'Fantastic Four' actress Jessica Alba has appeared on the cover of REAL SIMPLE's inaugral 'Feelings Issue.' The actress-entrepreneuer also opened up about how she and her two daughters decided to take therapy.
The mom of three has always been vocal about mental health; hers and others. She believes that therapy "gets you talking about what’s going on with you and unearths the things that aren’t feeling the best or might be confusing, or things that make you happy."
She went on ton recall why she started therapy. "Honor was probably 11, and we were arguing all the time about dumb stuff. And I was like, 'I don’t want to live like this. This is not fun.'"
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She went on to say that she didn't want any misunderstandings or differences between them. "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," Alba continues, adding, "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.'"
Before long, both Jessica and Honor began to grasp the benefits of therapy for their situation. "It put me in check. Like, ‘Yeah, I totally do that. And I’m sorry. I’m going to work on that.’ It gave her a little bit of perspective too—that I’m not the bad guy; I’m just being a parent," the 42-year-old actress shares.
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"She'll come out the other side of it, and I’ll still be here. I just wanted to get to that point, and it worked," she admits.
She reveals that their therapist made her see that "it's natural for kids to disagree with their parents and as a parent, it's not always about being right or rational in that moment."
"I'm not gonna front, it's a process and I'm not perfect," she realizes.
