Hi, Lightlike!
I haven't tried to do this for myself but the second time I read publicly (at a charity evening, thank goodness, as the pressure to perform is not so intense!) I asked a young man whether he had a question and he said he wanted a reading from his grandfather as this gentleman had had a very unusual life. As it was the first time anybody had asked this, I was completely thrown and made a bit of a mess of the reading, although the querent confirmed that the cards had come out perfectly - his grandfather had fought in both World Wars (which was my first thought, but I dismissed it on the basis that it was too easy - my own grandfather lived through both) - in particular, he felt the 9 Swords represented the 9 battles his grandfather had fought in. Fortunately I was able to send him on to a medium who was also attending.
In a reading for a friend of a friend who I'd never met before, her mother came through clearly - right down to what I thought they'd put on her grave (the King of Wands' sceptre turned into a flat-backed vase - the sort you'd put on a garden wall perhaps - containing dried flowers). It turned out it went in the coffin with her, but I'll accept that!
I have recently been asked by a friend to see what I can get from a picture of her son. What I didn't know at the time was that he'd died suddenly while still a baby - she's got another son now and it could have been him as she's never mentioned this one. When I saw the picture I was confused - I've never met her child, but I knew it wasn't him. There was something about the frame that was like looking at him in a casket. I also sort of knew immediately it was his heart - almost as if she'd told me. I didn't say anything at all at the time. I sat with the photo and after a while I decided to try with some cards. From the first, I felt compelled to use the Inner Child deck, but as I don't particularly like working with that deck due to the size and the fact that I'm not very keen on the artwork, I made a conscious decision to try one of the others instead, which meant I had to go downstairs. I got to the landing and couldn't get any further! I moved one way, then the other - so in the end I gave in and collected the Inner Child from the next room. I asked "if you could say one thing to your mum, what would it be?". I shuffled as best I could and cut once - out popped the Earth Child. Those of you who have this deck will know that this card features a baby floating in the universe, looking up at the earth. The immediate thing about this for me was the big red heart literally standing out of the baby's chest. My first thought was "some sort of problem with his heart" but then I dismissed this, cos it was so obvious to me. So I put it down to him sending all his love to his parents but also queried whether there was a heart problem. His mum confirmed that she'd always suspected it, but never known for sure.
So yes, I believe it can be done and I hope to concentrate more on this sort of reading as I believe it can be a part of the healing process for the client.