Here's something you don't expect to hear from a medium of more than thirty years. Mia told her circle that if she went to a medium today, she wouldn't want proof of the spirit world, and she wouldn't want to hear about her development.

I would love to have someone who could see me, understand me in my situation, and give me some backup or some insight.

Help with the anxiety. The stress. The worries. If a working medium can need completely different things from a reading in different seasons of her life, so can you. And that's the problem with booking "a reading" — the same word covers very different evenings. Here's how to tell them apart.

What are the main kinds of readings?

• An evidential mediumship sitting. Contact with a specific loved one in the spirit world, built on evidence — who they were, their work, their relationships, the memories you shared — so you can recognise them beyond doubt. This is what most people mean by "seeing a medium", and if you're grieving, it's usually the one you're looking for.
• A psychic or intuitive reading (Mia also calls it a spiritual assessment). No spirit contact — the medium reads you: your nature, your strengths and struggles, where you are and what your next step might be. As Mia puts it, if people are not in bereavement, they want advice in their own life — and this is the reading for that.
• A coaching-style sitting — the one nobody told you exists. A real conversation: you say what you want help with, the discussion starts, and the medium keeps their intuition switched on the whole time, sensing soul-to-soul while you talk. Mia jokes that the medium becomes "the shrink tonight" — but she means something serious: a lot of people don't have anyone to listen to them, and a sensitive listener who also senses you can reach places small talk never will.

That third kind deserves a word more, because Mia was taught it "wasn't allowed" — in her training there were evidential readings and assessments, full stop, and coaching with your sensitivity and psychic ability didn't count as a medium's work. She thinks that's a gap, and a healing one to fill. One thing she's equally clear about: it sits alongside professional mental-health care, never instead of it — she has needed both in her own life.

How do I choose?

Go by your season, not by the menu:

• Grieving, longing for one more hello — an evidential sitting. The connection is the point, and the evidence is how you'll trust it.
• At a crossroads, circling the same decision — a psychic reading. You don't need the spirit world to weigh in; you need to see your own life clearly.
• Carrying stress, anxiety, or a life that's quietly upside down — a coaching-style sitting. Less performance, more being met.
• Everything's actually fine? Still valid. Mia teaches that a reading from a good place simply works forward — helping you move on with your hopes and dreams instead of fixing anything.

The feedback after one of Mia's coaching-style evenings says more than any menu could. As one member put it: "Her presentation leaves me with hope and clarity — and with direction."

What should you watch out for?

One honest warning, from Mia's own student years. When she dreaded the platform, every medium she went to reassured her she'd never have to be on it. Once she fell in love with the stage, suddenly every medium could see her on the stage, born for it. Her verdict, looking back:

It was just reading me, my wishes, my dreams, not my reality.

Your hopes sit right at the front of your energy, and a reading that only mirrors them back feels wonderful and helps very little. A good medium knows this trap and would rather tell you too little than too much — and whatever you hear, the decisions stay yours. There's a whole honest guide to this in What a Medium Can — and Can't — Tell You.

What if I still don't know what I need?

Then say exactly that, and tell the medium how things actually are for you. You're not spoiling the magic — you're aiming it. Mia mixes the forms herself, and what she asks of any sitting is the same regardless of label:

See the client, see them, hear them, understand them, and help them move forward from the situation they are in.

That's the real answer to "what kind of reading do I need?" — whichever one leaves you feeling seen, heard and understood, with your own power intact. Because in the end, as Mia told her circle, that's what all of this is for: to see each other in this horrendous world a little bit.