Jessica Alba has spoken openly about why she is no longer attending therapy with her daughters.
At the BabyList Showroom in Beverly Hills, the Honest Company co-founder got candid about her daughters Honor Marie, 15, and Haven Garner, 12, beginning to go to therapy without her present as they had in the past. “We’re not doing it together anymore,” Alba explained to People. “They’re doing it on their own. They’re older now.”
However, the Fantastic Four alum took the opportunity to stress the importance of “tearing down whatever sort of stereotypes or stigmas that may be attached” to therapy and promoting mental health awareness from a young age.
“Especially if you didn’t grow up culturally with [therapy], I’m Mexican American, and we really didn’t grow up with that,” Alba added. “And it was always kind of looked at like there’s something wrong with you, or you don’t want to tell people that you go to a therapist.”
She continued, “But just being more connected and self-aware of where you’re at emotionally so that you can thrive. Who doesn’t want that? And to be able to show up for your kids and for yourself, I think that is important.”
The previous month Alba told People that her daughters were learning how to effectively communicate their feelings through their therapy sessions. “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,” the actor said.
“It’s so nice to be able to give them the tools to be able to understand themselves better and to be able to really articulate their needs,” she continued. “But when they were like ... nine, 10, 11, it was different. They didn’t have the same kind of agency that they have now.”
“So now they’re like: ‘Mom, I want to be able to talk to my therapist and you not always listen in,’” the Honey actor remarked. Alba shares daughters, Honor and Haven, along with five-year-old son Hayes, with longtime husband Cash Warren.
Alba first shared that she was attending therapy sessions with her daughter Honor on an episode of Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt‘s Instagram series Before, During & After Baby in July 2021. The following year, Alba revealed that Haven was joining in on the mother-daughter therapy sessions as well in Glamour UK‘s July/August 2022 digital issue.
“I went with both of them. And around puberty is when it’s the time I think, for me, with my girls,” she shared with the outlet. “That’s when they started to sort of shut down and get really like: ‘I don’t want to talk anymore.’ And I’m like: ‘We’re not doing this. We’ve got to keep a line of communication here. How can I be a better parent to you? How do you want me to talk to you? Don’t shut me out.’”
“Like my 13-year-old, I’m struggling with not treating her like a little [kid] – I want to treat them all like babies. I want to baby them,” Alba added, acknowledging that she’s been having trouble letting go as her daughter is on the cusp of being a teenager. So far, she’s found therapy to be a healthy way for Honor and Haven to voice their concerns and process their issues.
