A psychic who claims she can connect with loved ones and pets, dead or alive, has said “miracles happen” when people communicate through love.

Susan Allen, 60, who lives in Los Angeles, said she was born with a gift which meant she could communicate with animals, including dogs, cats and horses, as early as two years old.

She explained that she felt “very sensitive” around animals and she remembers having a deep connection with a stray cat which came into her garden in Brooklyn when she was five.

Susan studied mediumship and mysticism in her late teens, and said that in her 20s she had a life-changing, spiritual experience when her recently deceased mother “saved (her) life from the other side” by telling her to go to hospital, as Susan unknowingly had an ectopic pregnancy and internal bleeding.

It was not until her early 40s that Susan truly embraced her gift and started to use it to help other people to connect with loved ones who had died.

Now describing herself as an evidential psychic medium, animal communicator and healer, she has more than 32,000 followers on Instagram.

“I didn’t believe it because I was born this way; I didn’t really quite believe it,” Susan said.

“I’d have conversations with animals as early as two, three, four – it was a way for me to feel better and calm myself because I was a very nervous, empathetic, high-feeling kid.”

Susan explained she “felt more comfortable with pets” in her younger years and would communicate with animals through love, prayer and meditation, adding that when she started to do pet readings, “very subtle things would come in about dead people” as well.

She said these messages were “so wonderful and subtle” and this enabled her to recognise she could connect with animals and humans at their soul level.

Susan says “everybody has this ability” but they need to open their hearts.

“The most powerful emotion (is) the language of love, and that really is what connects us to the spirit world – joy, love and wonder,” she explained.

“Most of us are in reality, (we’re) in that 3D world, but if you can suspend disbelief and go into your soul and into your heart… miracles happen.

“The heart is the essence of the light and who you are, and it is what connects you to your deceased loved ones that are in spirit.

“When you love them so much, it is that energy that connects you – it’s the most powerful (emotion) and even trumps fear and anger; it will crush everything in you.

“The love, it will crush all the negatives.”

Susan said the strength of love led to her having a life-changing experience when she was 26 – six months after the death of her mother, Theresa, who she was very close to.

Susan said she was extremely unwell after her mother’s death, and as she started to fall asleep after taking some painkillers one day, she heard Theresa screaming loudly, saying: “Get to the emergency room, get to the ER.”

After going to hospital, Susan said she later discovered she had an ectopic pregnancy, which caused internal bleeding, and she was “close to death”.

She continued: “(The doctors) gave me my last rites, there was a meeting internally, and I felt cold, and they had it right. (My mum) saved my life from the other side.

“She was really there for me, but it never registered. I just thought it was a one-shot thing.

“I ploughed through life with other things, like we all do – we’re working, we’re trying to pay our rent – and it wasn’t until I moved to California from New York… (that I started helping people).”

Susan had various jobs after this, including modelling for Ford and working in property and as an art dealer, but she continued to read spiritual content and expand her knowledge.

She started working with horses in Malibu in her early 30s – massaging, feeding and brushing them – and said this “really helped (her) heal”.

She explained she developed a strong connection with one horse called Leo, who “started to tell (her) things”, including how he did not want to work any more, his back legs were hurting, and he was in pain.

Susan said Leo taught her how to heal and, after noticing the power of her abilities and how she could help people, she took animal communication classes and “something switched in (her)”.

This led to her starting her business in her early 40s, now called Susan Allen Medium, and she says she has helped countless clients around the world connect with loved ones and pets.

“The most amazing gift is helping somebody else heal and teaching them and being a mentor,” Susan explained.

“That’s really been profoundly healing for me.”

Susan said it is too difficult to recall all the readings she has done, but she vividly remembers one session with a woman where the topic of “fruitcakes” came up.

She said: “I did a reading last Christmas. It was on the phone, it wasn’t on Zoom, and I said, ‘your mum’s here and she’s talking about fruitcakes’. Dead silence.

“I can’t see her crying, but then she starts laughing.

“I’m in a mystic state… and she goes, ‘I have to tell you what happened’.

“She said, ‘My mother was known for her fruitcakes… we were in my mother’s basement and we pulled a fruitcake out of the freezer – it had to be 30 years old, and it still tasted good’.

“And that’s what she was laughing about, and that was wonderful.”

Susan recalls another experience when she held a group video call, and one young boy waited until the end of the session to ask her for a message from his grandfather.

She said she correctly named the boy’s great-grandfather, but the boy, who was joined by his mum on the call, stressed he “just needed a message from” his grandfather, as he was being bullied at school.

She had to pause for a few minutes, but then a clear picture formed in her mind.

She said: “The grandfather showed me he was on a pitcher’s mound, throwing a baseball… and the mum cried and said, ‘My dad was a semi-professional baseball player’.

“Then the little boy goes, ‘What is my grandpa saying about bullying?’, and I said, in the grandfather’s tone, ‘pop ‘em one’, and the mum cried and said, ‘That’s exactly what my dad would say’.”

Susan said it has been amazing to see other people grow and heal through her work, and she is grateful for the positive feedback and testimonials from her clients.

While some people may be sceptical of her work, she said she does not care as she is doing what “(she) was born to do”.

“I’m not here to prove anything to anybody,” Susan said.

“I’m doing what I love to do, what I feel I was born to do, (even though) it took me forever to figure out.

“To trust myself enough to help people and do this, I call myself a medium.”

To find out more about Susan and her work, visit: www.susanallenmedium.com.