Theresa Caputo’s not here to argue with anyone who baulks at her job description.

In fact, the Long Island Medium star says she can one-up her sceptics.

“I am the first one to say that what I do is crazy, how can someone communicate with someone that has died?” says the self-professed medium, with a throaty laugh down the line from her home in Hicksville, New York.

With her big, blonde coif and even bigger nails, Caputo has an air of Jennifer Aniston—if, say, she was in character as a medium from the Long Island ‘burbs.

But the petite, Louboutin-loving 50-year-old is no scripted creation. For the last seven years, the author and mother-of-two has amassed a huge following on the popular Long Island Medium (which returned to Foxtel’s TLC Channel on August 20).

The reality show depicts her day-to-day life doing readings – connecting bereaved everyday folks and celebrities with their late loved ones, that is.

Caputo claims the dead have a lot to teach us about living. “The main message they want to convey is that they live life through our eyes,” she says.

“They talk about things that have happened since they died, so that we know they’re not missing out, that they are experiencing these things with us.”

It follows, adds Caputo, that they want us to be happier by shaking off any guilt to do with unfinished business that we might be carrying.

“If you’re busy beating yourself up with how things were in the end—that you shoulda, coulda, woulda—how are you going to celebrate who they were?” she says.

“Their life here in the physical world, what they meant to you, to the community, to the family, all of the positive things that they did?”

On a new #LongIslandMedium, @Theresacaputo uses her gift to heal those who lost loved ones to bullying. Grab the tissues, because it all starts right now on TLC. pic.twitter.com/XQrjpMzzuB

— TLC Network (@TLC) April 16, 2018

It’s known as “a gift,” but Caputo, who’s Roman Catholic, says being a medium was anything but in the early years.

“It wasn’t until my twenties that I discovered that this was my soul’s journey here … and it took me a long time to accept that,” says the psychic, who was four when she says her dead great-grandmother began appearing at the end of her bed.

“These messages are important; they restore people’s faith, in themselves, in relationships, in knowing that there truly is more to life.”

The lessons, she says, aren’t just for her clients.

“I’ve learned so many things through my work. I’ve learned compassion, I’ve learned not to be afraid of death,” says Caputo, who doesn’t shy away from depicting personal battles on her show, including marriage and health struggles. “You can’t have any regrets in life.”

Caputo maintains that those messages stand up for themselves, though the sceptics will scoff. “Everyone has a right to their own opinions and I respect it,” she says.

“People don’t have to believe in mediums, that is not why I do what I do. Whether you believe in what I do or not, it helps people. Why would someone want to take that away from somebody?”

Long Island Medium screens on Foxtel’s TLC Channel.