribe now so you don't miss future episodes!