With over 30,000 followers on Instagram, yoga instructor and intuitive healer Kate Van Horn is part of a growing social media trend of spirituality intersecting with health and wellness.

What some may call a fancy term for a psychic reading, an intuitive healing session can involve an alternative medicinal practice known as Reiki healing; tarot card readings or fortune tellings; and spiritual cleanses or energy readings, Van Horn said.

Reiki healing is a form of therapy originating from Japan that works to remove energy “blocks” in the human body through the hands of the practitioner, similar in concept to acupuncture, according to Medical News Today.

Tarot card readings are a popular form of fortune telling that may reveal the past, present and future of a person’s life.

These days, sessions are not like they are made out to be in the movies, Van Horn said. 

“Spirituality is becoming less taboo to discuss,” Van Horn said. “I can’t stand that [people] think it’s going to look like the movies and be super witchy. I’m a normal, everyday, modern woman who likes to get her nails done. … It’s about personal reflection.”

Van Horn said her sessions, whether virtual or in-person, begin with a simple conversation. This builds a safe space to gauge energies before reading tarot 

cards and offering solutions to issues her clients would like to resolve through yoga practices for the body, journaling prompts for the mind or meditation for the soul.

“It [has] allowed me to feel more connected to a full purpose rather than just my physical body,” Van Horn said. “It’s allowed me to feel more empowered, not only with my own mental health, but with my journey and reason for being here in this lifetime.”

Van Horn was a skeptic before entering the spiritual space when she was 22-years-old, after being treated for post traumatic stress disorder and an eating disorder. She said she surrendered to intuitive healing when she found that yoga helped with her PTSD, anxiety and depression.

Intuitive healing may not be the end-all, be-all, though.

Rather than seeing a psychic, tarot card reader or medium, Karen Stollznow, author of “Hits & Mrs.”—a novel about a woman attempting to expose the world’s greatest psychic—advises talking to a friend or seeing a trained therapist instead.

Stollznow said a variety of people will seek out psychics for advice, although movies and media often portray customers as middle-aged women looking for romantic consolation.

“[Psychics] will talk about human nature, the human condition. It’s going to resonate with a lot of people,” Stollznow said.

Senior graphic design major Ashley King said she used to be a skeptic before having her tarot cards read at a party during her freshman year. When the reader gasped at her cards, she thought the worst. Instead, she received three cards that foretold success in her life.

At the time, King was questioning her decision to be a designer at Columbia, but it gave her peace of mind.

“To this day, I’m doing well,” King said. “I think about it as an ironic story, but I still wonder: Was it the tarot card reading or was it how my life was supposed to go?”

Though Van Horn said those interested in the spiritual space tend to be women in college through their mid-30s, and are more focused on improving their relationships with themselves rather than romantic ones.

“They’re always asking the bigger questions of ‘What is my true calling?’” Van Horn said. “Anything that we can cultivate as a tool for a better life is worth exploring.”