Rebecca Dettman, aka Miss Psychette, is a journalist by trade who in 2008 decided to jack in her life as a magazine editor and follow her heart in all things spiritual.
She is the founder of the Aurora Circle spiritual group and a spiritual expert who regularly appears on radio and TV. Her weekly radio show on Power FM, articles, seminars, intuitive readings and events have inspired thousands of people to release their blockages, find their personal power and embrace their life purpose. She is also the author of Seven Steps to Spirituality and De-Stress Your Life.
Rebecca lives in Adelaide with her husband, Brett and two children Tom, age three and Charlotte age one. She can be found at www.rebeccadettman.com
Rebecca Dettman aka Miss Psychette,
Psychic Expert
C4K: What was your work background and how did you come up with the concept of Miss Psychette/Psyched in Stilettos?
RD: I worked as a very 'straight' journalist for ten years for publications such as Who Weekly, Girlfriend, Bride to Be, The Sun-Herald and Adelaide* magazine, but half-way through I began moonlighting on the side as a psychic! I started seeing clients for reiki, Theta healing, intuitive counselling and meditation work, and this snowballed until I felt the urge to leave the corporate world behind and embrace my cosmic side totally. I felt the New Age industry needed a bit of a face-lift, however, so I combined my glossy magazine background (pink, pretty, glam, big city, sophisticated) with my psychic stuff and created my business name, 'Psyched In Stilettos', along with girlie cartoon logos and other fun, mainstream ideas.
C4K: What does your working week entail and how do you manage the children?
RD: My kids get exposure to a variety of activities with their dad, grandparents, daycare, nursery school, swimming lessons and music classes so that mummy can multitask all her other work! A typical working week might involve anything from three to eight readings in person or via phone/Skype, a women's group meeting for which I organise special guest speakers, or working with high-risk teen girls with my "Soul Divas" high school workshops.
C4K: What sort of child care do you have for them and how does it work for you?
RD: My husband and I are quite spiritual and holistic parents. We don't look anything like your typical hippy, but we home-birthed both our children, feed them healthy organic diets 100% devoid of sugar, processed carbs and cow's milk, and reinforce a lot of positive language and natural-type activities (minimal TV, lots of nature walks, understanding natural cycles, creating things etc). So when it comes to who cares for my children, I've been quite picky about the values of the carers I've selected. I've been through a few different day carers and crèches, but I'm very happy with what I now have: a very clean, organised and practical family day care lady, and a nursery school that specialises in the Emilio Reggia style of teaching (a bit like Steiner, Montessori etc). I believe it's really important to stimulate and socialise your children from a young age. I can always 'pick' the kids who've never been anywhere but home, they often seem shyer and less able to share and play comfortably with others, and I think that putting your children somewhere for a healthy amount of hours each week provides excellent balance for both parents and kids.
C4K: What do you think about the child care system in Australia and about the cost implications for working families?
RD: My experience so far is that the childcare system seems very highly regulated -- the rules and regulations for carers are very strict, and I think in this day and age, they need to be. I've never questioned the way fees etc are set-up. I pay a fair bit for the Nursery School my son attends, but it provides such an excellent environment that I believe you get what you pay for. He attends daycare for 1.5 days a week, which only costs me around $64 after government means-tested subsidies...who can complain about that?
C4K: Do you think child care fees are too high for most working mums/families?
RD: I do feel sorry for women who spent so long travelling to work in traffic and then earn such a minimal amount at the end of the day that by the time they've paid back the childcare costs it all hardly seems worth it! My concern probably isn't so much with how much the centres charge, but more with the fact that a long, enjoyable maternity leave still isn't a financially viable option for many families. I always feel very sad when I hear about little babies only a few weeks old being put in long-term care so mum can return to her office chair. The hippy inside me knows those babies need to be 'attachment parenting' with mum for quite a while longer before lengthy separations start -- it's vital for bonding, emotional security and healthy growth.
C4K: I guess working for yourself means that Paid Maternity Leave wasn't exactly an "official" option, but did you take any time out when you had the kids?
RD: I was offered maternity leave from the journalism job I had at the time, but opted to quit entirely and go my own way. So I never took 'maternity leave', but I did get the Baby Bonus, which I was quite happy with!
C4K: What are the pros of working for yourself and running your own business with kids?
RD: It's obviously much harder to drop everything and do something work related when the kids are around. The other day a friend phoned and asked me to quickly whip up a document, attach it in an email and have something printed out. I was thinking, 'I've got two kids running all over the house leaving a trail of mess everywhere and jumping up and down on me, how am I going to steal away and concentrate for a few minutes to get this done?!' But it's amazing what you can achieve and pull out when you need to! I've done psychic readings via phone while breast-feeding, and live radio interviews with two kids occupied in the other room, crossing my fingers they wouldn't come running in yelling "MUMMY MUMMY MUMMY!"
C4K: And what are the cons?!
RD: The stress of all of the above! My daughter is at an awfully clingy stage right now which makes it hard to leave her with carers, but my personal work is pulling at me too -- and after being out of the 'proper' 9-5 career front for so long, I’m really craving being able to sink my teeth back into my own projects properly again.
C4K: How do you bring spirituality into parenting? Any tips for parents?
RD: This is where a mother's intuition is so important and undervalued in our Western society. We tend to hand a lot of our personal power over to doctors in white coats, bossy neighbours, nurses' opinions, parenting manuals, etc etc. At the end of the day, if something isn't quite right with your kids, or you feel something needs to be addressed or changed within your family's health or routines, your heart/gut will be letting you know. Don't lose confidence just because somebody else puts fears or comparisons into your head. Conversely, if you feel that everything's OK, even if other people are trying to scare you with negative stuff or diagnose things that aren't there, be strong - your gut will always tell you what's right for you and your family.
I also think the 'natural wherever possible' approach is important. We don't tend to question things such as the radiation being emitted from antenatal scans, baby monitors, microwaves etc, or the BPA in the plastic bottles we use, the additives, pesticides and carcinogens in many packaged 'baby foods' and 'baby oils', the mercury, detergent and formaldehyde in vaccinations, and so many other environmental pollutants we are literally bombarding our children's immune systems with. The average umbilical cord has over 200 man-made chemicals inside it -- and that's before they're even born! Provide your children with healthy greens, sunshine, love, sleep, lots of mud pies and very little else, and they will absolutely thrive. All the other stuff is hyped-up, fear-based, unnatural and unnecessary marketing!
C4K: Are children really more spiritual than adults?
RD: Very much so. They seem to exist almost solely in the imagination state (Theta brain waves) until puberty...which, interestingly, is the same state many adults need to be re-taught to access later in life when seeking meditation and intuitive skills. There's also much literature and support emerging for the so-called Rainbow, Crystal and New Frequency children, who exhibit some quite astonishing psychic awareness, high EQ and SQ (emotional and spiritual intelligence), allergies and other hyper-sensitivities to the world around them.
C4K: Have you ever been asked by other parents or organisations to give spiritual guidance to young children?
RD: I've talked extensively about the topic of homebirth, which is really just an entry point for me to be able to chat with mums about trusting their own bodies and emotions and losing fears around labour, birth and parenting. Having a baby is a very ancient rite of passage for a female, and one which should be embraced and experienced as fully and trustingly as possible. If there are anxieties, blocks or fears, it becomes a big psychological hurdle which then results in physical hold-ups, complications and other problematic follow-ons that mirror on the outside what you're grappling with on the inside. I could go on... as you see, happy mums and bubs are a very passionate topic for me!
C4K: What's in store for you and Miss Psychette?
RD: To the stars and back! As my children get older and more independent, I look forward to helping more and more people in the community, of all ages, reconnect with their personal power, educate themselves outside of what the media is spoon-feeding them, access their gut-feelings and rediscover nature's cycles, rhythms and beauty.
Find out more about Rebecca at www.rebeccadettman.com.
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