Worried about a good friend - advice please!

A good friend of mine was devastated when she lost her father to dementia about 2 and a half years ago. Thankfully he didn't suffer long as was able to be cared for at home by my friend's mother. She has always had a good relationship with her father and I know it broke her heart to see him become an empty shell of the man he was so to speak. Recently, well over the past year really she has decided to try and raise money for alzheimers and has taken part in a few charity events which I think its marvellous, however what worries me, is the money she is spending on psychics in the hope that he will "come through"

The first reading she had she told me that the woman was "brilliant"...but when I asked her what she revealed, the only concrete thing she could come out with was that her brother and his wife are having their house decorated!!!! Now why on earth, my friends would you part with x amount of £'s to be told information like that?, and tbh "what the hell does that have to do with the price of chips!" Apparantely the psychic had bandied around a few names (All common names amongst people of our particular age group) The name Sandra came up, my friend said she didn't really know anyone with that name, but was told that in two years time this name would play a big part in her life! - Really!!!!! Also that her estranged sons would contact her in 2 or 3 years time. I'm not sure how she arrived at the fact that she does have estranged sons but I'm pretty sure that my friend fed her the info as opposed to being the other way around!

This "brilliant" psychic has since held tarot/psychic reading parties in her house, I made an excuse not to go, she's paid out to see a psychic show (thankfully she though that was a load of rubbish) and then revisited the first psychic in her office again. This time though she was as pleased as punch because "her dad came through". She was told that "he is watching over her, always with her etc, and quite randomly will be going on the holiday she's having with the girls in 2015! She told me how the psychic knew her father's name, and how she'd been raising money for charity - call me cynical but all this info is on her Facebook page to which psychic lady has access (she's listed as a "friend!")! Now as much as I think this is a load of old cr*p, I'm thinking, hey, this has actually made her feel happy and if she's found some inner peace through it all, then who am I to say anything. Then she announced that's she's having another "party" in the new year!!!!!

I find it upsetting to see such a good friend being taken in by all this, and what she think's she'll achieve from it either - I wish she could find inner peace some other way.....what would you do if this was your friend?

Oh dear your friend is going through a bad patch. Are you worried about how much she is spending on the sessions with the psychic or on her behaviour?
If it is the first, suggest she limit the number of sessions. If you are concerned about her behaviour and you live close to her, you could arrange some things to do with her. She us probably lonely.
My OH has gone away until next summer. I have joined a website called 'Meet up.com'. It has groups with local activities. I have joined a few as I work from home and do not know many people locally. Done some fun things with them. The groups vary some are a bit clicky others more friendly. Suggest you and she go to one of the meetups. My friends are scattered far and wide.

She works full time and has a lot of friends, her "situation" isn't ideal as in she's with a partner that her sons don't approve of hence the estrangement, but the trouble is, is that she knows she's not really in love with the guy and isn't happy in her relationship (believe me, it's complicated). She works full time and isn't short of a social life. I do wonder whether if everything was rosier in her day to day life then she wouldn't be so absorbed with the loss of her dad - Although the money raising part is really positive. I'm not too worried about the money she's spending as she's fairly comfortably off, but this could become an issue I guess, however, I hate to see her throwing her money she's worked so hard for on a charlatan who's pretending to be her friend! I just think she's really unhappy and I don't think this psychic thing is helping her come to terms with her loss and helping her move on with her life. Her partner is not much comfort he is from a different cultural background and one would suspect through meeting him that that he has a degree of Aspergers.

The more I think about this, as a friend, the best thing I can do is just "be there for her", be sympathetic and hope that she can find the strength within herself to sort out the difficult situations in her life, after all no one can make decisions for you. I've got to thinking that if other parts of her life were better then perhaps she wouldn't concentrate so much on the bereavement she suffered when her dad passed.

I think you're right about being there for her, at some point in the future reality will strike; either the grief will catch up with her, or she'll beat herself up for having fallen for the utter bollox and paid out money for it.