I have a confession: I am a Scorpio Moon, and it is absolutely no joke. We are known for being deeply intuitive yet emotionally volatile; intense, scrutinising, extreme. I have admittedly, in the past, been strongly tempted to steal to the Yorkshire Moors and wail into the wind – all thanks to my Scorpio Moon. All of this is to say that sometimes, talking therapy doesn’t cut it for my astrological profile. Maybe CBT works for an emotionally-aware Cancer Moon, but therapy is no match for the raging ravines of Scorpio Moon’s resentment.

So, instead I decided to turn to the stars. Astrotherapy is a practice that integrates astrology into therapeutic counselling to help people address their emotional, mental and spiritual challenges. I’m not the only one turning to astrology for guidance: there’s been a huge wave of astrologists on TikTok like @moonpriest and @spiritualweatherman who have garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on the platform for giving star-based advice and guidance. Some are even offering their own astrological reading sessions. Even Dua Lipa admitted she has an astrologist, and not a therapist, to sort her shit out. So why not get some sage advice from the stars?

Before I booked my session, I turned to Glenn Perry to advise me on how to get the best out of astrotherapy. Perry is an astrological therapist from Florida: he’s practised as a licensed psychotherapist since 1979 and was previously a long-time board member of the International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR). Perry firstly tells me that astrological counselling is “not really a form of counselling”, instead framing it as a “diagnostic and prognostic tool”. “But as such,” he says, “it can be utilised in the service of working with virtually any population and any kind of problem.”

Astrotherapy, he adds, “deepens and accelerates the diagnostic process to help you rapidly gain insight into the nature of the problem and what underlies the problem psychologically.” Other therapeutic techniques – whether cognitive, behavioural, psychodynamic etc – can be “enhanced when combined with an astrological lens.” Because of the diagnostic nature of astrotherapy, Perry says sessions shouldn’t last more than a few sessions. “Once you get past that, you’re really just going over the same ground over and over again with the client – that gets into psychotherapy or counselling. And if you’re not trained to do that, you shouldn’t be doing that.”

Armed with this knowledge, I decided to have a session with Lauren Wenzinger. Otherwise known as @thelunarchild on TikTok, she has over 15k followers thanks to her astrology explainer videos. She is also a licensed therapist and studied astrology under Andrea Dupuis, Danielle Paige and Chris Brennon.

According to Wenzinger, astrotherapy “empowers people” unlike other popular therapeutic methods such as CBT. “It’s very structured and I think the human isn’t structured,” she explains. “Sometimes when we’re so focused on evidence-based, structured therapy, we’re taking out the human.” Therapy, she claims, is “70 per cent the relationship with the client – not the evidence, not the tools we’re using” (according to her, that number was “a stat they pushed over and over in grad school”). “When someone feels seen by a therapist, which astrology helps with, people can feel more comfortable.”

To begin my astrotherapy session, she opens by saying: “You have free will. Anything I say, you get to release if you do not agree with. I find that astrology has fate and destiny. Fated events happen to us, destiny, we create. You have your choice to go out and create your own destiny.” Wenzinger then starts with my Scorpio placements, seeing as it’s the sign causing me the most trouble. She explains I have my Scorpio in both my Moon and Mars, creating a ‘conjunct’ relationship. 

“Now Mars is really healthy in Scorpio,” she advises. “You have a lot of passion. You can go into the depths of things and be uncomfortable and explore, but you’re a very private person. If you can find people that you trust, they’re really going to help you move through this energy. But if you don’t find people you trust, you might get stuck because you’re nervous to kind of move through that.” She also suggested that to explore my root issues with trust, I should look to my relationship with my mother, as the moon “tells you your mother’s lineage and how she was as a parent”. “Scorpio Moons are a little bit more difficult with moms at times because they can be very intense,” she adds. “Was your mom an intense mom?” 

My mum is very lovely, but she’s also a Scorpio Sun, so… I guess? We then touch on some other aspects of my charts: my tactless Aries Mercury (“Breathe before you speak” – valid), my Venus in 12th house (“Working to compromise will be helpful for you” – fuck that), and my Saturn-Sun square (“Make sure work’s not taking over you” – as a freelance journalist? HA!).

But I still couldn’t help feeling like this was general life advice anyone else could have been given. I asked Wenzinger: how much of this is astrology, really? “For me, it’s all astrology because I’m reading your chart,” she responded. “So I have an Aries seventh house. I need someone [in a romantic relationship] who’s very independent to be vulnerable. You need someone who’s stable, you need someone who’s going to connect with your values.”

I’m not sure whether I felt particularly enlightened by my session. Though Perry did warn that astrotherapy was more diagnostic across the board, the session focused so much on my chart that there was little room for self-exploration. Maybe I would need to embark on more sessions to really experience the therapeutic value of astrological counselling. Even then, the astrological interpretations were quite broad (it also doesn’t help that I’m obsessed with astrology and knew a lot of my placements beforehand). Perhaps this would benefit someone with little knowledge of the practice and how it applies to their life. But hey: an astrotherapist might tell me “you’re talking out Uranus (in Aquarius)”.