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The Honest Company co-founder said, "I don’t want to live like this. This is not fun. I didn’t want us to have a wedge between us..."
Jessica Alba has opened up about her journey to therapy for herself, plus sessions together with her two daughters - Honor, 15 and Haven, 12. The 42-year-old actress, co-founder of Honest Company and mom of three appeared on the cover of REAL SIMPLE where she revealed the incident that led her to make the decision for her family.
"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," the entrepreneur shared.
"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.'
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Alba says it didn't take long for both her and Honor to feel their therapy sessions working for their relationship.
"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. 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."
Alba says her therapist allowed her to 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 told the publication.
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Alba emphasizes how she is a strong advocate for therapy saying it is, "such a valuable tool to help you process your feelings."
"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. And just unpacking it allows you to process it, and then you can repeat good behavior and find the behaviors you want to redirect."
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Along with daughters Honor and Haven, Alba also shares a son Hayes, 6 with 44-year-old husband Cash Warren. Ahead of his birth, Alba revealed why she had been hoping for a boy.
"For me the girls love their dad. I wanted someone to love me more," she joked on The Rachael Ray Show in 2017. "When he comes home, they're like, 'Daddy!' It's like a party."
The family recently celebrated the youngest of the pack's 6th birthday with a party at Disneyland.
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