She continued, “I was in a vulnerable place of like, ‘I don’t have anything to protect myself, I am completely raw, so maybe I can hear you more now, and even though I didn’t think that you were understanding at the time, maybe you are, and I can actually receive it now because my guard is down and my heart is open.’ And so that’s what when we really went through more of our healing and communication as adults.”
The Safe Haven star also reflected on the process of losing her power through these experiences, and then reclaiming her voice.
“I think being so young,” she began, “and those being your first experiences—whether it be physical, mental, sexual—those abuses of power to someone who is vulnerable to it, it immediately sets a precedent of, ‘Other people have the power.’”
She explained how, in turn, she built up “layers of protection” around herself, but noted, “As you build layers, you get further and further away from your authentic truth and yourself. And so that’s been the delayering of just really trying to understand like, ‘What is my voice?’”
