Email-Based Guidance: Explained

Michelle Brady
May 11
8 min read

Tiles that spell out "today is your day" in front of a pink background

What is email-based guidance?

The term "email-based" is self-explanatory, but what does "guidance" mean?

Guidance means being guided towards a goal. It's a term that implies interaction and participation between client and guide.

Visualize this: You are navigating your life path. Every day, you face obstacles and crossroads that affect your emotions, thoughts, beliefs, values, choices, and behaviors that, ultimately, mold your identity and direction.

I am the person standing by your side when you feel lost, confused, or powerless.

I'm asking you questions that induce deep reflection into your needs and wants. I offer insights, ideas, and wisdom from my own lived experience mixed with intuition and psychological and trauma-informed knowledge. I bring to light new perspectives, thought processes, habits, patterns, and healing practices that align with your specific life goals. I ground your focus back onto you when the noise of the world freezes you into non-action. I offer reassurance and validation when your ego scares you into remaining within your comfort zone. I offer a safe space for truth without judgment or consequence, and I offer real-life application practices that naturally flow with your reality.

Guidance is different from coaching and therapy. You're the leader of your own path. I shine a light in the darkness where you need it.

Guidance gives you the space to think for yourself, make your own choices, and try practices that fit within your natural flow and benefit your personal growth. It strengthens your intuition and self-awareness to be able to see your own patterns and come to your own conclusions. It empowers you to change your life on your terms instead of following someone else's outdated step-by-step that leaves you feeling like a lost cause.

What makes me a guide?

I don't position myself as a guru, teacher, or expert who tells you what to do and how to do it.

I understand that everyone's path is different and personal. What worked for me may not work for you. The beauty of my guidance is that it goes deeper than what I did to heal into the psychological aspects, the reasons for, the patterns, the inner child's crucial part in our growth, our ego's role, and more. For example, playing phone games on my phone kept me off cigarettes most of the time because I needed the distraction, but for you, it may mean physical activity or creativity.

As a guide, I cannot diagnose mental health disorders. I can help you understand your diagnosis, such as the symptoms and possible causes you may be experiencing, through a trauma-informed lens, although I don't like getting caught up in labels. In my practice, I focus on cause -> symptom -> long-term solution.

While I cannot prescribe medication or encourage drug use, I am not opposed to exploring your interests, your reasons, their benefits and hindrances.

Guidance is subject to your inner work. That means I cannot guarantee or promise tangible results or quick fixes. The goal is long-term, sustainable change compared to short-term, temporary band-aid solutions, like medication.

Let me explain this perspective.

In my own healing, I have taken medication, but all it did was suppress my symptoms (so that I could function), making me dependent on a drug to live. It did not help me understand, heal, or grow. I did that. Despite my perspective, I do not judge or shame anyone for their choices. Healing is hard enough.

You may wake up one day and realize, "Hmm. I don't need medication anymore," as your self-awareness, knowledge, prevention and regulation skills replace it. If not, that's okay too.

The whole point of healing is for YOU to LEAD your life in alignment. It doesn't really matter how it all happens, as long as it is aligned with your truth.

Guidance reflects a mirror that requires truth, accountability, an open mind, and trust in the process.

I say trust because progress on your healing path is subtle. It hides in tiny moments, like finally setting a boundary with your mom, or telling your husband how you feel with confidence instead of fear, or making time for rest as a mom yourself, despite the intrusive thoughts and discomfort. You find yourself stopping and thinking, "Oh! Oh! I did it!" That pride and empowered feeling is like nothing else.

Why do I guide instead of coaching or becoming a therapist?

I choose to guide because it restores your inner power instead of creating a dependent link to me.

I choose to guide others to self-empowerment because I felt powerless and alone, too. I have explored therapy options and textbook healing practices, only to be left frustrated when they didn't help. And let's not forget that I was on welfare and couldn't really afford to explore beyond my means. So, I took healing into my own hands, and I realized that;

Nobody knows you better than you do
Nobody can do the work for you
Nobody can save you from your own shit
Healing isn't linear, and it's forever
There is more than one way to heal, and your way is best
Knowledge and self-awareness are power
It was difficult to be truthful with strangers with whom I felt unsafe
I needed to personalize my healing

My approach

My approach is gentle but firm, honest, compassionate, judgment-free, trauma-informed, and personalized.

I include you in the process. It's a discussion where your feelings, your thoughts, your reasons for doing things, your pain, and your needs matter.

I validate your truth, but I will call you out on toxic shit.

In my approach, I am caring, but I don't enable.

I am a survivor, like you. I didn't get a degree in psychology; instead, I lived in the deep well of blackness in depression and faced my "life or death" fears of anxiety. I walked through the fire and rose like a Phoenix. I am not an "expert," and I don't know better, but I do know toxic when I see it, and healing is on the other side. My goal is to get you to the other side.

We all have the freedom of choice; be ready for the result.

I offer a space (figuratively) to consider all viable options, to be vulnerable, to be honest with yourself, and to explore different paths to empowerment and alignment.

Why email-based?

My service is email-based instead of call or in-person sessions for the following reasons;

This format aligns with my truth: my energy capacity, my time availability, and my need to articulate without losing focus. I am a writer before a speaker.
It allows me to be available to a larger audience.
It gives you the option of remaining anonymous, facilitating you to be honest without fear of judgment or consequence.
It allows my clients to get help from the comfort of their home, without direct interaction.

Won't it feel impersonal or make it difficult to understand tone and intention?

No.

In my writing, I offer multiple explanations, multiple angles in understanding my intentions and meanings, metaphorical and visual language, deep honesty, and I don't hold back emotionally. I have been told multiple times that my writing is felt, not read. But just in case, I do offer one FREE clarification email for each paid session.

What makes me stand out?

First and foremost, I am human first. Yes, I charge for my sessions, but empowering you is the first reason why I do what I do. I didn't go to school, read books, or pass tests. My wisdom is lived-in.

As someone who has suffered and healed herself, I have learned a lot that I couldn't have learned in depth if I had studied psychology or mental health, whilst there's a lot I don't know based on the same reason, like the clinical lingo or definitions of disorders.

If I ever come across a subject outside of my limitations, I won't play with you about my abilities, but I can help you explore other resources.

I have heard stories of people reaching out to therapists and hospitals only to have them reject them, saying that they cannot be helped. I will try everything in my power to find answers for you.

But sometimes, there are no answers. No cures. No miracles. Just radical acceptance and management practices. Does it suck? Absolutely, but your healing and new path are waiting for you on the other side of acceptance.

I know what it's like to feel like a lost cause. Feel the grief of who you used to be or who you never got to be. To want something you cannot have. To eliminate the scars as if they never happened.

I possess natural abilities that help me:

See emotional, behavioral, and identity-based patterns
Understand the underlying reasons for certain behaviors, thoughts, and choices
Name the real emotion underneath the surface
Understand the nervous system: survival mode, dissociation, burnout, and chronic exhaustion

My insights are deeply ingrained in what I have experienced or witnessed others experience.

What do I specialize in?

As your guide, I redirect and rewrite your intrusive thoughts, false beliefs, and self-talk.

Through self-awareness and behavioral knowledge, I understand the manipulation and projection of one's own pain in relationship dynamics.

I understand shame and move the spotlight onto what deserves it, removing the burdens and responsibilities that don't belong to you.

As an ex-people-pleaser, I understand the silence and avoiding confrontations or discomfort in facing other people, but I also know how crucial it is to set boundaries and protect your energy.

I give or simplify language in a way that helps you understand what you are experiencing.

My intuition plays a big role in how I guide. I am often able to read between the lines and see truths that people don't name. I can often tell when someone is not being truthful or sugarcoating it.

Last but not least, I dive into your ocean and work with you to find the root causes that keep you underwater, whether they hide in your childhood years, generational attachments, or your own ego. Healing is deep work; it doesn't float on the surface. As long as the cause exists, the wound remains open, and no amount of healing practices can be sustainable long-term. The goal is to sever, heal, or rewrite the causes of the trauma, so that your wounds turn into scars that become manageable.

Some scars disappear, some remain visible with thick scar tissue, but both free you from the constant pain of the fresh wound.

What doesn't make the cut in my practice?

As a truth-seeker, I don't mess with manipulation, toxic thought processes, behaviors, and practices, spiritual bypassing, victim mentality, ignorance, generic, unhelpful advice, step-by-step plans, or band-aid fixes.

The inner work that we do is real, difficult, and draining. Old me would say it was downright torturous. I mean, how are we supposed to heal the past while navigating the present? One day at a time.

The guidance I offer is a lifelong commitment to yourself, and my only goal is for you to eventually not need me or anyone else to lead your life and own your path.

What outcomes would you get from this service?

I can equip you with the tools, but I cannot use them for you.

The results of these sessions depend on the work you do. Some outcomes are quick, and some are slow. Some are subtle, and some are obvious. It's kind of like building a business. You have to put in the work every day regardless, and one day you'll look around and realize that you're standing in a new world that YOU built.

I don't promise things like, "Follow these 5 rules to empowerment," or "Do this for a week and change your life!"

That's not how healing works.

It takes time, accountability, the ability and willingness to change the status quo, no matter how loud the inside noise becomes. You are directly responsible for the outcomes of these sessions.

If you do the work necessary, you could experience;

Clarity
Self-awareness
Knowledge and understanding of your traumas, patterns, and psychology (mental and behavioral)
New ways of thinking
New values
Self-respect
New habits
Sense of self-worth
Self-compassion
Self-love
Accountability
Emotional intelligence and regulation
Grounded conflict-solving
Self-trust
New sense of self
Self-validation