Posted // February 20,2013 -

Whether your relationship is on the rocks or your beloved pet has gone missing, sometimes you need the help of an adviser who relies on hunches or intuition to guide you and bring you comfort. Salt Lake City is home to many gifted psychics and astrologers who use their abilities to weigh in on matters that other counseling professionals might decline to speak to or address. It’s true, some issues and upsets are best treated by professional counselors or physicians (don’t expect a psychic to cure your flu), but sometimes, a psychic can offer the insight needed to tackle certain emotional and spiritual crises. City Weekly asked these local psychics why their clients come to them instead of consulting a therapist or religious leader.

Krysta Brinkley:
I See Things
Krysta Brinkley’s skills include palmistry, Tarot, numerology and horary astrology— the practice of finding answers based on the alignment of the stars at the time of the question. She can even tell you when your lost cat will find its way home.

Brinkley says she believes getting a reading and finding help through “normal” means “should be done in tandem.” According to the psychic, “The difference between me and [a psychologist] is that ... I can see things that a psychologist may not know or doesn’t know how to tell you, either. What I want you to do is grow, but I don’t want to be your psychologist. When you need support and you don’t have it, you need to figure out what you need in your life. Someone that listens to you without judgment, that’s where [a psychic and a psychologist are] the same. It’s like, ‘Wow, you’re screwed here, sorry. What can I do to help?’”

Brinkley does readings at Dancing Crane Imports on Sunday and Thursdays and at The Expanding Heart in Park City on Saturdays. Visit Krysta.us for more info.

Margaret Ruth:
Pinpoint Hidden Causes
Margaret Ruth is a well-known psychic and Tarot card reader with empathic abilities.

Margaret Ruth says that in times of trouble, it’s best to seek help from many different sources and “tools in your toolbox.” If something serious is happening, “it would be strange to not see your doctor or your rabbi or your lawyer and only come see me,” she says. However, seeing a psychic can “help pinpoint” the hidden causes behind an issue.

“I’ll have people ask me things like, ‘I had a horrible breakup, what happened there?’” Margaret Ruth says. “Now, your psychotherapist might go through the nuts bolts of it and be very helpful, but your psychic would go for big picture: ‘This is the reason for all that, or this is what went on there.’ And it can be helpful to some people to get that, to grasp that kind of insight.”

She makes regular appearances on X96’s Radio From Hell morning show, where she does readings on the air, and can also be contacted at 801-575-7103 and through her website, MargaretRuth.com.

Adam Sagers: We’re Not That Different
Adam Sagers uses tarot cards to focus his psychic and empathic abilities.

As a psychic who took several psychology courses in college, Sagers says he believes psychics and psychologists are “not that different. Most psychics are basically just therapists, except I look at a lot of different tools.” He says he uses tools that psychologists would use, like recognizing people’s basic patterns.

“But, then, I also have the advantage of being able to [tap into] that subconscious or that other realm,” which most traditional psychologists wouldn’t say exists, he says.

Sagers does readings at Golden Braid Books (151 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City, 801-322-1162, GoldenBraidBooks.com) on Tuesdays.