The main claimed abilities
Four terms come up most often. Clairvoyance ("clear seeing") describes receiving impressions as mental images. Clairaudience ("clear hearing") describes impressions received as words or sounds. Clairsentience ("clear feeling") describes impressions received as physical or emotional sensation. Claircognizance ("clear knowing") describes a sudden certainty about something with no traceable source. Practitioners often describe leaning more heavily on one of these than the others.
Mediumship
Mediumship specifically refers to claimed communication with a deceased person, within traditions that hold consciousness continues after death. It rose to prominence in the mid-19th-century Spiritualist movement — commonly traced to the Fox sisters in 1848 New York — and remains a distinct branch of psychic practice, typically conducted as a reading for someone grieving or seeking closure, separate from general intuitive or fortune-telling sessions.
What a session usually involves
A typical reading opens with the practitioner asking for minimal information — often just a first name — before describing impressions they say they're receiving, and inviting the client to confirm, correct, or expand on them. Sessions may run in person, by phone, or remotely. Ethical practitioners generally avoid framing anything as medical, legal, or financial advice, and are upfront that impressions are interpretive rather than certain.
How it differs from tarot and astrology
Tarot and astrology are structured systems — a card spread or a birth chart gives a fixed set of symbols that are then interpreted. A psychic reading, by contrast, doesn't rely on an external structure; the claimed information is said to come directly through the reader's own perception. In practice, many readers blend the two, using a tarot spread as a focusing tool for psychic impressions.