The Bachelorette alum DeAnna Pappas has revealed that she visited a "trauma center" and underwent intensive therapy when her marriage to Stephen Stagliano was falling apart.
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The Bachelorette's Season 4 star revealed that she sought therapy from a trauma center in California just one month before she and Stephen's divorce made headlines during the July 19 episode of fellow The Bachelor alum Courtney Robertson's "After Reality" podcast.
"I went to a trauma center back in December and I went three days a week for three hours -- intensive therapy," DeAnna told Courtney, 40.
"[It was] the best thing I could have done for myself. I found it astounding and life-changing. If I could have afforded to go for another month, I would have because I found it astounding and the things that I learned about myself and my marriage."
Now that DeAnna and Stephen are going through a divorce, she continues to go to therapy to help her navigate complex emotions and situations.
DeAnna said the therapy has improved her communication skills, and communication is something she and Stephen "always had a really difficult time" with.
"Just [going through a divorce] alone is very traumatic -- to take a relationship with someone that you loved so deeply and to literally break into two families, it's really, really awful," DeAnna explained.
"Stephen is a wonderful dad and we're trying very hard to be amicable, great coparents, but even with that, that is still hard... We're doing our best to be kind to one another."
DeAnna and Stephen announced their engagement in August 2010. They got married in October 2011 and welcomed Addison, now 9, in February 2014 followed by Austin, now 7, in March 2016.
"You add the piece of dividing up your children when I've always had the pleasure -- the luxury, really -- of being with my kids every single day and having a family of four," DeAnna said.
"So, to split them up now and only have them part of the week and then they are with Stephen, that's all really hard stuff, it's trauma."
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She therefore reiterated how she's "done a lot of therapy in the last couple of years" and "a lot of trauma therapy" in particular.
According to the former The Bachelorette star, she has battled "every wave of grief" possible amid the divorce.
"Stephen and I, when we posted back in January [the] statement that we were going to be separated and getting a divorce, we talked about that and we made that statement together," DeAnna recalled.
"But I also didn't do it until I was ready to do it. We had been separated probably for six months before then. But I wanted to be sure that that's what was going to happen. We had a tough couple of years... we've had a really difficult time."
DeAnna pointed out how "marriage is work" and only successful when two people "can learn to grow together and have great communication."
Although The Bachelorette alum is single again, she admitted that she's not ready to mingle yet.
In fact, DeAnna told Courtney that she can't envision herself "ever getting married again" and she's not in a rush to jump back into the dating pool.
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"And if someone cannot do that, I do not want to have a relationship with them."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
DeAnna and Stephen were introduced by Stephen's twin brother Michael Stagliano, who appeared on The Bachelorette's fifth season starring Jillian Harris, and Michael's then-girlfriend Holly Durst, who competed on The Bachelor: London Calling starring Matt Grant and a season of Bachelor Pad. (Holly married The Bachelorette alum Blake Julian in 2012).
DeAnna found fame when she appeared on Brad Womack's season of The Bachelor in 2007. The show's eleventh season concluded with Brad rejecting both of his Final 2 women, DeAnna and Jenni Croft.
DeAnna then handed out roses herself on The Bachelorette's fourth season.
DeAnna's The Bachelorette season in 2008 ended with her getting engaged to Jesse Csincsak, but they broke up less than one year later.
"I'm actually really thankful [Brad changed his mind], you know, I got to go on and be The Bachelorette after that -- all the friends, all the opportunities that I've had, and then ultimately meeting Stephen and my kids," DeAnna said on Us Weekly's "Here for the Right Reasons" podcast in 2020.
"It all clearly was in the plan for me," she added.
But on Courtney's podcast, DeAnna described her time on The Bachelorette as "traumatic," and she vented about how she felt brainwashed and manipulated while filming the show.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
