Every medium has a story, This is mine

My name is Bella Silva Cacilhas I’m a psychic, a medium, spiritual teacher, intuitive translator and someone who has been acting as a bridge between worlds for most of my life.

As a child growing up in the small town of Southern Ontario, Canada I always dreamt I had a special power that I was a superhero who could save the world with just my mind, and that because of these abilities, everyone wanted to be my friend.

The reality was a little different and a lot more interesting.

I was the oldest of three children, born to immigrant parents from the island of São Miguel in the Azores. My parents spoke very little English and didn't fully understand Canadian culture so from a young age, I became the family translator. Language, emotions, the awkward conversations no one else wanted to navigate off to the rescue I went. I grew up speaking Portuguese at home, carrying one world inside me while living in another. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was already learning what it means to exist between two places at once.

What I also didn't realize was that being a translator was its own kind of superpower and that someday, I wouldn't just be translating for the living, but for the dead.

My first memory of having something unusual was at the age of three. I didn't like certain people who came into my parents' home. I would hide from them. My mood would visibly change. I'd get stomach aches when specific individuals were around and as a small child, I had no way to explain why. Later, I came to understand this was my intuition, warning me about people my young mind couldn't yet put into words.

I also had a lot of ear infections as a child. Years later, I figured out why,  I was putting my fingers in my ears at night to try and drown out the voices.

Nighttime was the hardest. I know most people think every child is afraid of the dark but for me, the dark was never empty. It was full. The shadows would make themselves known. If I managed to fall asleep, they would wake me up shaking the bed, touching me, pulling at the covers. Some of these spirits didn't realize they were scaring me. They simply knew I could sense them and wanted connection. Others were less kind, and knew that keeping me awake created chaos in the household.

I was fifteen going on sixteen when my grandfather Lionel passed away. He was my paternal grandfather a sweet, protective man who had lived with us when I was very young before moving back to the Azores. I hadn't seen him again until our family visited São Miguel when I was fourteen. I didn't know it would be the last time.

Two days after he passed was my sixteenth birthday. I was sitting on my bed reading when my bedroom door opened slowly. I assumed it was my sister. When I looked up, I saw a shadow standing in the doorway and then I heard my name, in my grandfather's voice. A warm, calm feeling settled over me. Slowly, I began to make out a hat. My grandfather always wore a grey fedora that reminded me of old gangster movies. And then, slowly, he faded away.

I told no one. That night I pulled the covers over my head and eventually fell asleep and he came to me in a dream. He knew I wasn't ready to fully embrace what I was. So he met me where I could be met. Our communication happened in the dream state, gently and safely, and little by little the fear began to loosen its hold.

Around this time, something else began to happen. Strangers would seek me out. It always started the same way I'd say a simple "hello, how are you?" and they would launch into their entire life story. And somehow, at the end of it, they'd ask me a question.

The strange part? I always had the answer. It would just arrive popping into my mind like a short film playing out in seconds. People would leave lighter, smiling, somehow relieved.

Some would ask how old I was. "You're so wise for your age." I quickly realized no one was going to take life-changing guidance from a teenager so I started saying things like "my mom has a friend who went through something similar..." Needless to say, I had a lot of imaginary friends.

Every now and then someone would look at me and ask: "Are you psychic or something?"

And I'd reply: "Or something." because I really didn't know what I was.

By my late twenties I was happily married, on my seventh job, and making myself physically sick from how much I hated it. I took medical leave and during that time I booked a reading with a local psychic who was said to be remarkable. I was looking for career guidance.

He looked at me and said: "You have a gift. It was given to you from God and you shouldn't be afraid of it."

I told him the only gift I knew I had was detecting liars. He nodded. "That's part of it. But you are so much more. You are like me."

"Are you telling me I'm psychic?"

In his thick accent: "Yes. But more."

And so my journey began. A book by Gordon Smith I read it cover to cover and didn't understand a word of it.  YouTube videos started to come accross my feed on what a psychic and medium I started to get goosebumps and realized I was on the right track. I decided to start a binder of notes I still have to this day. And slowly, the most important realization of all there was nothing to be afraid of. Without even knowing it, I had been doing this work my entire life.

Today I work with clients across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and around the world offering readings in both English and Portuguese.

My work takes many forms. Private one-on-one readings allow for deep, personal connection but I also bring spirit to larger audiences through live group readings that have taken me to some remarkable venues. I've read at the Chrysler Theatre in Windsor, Ontario, as well as local restaurants and wineries throughout the region and every single event has sold out.

I've also had the honour of serving as an in-house psychic medium on local radio stations, bringing this work to audiences who may never have considered a reading before and hearing from listeners who felt something shift just from tuning in.

Beyond readings, I'm deeply passionate about education. I teach psychic and mediumship development circles, helping others learn to recognize, understand, and trust the intuitive gifts they were born with because this work was never meant to belong to just a few people.

My readings are rooted in clarity and compassion.  My role isn't to impress it’s to translate. To bring through what's needed with honesty, care, and respect.

I use everything I've lived through the sensitivity, the confusion, the fear to help others feel safe with their own experiences. And I want you to know this: everyone is born with intuition. Every single one of you. We just need to learn to trust it.

I once feared the dark because it felt too full.

Now I help others understand what they're sensing and why.

This work isn't something I chose lightly.

It's something I grew into.

And it's exactly where I'm meant to be.