Khloé Kardashian is giving therapy another try, thanks to some encouragement from her older sister, Kim Kardashian.
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If you’ve followed the Kardashians for a long time, you’ll know that Khloé has been through a lot — from the death of her father when she was 19 to a string of public cheating scandals in her 30s.
Nbc / Weiss Eubanks / NBCUniversal via Getty ImagesIn recent years, Khloé has talked openly about the severe anxiety she faces as a result of her trauma, and her friends and family have often encouraged her to seek therapy. However, this is something she has not pursued — until now.
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Speaking to Bustle for a brand new interview, Khloé revealed that she’s getting therapy again, and said that one of the main reasons she didn’t start sooner was because she was betrayed by a therapist during her divorce from Lamar Odom, from whom she first split in 2013.
Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images“I remember I was going to therapy and the next thing I knew, something private I told my therapist was on a tabloid,” she told the outlet. “And I knew that my therapist disclosed this information to a tabloid because there’s no way this could have gotten out there.”
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She added: “It was very jarring and sort of unbelievable, but there’s not a chance in the world that it came from anywhere else.”
Khloé said that this prompted her to stop getting therapy immediately and instead use exercise as an emotional outlet. “I needed a release, but I did not trust anybody else anymore,” she recalled. “And the place that I felt the safest was the gym.”
Sean Zanni / Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesAt this point in the interview, the reporter mentioned that Khloé had previously said on The Kardashians that therapy wasn’t something she felt comfortable taking part in. This prompted the mom of two to reveal that her stance has now changed.
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“I do go to therapy now. I started when I was 39,” the now-40-year-old said, adding that she is seeing the same therapist as her sister Kim — who, in the past, was equally reluctant to discuss her trauma.
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“She’s really lovely and I really like her,” Khloé said of the therapist, revealing that she’s grateful she changed her mind about getting help — even if it may have taken a bit of persuading from her sister.
“Kim was really adamant. I was like, ‘I’ll do this for you,’” Khloé recalled. “I dragged my feet, and then I was like, ‘Wow, OK, this is good. I needed this.’ And my therapist was like, ‘I think you should come three days a week.’ She was like, ‘You really need to be here.’ It all worked out.”
Notably, Kim has had a similarly successful therapy journey despite her past reluctance to pursue that path. Earlier this year on The Kardashians, the Skims founder told Khloé that her therapy sessions helped her to understand how her 2016 robbery in Paris impacted the way she now manages stress.
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“I met with a therapist again… She was like, You think calm is your superpower. I think you are so desensitized from trauma that you literally are frozen in fight or flight,” Kim said. “Then she was like, One time in life, something happened, and you remained calm, and that worked for you, so you will always choose calm.”
“Imagine you’re like, gun to your head, getting tied up, dragged across a hotel room, and the guy, I remember him telling me, stay calm and you’ll live…I did that, and it served me well at that time. I think it saved my life,” she continued, recalling the traumatic incident. “But I think I’ve let it get too calm to [the point] where people could take advantage of my calmness. Or I’m just turning into a full robot with no emotion.”
