Emma Perry is not your conventional accountant.

Whilst she maintains a portfolio of her own accounting clients as a sole practitioner, her true calling is to help others find their passion and live a more meaningful and balanced life. She does this with her psychic medium skills. She shares her story with Nick Levine.

I originally studied psychology at university, but then followed after my father and trained to become an accountant. I qualified at the time the credit crunch was coming to a head, and decided to go travelling in America and seek work overseas.

I was living the dream and doing what most people never do.  My mum came to visit, and nine days into our holiday we had a car accident in the desert in which she passed away. This changed the whole course of my life.

When my mother passed away I made the decision to use this painful experience to do something good in the world.

It took me many years to work out what this good would be.

I was headhunted for a position as a business analyst. Around a year later I got hit by a car and was on crutches for a month or two. Then in October 2013 I had a mental breakdown in which I had to take a month off work so that I could regroup. I then went back to work in November, before having another breakdown in January 2014. During this time I couldn’t function at all, and I asked for six months leave so that I could get myself to a point where I was healthy in terms of my mental well-being.

All of these incidents were signals that I was not on the right path.

Starting my career as a Holistic Accountant

Four months into my sick leave I knew I couldn’t go back to work. I decided to set up a chartered accountancy practice, where I would be a modern chartered accountant, with old fashioned values.

I also began working as the Holistic Accountant. Just like how an accountant will balance the books of a business, a holistic accountant will balance the books of a body, mind, heart and soul.

I help people to see that they are able to have a healthy balance in their bank account, while keeping good balance in doing the work they love, looking after their health, and by doing good in the world. I help people to see how they can align the accountancy advice that they receive, with their purpose.

I started to learn about my psychic abilities after I quit my job. Before that I felt that I was very sensitive and could understand what people were thinking, but I did not know what to do with this ability. I met someone that was on a similar path to me, and she introduced me to some psychic teachers.

After a few workshops I found that I had an ability to see the spirit world, and with that came an array of other psychic abilities. After turning 32 I found that some further gifts developed that allowed me to be more connected with nature, and with other people.

I use my psychic skills to connect with whomever I need to find, in order to move forward with my path and my purpose.

I find that I can use my psychic skills to understand exactly what it is I need to do each day, and how exactly I am meant to do that. I am using my psychic abilities right at this moment. I am having this message dictated by someone in the spiritual realm who helps to guide me. They ensure that all the work that I do is of a completely pure intention, and fully aligned with who it is I am meant to be. This is a woman who is trying to make a difference and attempting to do what has never been done before, in terms of introducing the world of accountancy to the world of spirituality.

A holistic accountant is a term that I have created to explain the unique way that I work as an accountant. By telling my clients that I am a holistic accountant, I am able to communicate the way in which I work. I am someone that is entirely open and present to what I am.  I let all that meet me understand that I am a psychic medium that integrates this into all the work I do.

I allow my clients to understand that I do this in order to make the world a better place. What I find is that this way of doing business allows me to connect with the ethics of my accountancy body, in a way that I have never been able to do prior to acquiring my gifts.

I have experienced scepticism from some of my clients, as not everyone is of the same belief that there is more to life than meets the eye. I have found that this has helped me to understand the importance of using language that all people are able to connect with, as some people connect more with grounded business terms, and others prefer to be spoken to through the lens of spirituality.

My mission in life is to help people to live happier and fulfilled lives, and for some clients I can deliver this through this lens of spirituality and psychic mediumship. But for many, they are not yet ready to have their advice delivered in this way.

Emma Perry’s top five pieces of advice to find balance

1. Follow your heart – it knows what you want and who you want to become, and it knows how it wants to live.
2. Be yourself – when you are operating from a place where you are truly authentic, you are able to find peace as you are no longer trying to be something that you are not.
3. Find a way to do what you love – when you do what you love,  you are operating as a soul trader, someone that trades from their soul, rather than someone that trades their soul.
4. Have an optimum balance between work and play – when you take time out to do the things that allow you to feel like you are having a lot of fun, you are able to be more refreshed and alert when it comes to doing work.
5. Help others to be their best – when you can help the people that you come across, whether it is people that you work with or people that you know from your personal lives, you are able to strike a better balance between looking after yourself and watching out for other people.

Nick Levine is a chartered accountant and freelance journalist, with a background in fin-tech who has written for Accounting Technician magazine.