We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laurie Oakes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laurie below.

Hi Laurie, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

For me, starting this entire business was a risk.

It was the middle of Covid. The world was upside down. My career as a professional chef had come to a complete halt. My mom’s health was rapidly declining. And I was walking away from a 5.5-year relationship that I had poured so much of myself into.

It seemed like the worst possible time to make a big move.

Everything was uncertain. Everything felt fragile. And yet—something in my gut, my intuition, was whispering:
“Just trust. Follow the breadcrumbs.”

I didn’t have a business plan. I didn’t have a 5-year vision. I didn’t even know if this would work. But I knew I couldn’t ignore the pull anymore.

So I started offering free sessions on zoom until I was confident enough to charge. I hosted my first retreat with my dear friend Amy, who only became a friend after I moved into her basement apartment. It was 4 people in her backyard and sunroom, and it was glorious.

I didn’t know then that this business would become what it is now. I just knew I needed to say yes to what was in front of me.

One breadcrumb at a time.

And the truth is, the timing will never be perfect. You won’t always feel ready. But your soul knows when it’s time. The risk is what brought me to a life I never would have imagined could be mine.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m an intuitive mentor and spiritual teacher supporting high-achieving, hyper-independent women who are outwardly successful but inwardly exhausted. The women I work with are the ones who always have it together—the ones everyone turns to—but inside, they feel stuck, disconnected, and quietly burning out.

I help them reconnect with the parts of themselves they’ve had to hide, silence, or toughen up just to survive. Through intuitive mentorship, sacred teachings, and honest conversation, I guide women back to the wisdom of their own soul—so they can finally stop controlling everything, start trusting themselves again, and live from a place of deep alignment.

I didn’t grow up thinking I’d do this work. For most of my life, I was in kitchens—literally. I was a professional chef. My hands were in food, my days were filled with service, and my life was deeply shaped by caretaking. My mom was diagnosed with MS when I was four and later battled cancer for nearly a decade before she passed. I learned early on how to show up for others. I knew how to hustle, how to perform, how to hold it all together.

But beneath that, I was always sensitive. Intuitive. In tune with something deeper.

In 2018, everything unraveled. I hit my own version of rock bottom—emotionally, spiritually, relationally. I had spent my life trying to fix everything and everyone, believing that if I was just good enough, I could save my mom, hold my relationship together, and finally feel worthy. That collapse became the doorway to something else.

It was during COVID, after leaving a 5.5-year relationship, losing my job as a chef, and watching my mom’s health rapidly decline, that I finally listened to the pull I’d been ignoring. I started offering sessions, following my intuition, and building what would become a deeply transformative body of work.

Today, my work is both spiritual and practical. It’s intuitive, but grounded in the truth of being an imperfect human. I offer:

1:1 spiritual mentorship (6- and 12-month containers)

Group coaching and programs, including Intuition Academy, a program where I walk students through learning how to connect to and trust their own intuition.

Live retreats and sacred circles for women who are ready to soften, release, and reclaim themselves

The women who find me are often at a breaking point or crossroads. They’ve outgrown their old patterns but don’t yet trust the new ones. They’ve been carrying the weight of everyone else’s needs. They’ve been striving, performing, and over-functioning, but they’re ready to live differently.

My work isn’t just about giving you the answers. It’s about helping you trust the ones already inside you. But as an intuitive medium, I am able to receive guidance on what could be keeping you stuck that you can’t see for yourself or perhaps you’ve repressed. I bring the subconscious into the conscious so we can heal it and shift old narratives to suit the life you ACTUALLY desire

I don’t believe healing requires perfection, performance, or bypassing your humanity. I believe your soul chose this life, in this body, for a reason—and I teach from that place.

My style is direct but deeply compassionate. I’ll reflect your blind spots, name the things you’ve been avoiding, and help you return to your truth, not because you’re broken, but because you’ve forgotten how whole you already are.

What sets my work apart is the emotional depth I hold, and the radical permission I offer for women to be exactly who and where they are and still feel worthy of love, guidance, and growth.

I’m most proud of the women who have reclaimed their power through this work.

I’ve watched clients leave abusive relationships, rebuild trust in their bodies, connect with God again, make peace with their past, and create lives that actually feel like theirs.

I’m also proud that I’ve done the work too. I’ve lived through loss, betrayal, spiritual abuse, and self-abandonment—and I’ve come out the other side with more softness, not less. More clarity. More trust. More reverence for the mystery.

I want you to know that if you’re reading this and something in your body feels lit up, or even just quietly curious, I want you to know:

You are not too much.
You are not too late.
You don’t have to keep doing it all alone.

This work is about remembering. Reconnecting. Reclaiming the parts of you that got buried under success, control, and survival.

You don’t need to be fixed. You need support. To feel safe to let it all out, without judgement.

That’s what I do.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Being the strong one doesn’t make you safe, it makes you silent.

Growing up with a chronically ill mother, I learned early how to anticipate, adapt, and stay composed. It became second nature to be the one who could hold it all. And later in life—through relationships, business, and grief—I just kept doing it. Carrying more than I had space for, believing that if I stayed strong, everything would stay intact.

But the truth is, constantly being the one who “has it together” is a form of self-abandonment. No one checks on you. You stop checking on yourself.

I hit a wall, not dramatically, but quietly. Everything looked fine on the outside… but I didn’t feel like me anymore. I was holding my clients, my business, my family, my grief, without ever checking if I had the capacity to.

I need to learn how to ask for help, and learn that it doesn’t make you weak. To let go of what I couldn’t carry. To stop performing strength and start practicing honesty and healthy boundaries.

And what I learned is this: True strength isn’t about holding it all. It’s about knowing what’s yours to hold—and what needs to be released.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think what helped me build my reputation in this space is that I never tried to be someone I wasn’t.

From the very beginning, I spoke honestly about the messy parts. The grief, burnout, control, spiritual disconnection. I didn’t position myself as someone who had it all figured out. I shared from lived experience, not a pedestal.

People don’t want a perfect leader. They want someone who has been there and is willing to walk through the mud with them.

And I think that’s what set me apart. I never tried to sell a “shiny” version of healing. I never pretended that intuition would make life easy or that surrender would always feel good. I told the truth about what it means to be human, spiritual, sensitive, and powerful, all at once.

I also believe consistency builds trust. I showed up. I wrote when no one was reading. I held space when I was still figuring out what I was holding. And I did it with integrity. That matters.

Over time, people could feel the difference. That I wasn’t just trying to get clients. I am here to serve. To guide. To reflect people back to themselves.

It’s not about being the loudest voice or having the most followers. It’s about being the most authentic and having integrity.

And I think that’s what people feel in my work.

That’s what built the reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurieoakesmediumship.com
• Instagram: @laurieaoakes
• Other: Spotify @thenakedsoulpodcast

Image Credits

@lyndi_photo