People who are naturally very empathic often have certain questions about learning animal communication. So I listed the questions and answered them below.

Whenever you open your heart in love to another being, there is a silent flow of communication – in images, feelings, knowings, etc. – that opens up as well.

Animal communication is a refined, cultivated, consciously-owned version of this flow, this thing that every animal lover is already doing with their cat or dog or horse or bird or fish.

So learning animal communication becomes this process of starting with the empathic connection you already have with your own animal friends, and building from there.

You might say, “Oh but Sharon, if empathy is part of animal communication, how do you not get swamped by the other being’s feelings, how do you not take their feelings on?”

The process of animal communication is inherently very grounding. There is an intimacy and an empathic closeness with an animal, but you still feel yourself as a separate being. You are together but distinct.

This is beautiful, and healing for all, especially for us humans! I believe this grounded and open state of awareness is how we humans are ideally meant to hold ourselves in relation to other beings, and all of life around us.

And this is essentially the training of the Basic 1 Course in Animal Communication.

Over the six-week-long course, we learn five techniques for connecting with animals, and more. In the process of this, you start to build a more conscious sense of your own groundedness, as well as recognize what parts of you are open and communicating already.

For some it is the heart, they receive so many feelings. For others, it is the third eye, they receive images, etc. Others have energy centers in the belly that are active and communicating, so there is this gut knowing. And of course there are parts of us throughout our body of energy that are awake and receptive and correspond to other modalities of receiving and sending communication.

And then we build on this from there, to help you open on many levels, and receive all the different modalities of silent, feeling-based communication – feelings, images, knowings, thoughts, smells, sounds, bodily sensations, etc.

So this is really good news for people who consider themselves empaths and maybe feel burdened by feeling too much at times! In essence, learning animal communication is healing for the empath. It teaches you how to hold yourself in a way that you stay open, but do not get overwhelmed by the intense emotions of others.

I think there is a big difference between being an animal communicator and a pet psychic. It could be that the other person you learned from is more of a pet psychic.

Psychics are tuning into spirit guides or some larger beings in the astral space around the earth and downloading information about an animal.

In short: psychics are getting information about an animal rather than talking to an animal. There is no conversation, it is a just a reading and the animal is not involved.

However the animal may have a peripheral sense that they are being talked about, like “Hm, this person is talking about me.”

Meanwhile, a true animal communicator is connecting directly with the animal. The animal’s day-to-day self, the animal’s higher self, the animal’s whole self.

And you know this because the animal responds. Right there in front of you.

It is sometimes subtle, sometimes not (!), but they will show you that they are in this, fully participating.

Nearly every communication session, my client will say, “Ok, my dog just looked up at me with this intense stare, right when you said, “Bella is ready to share.” Or (this one is my favorite) “Is it normal for my dogs and cats to be gathered around me in a circle, while I wait by the phone for your call?”

I wrote an entire blog post about this, with stories of the striking ways animals have demonstrated that they are actively participating in this process, communicating with you through me. If you are curious to read it, click here.

For our purposes here, know that the psychic process and the animal communication process could not be more different. Psychics go above their heads and get information from a non-physical being in the astral space. Animal communicators drop down into their hearts, their bodies, and engage the present moment to connect with an animal heart to heart, being to being, light to light.

Animal communication is happening here, in this world, in this realm. It is real, tangible and beautiful, and the information received is coming directly from the animal.

Accordingly, an animal communicator translates an animal’s perspective, which may include some of the animal’s own bias. But that is part of the fun and cuteness of it all!

And the healing. With an animal communicator translating for them, animals feel seen, felt, understood. This is why very often problems change for the better after my sessions, often immediately following our call. As my grandmother said, “A problem shared is a problem halved.”

A rooster was dumped on my property last September and I fell in love with him.

Everyone else seemed to like him too, even though he crows a lot.

So I bought him six hens last fall, and built a coop and a chicken run off the side of my barn.

Then just about a week ago I bought seven more 6-week-old pullets.

The pullets live in tent brooders in my family room; three in one brooder and four in another. When it is warmer and they are ready, I will introduce them to the flock in the coop and run outside, and integrate everyone.

Meanwhile, this time with the baby chickens in my house with me is wonderful. We are gently bonding and all getting used to each other. I love to play classical music for them when I am working in the kitchen. They are so cute — they get very still, and quietly chirp along.

And every morning I spend a few minutes talking to them, letting them get used to my presence and my voice. They responded to this right away, looking up at me while I talk, with little curious eyes.

On the second day, one chicken, I named her Charlotte, even jumped out of the brooder and came up to sit on my lap. It was her idea! It was so precious. The next day, her friend Phoebe did the same.

But the other day, I came out and noticed something unusual. All the girls in the brooder with Charlotte seemed very skittish, terrified of me and any movements I made. The girls in the other brooder were fine, no different.

So I just sat with them, waiting for the nervous group of chickens to calm down a bit. But they never did.

I decided to communicate with them, in the hopes of discerning why their behavior had changed  I peripherally connected with the young hens empathically to feel what was happening.

Right away I started receiving flashes of industrial chicken operations, and even a slaughterhouse, and the workers there in the background. I could tell that one chicken, Juliette, (the pretty black and white chicken in the images below) was experiencing some kind of memory imprints, either from her own life before in another chicken body, or from some collective chicken consciousness memory, or both.

And it was clear that the other chickens were now getting caught up in Juliette’s nightmare. They were all confused, and terrified of me, the human being.

So I just sat with them and talked to them, with a softness on my voice stream. I reassured them they are all safe now. It seemed to calm them for a few minutes.

But the next day, the same thing. Terrified of me again.  

So I decided to work with Juliette directly.

I am thinking this will be my journey with Juliette for the coming days and weeks, and hopefully the imprints from her trauma will begin to fade. One way or another, she will be safe and loved in her life with me and with my flock.

The whole experience of helping little Juliette made me reflect on how experiencing traumas and then healing from them is so central to life on this earth.

It is sad but it is the way it is.

But when our loved ones have some sense of what happened to us, they share in our burden, and it can change things.

My grandmother had a saying, “A problem shared is a problem halved.”

Empathy is a healing force, and happens naturally when we listen deeply to the experience of those we love. This is especially true with our animal friends.