Selena Gomez Explains Why She’s a “Believer of Therapy”

Selena Gomez is on a slow roll back into the spotlight, after a surprise appearance during Coachella, and rumblings of a Cannes appearance thanks to her role in the upcoming Jim Jarmusch film The Dead Don’t Die.

She’s also taken on the role of podcast guest, for Coach‘s new podcast series called Dream It Real. Gomez spoke to host Heben Nigatu about authenticity, her early exposure to fame, what she learned from being a Disney kid, and why she is a “believer” in going to therapy.

“[Therapy is] amazing. It’s just hard,” she said. “One of my friends asked, you know, I want to start going to therapy, [and I said,] ‘It’s good, just tell me how your first experience goes.’ And she’s like, ‘I don’t really know, and I just didn’t really like it.’ And I said to her, ‘You have to just give it a month because you can’t go in and do that, and it’s hard for people to open up,'” Gomez continued, before adding, “But I think that it’s just one of the most important things to get to know yourself. Not saying everyone in the world has to do it…but I do think that it’s helped me understand myself and my childhood a lot better.”

Gomez also took a minute to explain why she’s been off-and-on with Instagram. “It is not that healthy to be on it all the time because I noticed with me, I got kind of depressed looking at these people who look beautiful and amazing, and it would just get me down a lot so I just think taking breaks is really important,” she said. “But just know that most of it isn’t real. And I hate to say that, I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s very unrealistic in a lot of ways, and I think that for me, I want to protect the youngest generation because they are exposed to so much information, and I feel like that causes a lot of anxiety at the youngest age. Like, I didn’t grow up with that. I had dial-up Internet. I think that sometimes people are exposed to too much, and you should really protect what you’re seeing and be mindful, be really mindful of how it makes you feel.”

Later on this season, Coach will interview various celebrity guests including Michael B. Jordan, Maisie Williams, and Ben Platt. But for the inaugural episode, Gomez kicked things off with a very candid conversation. “I don’t want to be anything that’s a show or a persona,” she told the host when asked about her own definition of authenticity, and while she admitted that Disney “taught [her] so much about being a role model,” the singer did also say that fame had taken a toll on her perception and self-confidence, especially when it came to looking at pictures and only seeing the “flaws.” She found herself reeling from all of the pressure that comes from being one of the most-followed people on social media, and recently had to take a moment to recover from hospitalization after a reported emotional breakdown last fall.

It is rare for Gomez to give updates on her upcoming album, but she did also reveal that she is working on it, sans collaborations. “Every song is a story I’ve experienced,” she said. “To that point, I think there’s no one who’s going to tell my story better than myself. I just really wanted to kind of just live with my story a bit and create it into something that means a lot to me.”

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