In an interview the actress and entrepreneur, 42, spoke in detail about how she uses the sessions to understand and sort through difficult feelings, as well as seek to become a kinder and more patient person.
“I’m only going to feel better when I face the things that feel like barriers to joy,” she told Real Simple. “The more mature I’ve gotten, the more I’ve tried to make space for my feelings.”
The founder of the Honest Company, that creates clean baby and beauty products, says therapy helps unearths the ‘things that aren’t feeling the best or might be confusing’. She explained unpacking those feelings helps identify good behaviours and address those that aren’t useful.
“I go to therapy so I can be kinder toward people I don’t always agree with, because I want to be happy,” she says. “I still want to coexist, and I don’t want to live angry, irritated, or upset with people who don’t think like me. I want to be able to live in harmony with all.”
Alba is mother to daughters Honor, 15 Haven, 12, and son Hayes, 6, with husband Cash Warren, whom she married in 2008.
She shared how she began attending therapy sessions with her daughter Honor when her eldest child was a pre-teen and the two were arguing “all the time about dumb stuff.” She says the process helped her better understand Honor’s perspective.
“I was like, I don’t want to live like this,” the actress explained. “This is not fun. I didn’t want us to have a wedge between us. As her mother, when I say something, she’s going to hear it as an argument or as me trying to control her. I wanted there to be someone who could explain things in a way I couldn’t. What I said to Honor was, “I want to be a better parent to you, and this is your forum to basically talk about everything that gets on your nerves that I do.”
The star says it also helped her take another look at her parenting.
“It put me in check. Like, “Yeah, I totally do that. And I’m sorry. I’m going to work on that.”
The star recently told People, she no longer attends therapy alongside her two daughters, but that they attend sessions on their own.
“They’re at the age where their therapy is more individual, but it’s given them, I think, a language where they can communicate with me their needs differently,” Alba said.
