Fresh off shutting down rampant divorce rumors, Michelle Obama says she “fully [believes]” in therapy, both for individuals and couples, and is taking advantage of that as she navigates her life post-White House.
The former first lady recently told Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast why she’s currently in therapy.
“We need to be coached throughout our lives, and I think therapy is a form of coaching. Somebody objective can come in,” said the Becoming author. “Having somebody that has a skillset to help you shape a paradigm, I fully believe in that. I believe in couples therapy. I believe in it all, whatever works for you. And at this phase in my life, I’m in therapy right now. Because I’m transitioning.”
“I’ve finished a really hard thing in my life with my family intact. I’m an empty nester, my girls are in — you know, they’ve been launched,” she added, referring to daughters Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23. “As I’ve said before, every choice I’m [now] making is completely mine. I don’t have the excuse of, ‘Well my kids need this,’ or, ‘My husband needs that,’ or, ‘The country needs that,’ so, how do I think about this next phase? Let me get some help.”
Obama said she entered therapy hoping to “unwind some old habits” and “sort through some old guilt,” again addressing the freedom that has come with no longer being the first lady.
“I’m getting that tune-up for this next phase, because I believe this is a whole other phase in life for me. And I have the wisdom to know, well let me go get some coaching,” she said.
Obama previously discussed her newfound independence on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress podcast, hinting that her choice to skip President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January fueled speculation that she and her husband were splitting up.
“People couldn’t even fathom I was making a choice for myself,” she said of not attending the event with former President Barack Obama. “They had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing, that this couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself.”
In early May, she cleared things up for anyone who still had doubts, telling The Diary of a CEO podcast: “If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it.”
—by Jami Ganz, New York Daily News (TNS)
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