Katy Perry has been promoting her new album, Witness, which she has called “purposeful pop.” Among the ways she is promoting Witness and is by live-streaming her life and calling it Witness World Wide or #KPWWW. She’s posted meetings and yoga classes among her other various activities. Last Friday, she did something pretty unconventional, she live-streamed her therapy session with Dr. Siri Singh. As she said in the introduction of the video, her purpose for live-streaming the session is to show people what a therapy session looks like. But, as happens in therapy, Katy dug down into some really deep emotions, both good and bad. One such feeling she tapped into was when she reached a very dark place after her divorce to Russell Brand in 2012. Katy’s discussed those thoughts in her song By the Grace of God off of her Prism album. Katy, as most know, was raised as a born again Christian and she believed those thoughts were a sin, which compounded the problem of having them in the first place.
Katy Perry got emotional during a therapy session broadcast online Friday as she discussed her personal struggles.
On Friday, she met with Siri Sat Nam Singh, a licensed therapist who appears on Viceland’s The Therapist, and talked about how she used to have suicidal thoughts and wrote a song about referencing them—her 2013 track “By the Grace of God.”
“I feel ashamed that I would have those thoughts, feel that low and that depressed,” she said in the live-streamed therapy session.
“You can be right or you can be loved,” she added. “I just want to be loved.”
“By the Grace of God” was inspired by her feelings about her and ex-husband Russell Brand’s breakup.
“That song is evident of how tough it really was at a certain point. I asked myself, ‘Do I want to endure? Should I continue living?'” Perry told Billboard in 2013. “All the songs are real-life moments.”
Perry, who was born Katheryn Hudson, also talked to the therapist about her private and public image.
“People talk about my hair, right, and they don’t like it, or they wish that it was longer,” she said. “I so badly want to be Katheryn Hudson that I don’t even want to look like Katy Perry anymore sometimes, and that is a little bit of why I cut my hair.”
“I’m a bit more nerdy than everybody thinks I am,” she added. “I’m a big goofball. The fantasy of Katheryn went into Katy and made this bigger than life personality.”
To clarify, Katy does not mention Russell or even her marriage to him during the taped session, she only referenced her dark thoughts and the song as the way she worked them out. CB just wrote about Tyler Posey discussing the importance of therapy. I do think many people are scared of therapy or the stigma of it so this was a pretty brave thing for Katy to do. She laid herself bare and broke down many times while talking to Dr. Singh. One of the reasons Katy gave for exposing so much of herself was because, “if people can see that I am just like them then they can dream just as big,” which is a great message for her fans. The session itself is being heralded by others:
The fact that @katyperry is making therapy normal and showing all of herself to the world just makes me stan her harder
— Tash 👁 (@Ta1s1h0) June 10, 2017
This therapy sesh is so real and on point 👌 Just makes me love @katyperry that much more ❤ #KPWWW
— Sam (@yipster612) June 10, 2017
My loyal respect for @katyperry after this section of THERAPY LIVE. pic.twitter.com/p5Uj7hrJM6
— Jan Michael (@janMICHAEL186) June 10, 2017
I've gained so much respect for Katy Perry. Her therapy session and allowing the world to witness her… my heart breaks seeing her sadness.
— Vera Farmiga ❤️ (@VeraFarmigasEye) June 10, 2017
This is where it starts and stops for me. If one person changes their negative feelings about therapy and seeks help as a result of Katy showing what really happens, then all of this was done for the right reason, in my mind.
On a lighter note, Dr. Singh and Katy spend a lot of time talking about Katy’s hair. One thing Dr. Singh said that I never considered is there is an actual reason people open up so much to their hairdressers. Because the stylist is working with the head, they are stimulating the nervous system. As Dr. Singh put it, “they start mixing up that nervous system” and it flushes everything to the surface. Huh, that makes so much sense. Oh, the secrets my hairdresser holds…
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Getty Images
I get what you’re saying, that there’s a huge benefit to normalizing therapy. But god, this just feels so contrived and inauthentic to me. Live-streaming a therapy session? Ugh.
Me too. If it is helping anyone, then I’m glad, but to me, she is someone who always seems to be selling. I don’t think she would be doing this if she weren’t pushing an album.
yes, i think that is the fine distinction. She could have done this at any time during the last year, but oh, what a coincidence, we see it and talk about it, just when you album drops.
Whatever.
Yup, it’s a sell job for a new album
yes. Do it without all of that and I will be a lot less cynical.
Yes, just like she sold her divorce story in her concert movie.
Of course she is….she is worried about her career.
Especially given her Britney comments. Honestly, this girl is a hustler. I’ll give her credit for always marketing herself- but I’m not about to congratulate her for being so ‘open’ and ‘authentic’ when nothing really seems authentic.
If her current marketing move helps people though – great. At least she’s being of use. It’s the same way I feel about the K-Klan donating food or anything like that. If it’s a complete publicity stunt – but that stunt benefits people who need it – then at least that’s the case.
This Britney attack accusation is just so ridiculous. It was a wreckless comment that should not have been made bt I detect no malice and frankly the only people who paid attention to it are hold over Britney fans. Had she said that she is waiting for her meltdown to run down the highway half dressed would you have said she was attacking Martin Lawrence? How about waiting to climb over a fence and break into someones house being RDJ? Honestly, Britneys behavior, the head shaving especially, was pretty typical of a female breakdown and I didnt see it as a malicious dig just a bad joke. Its time to move on. Theres enough ammunition against Katy and her obnoxiousness without building mountains out of mole hills.
It’s a real shame she used the words “ashamed” when talking about mental health. It’s not great for someone like her to use those words when talking about mental illness, it’s is nothing to be ashamed off. It’s make people with mental illnesses and those lost to mental illness feel as though it’s shameful.
But she was ashamed. That was her feeling. She shouldn’t have to reword everything to make it more palatable. Other people feel shame too related to mental health. Now they know they’re not alone.
I understand where you’re coming from but she needed to say that she feels that way but she shouldn’t. Because someone in a really vulnerable place will hear that Katy Perry said and that’s not what unwell people need to hear. She has huge platform to talk about mental illness instead she just added to the stigma.
+100 Daisy
I’m glad she did this because it does seem to have helped others.
A personal therapy session in this situation is to me, an artistic expression, an extension of Katy Perry the persona. That’s all fine with me. I see and have worked with mental health professionals who use poor phrasing and triggering words all the time. No one is perfect. Venue, circumstance, audience all matters. In this case, Katy is using personal pain shared to help others. If it does that, i’m good with it.
Why oh why couldn’t Kathy Griffin do this!! Oy. Would’ve been better than the bloody head.
Cute peach ombré bar stools! Mental health de stigmatisation is good but wow she is working very hard to push this album.
I feel the opposite. Many, many people with mental health issues do feel ashamed, and then ashamed for being ashamed when well meaning people call them in it. Talking about these things helps, whereas putting a pretty face on it doesn’t. It just makes those who are feeling shame or disgust or self hatred feel even more alone and helpless.
Yes I’m one of the people. I don’t talk to the people closest to me because I’m ashamed. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am and that’s ok. That’s ok too for Katy to be ashamed, but she needed to talk about safety. All she should have said “but I know I shouldn’t be”.
Society has shamed mentally ill people for centuries. We’re still at the point where people still say “commit” been talking about suicide! Katy grow up Christian so maybe she’s still in the mindset that those who died from mental illness have “sinned”.
+1
But Daisy, how is it okay for you to dictate how someone else should talk about their experience? You keep talking about what Katy “should” do and how she “should” speak. If a friend opened up to you about their mental health struggles, would you tell them what language they can and cannot use to talk about it? Because that’s what you’re doing right now. You’re projecting your own feelings about the word shame onto Katy Perry, but she should be free to talk about her experience in whatever way resonates with her. She might be famous but she’s still human. She didn’t go on twitter and say “people with mental illness should feel ashamed.” THAT would be inscreasing the stigma, but that’s not what she did here, at all. She was opening up to her own therapist in session and talking about her own, personal experience. Isn’t trying to tell other people what they can and can’t say to their therapists harmful and stigmatizing as well?
I just believe if you are going to talk about mental illness on a public platform you need to talk about safety. In a private session talk about what ever way you need to talk about. But for someone who maybe feeling sucidal what she said was not helpful. Mental health issues need to be approached carefully, respectfully and realistically.
I do think it’d great she was happy to share about how she was feeling,it was not to long ago she said that thing about Britney so I can’t see this more then she’s trying to sell her album.
That’d be all well and dandy, if Katy hadn’t publicized the therapy session to sell her album. Once she did that, she turned it into a marketing scheme. And, therapy is SERIOUS. If she’s going to make the therapy session public, then she needs to be more aware of how her comments will come off to other people going through therapy and feeling ashamed of it.
Why? Those are her feelings. You don’t get to decide how someone feels about something, especially during therapy. Feelings of shame regarding certain aspects of mental illness, and especially surrounding suicidal ideation are not abnormal and there is nothing wrong with feeling that way. Part of the therapeutic process is working through those feelings and understanding that there’s nothing to be ashamed of. But therapy is a process and not something one goes into for a day and is all “better.”
I am a licensed Psychiatrist and therapist of over 25 years.
If you remember that Katy feels her audience is teen girls, this message is on point.
It’s a little strange as a message from adult to adult, but as an outreach piece, this is good.
A+ for effort Katy, but B+ overall, because I can’t shake the feeling this has ulterior motives.
Also, LOVE the makeup on the cover of her album, reminds me of Pride and Bowie.
I watched some of the live stream out of curiosity, and it was oddly interesting, kinda like watching big brother, you can’t turn it off . However yesterday morning I stopped when I watched Katy getting ready , and she used an ear bud to clean her ear then proceeded to use the exact same bud to clean her nostril …. I actually thought I was going to be sick …
I love therapy, I’m in therapy myself. It’s great! Always happy to hear people normalize it.
But are we not going to talk about Katy’s increasingly obvious desperation? The Miley Cyrus haircut. The nonstop interviews about Taylor Swift. Live streaming therapy. I just read on People where she ranked her famous lovers (presumably how good they are in the sack?) It’s all a bit too much.
Yet she thought it okay to make fun of Britney’s breakdown?
Not buying it.
Exactly what I was going to say. She had no problem making remarks referencing Britney’s mental issues.
THIS Finally, someone said it. Upthread, that was basically brushed off and downplayed. But yet, we shouldn’t call Katy out on her own comments? BS.
“Ashamed ” because she had feelings of depression? Thanks a million, Katy. I hope through therapy she learns she’s not the only one who’s gone through tough times and been very depressed. Thankfully I’ve never been ashamed
Let’s not start shaming people who feel shame! Considering how she was raised, I’m sure it was a real mindf*ck. So I say let her keep working through it.
I don’t see it as shaming, it’s about safety and that means educating people in how to talk about mental illness in a public way.
Personally I think she’s still healing from that episode and has not come to terms with her depression. That takes time and love.
Again, I think her parents did quite a number on her. But you’re right. It is a process and I’m glad to see she’s working through it all, because the alternative…
She has every right to talk about her own experience with depression and feel the way she feels. If she felt ashamed, that’s perfectly valid. In no way did she say everyone with mental illness should feel ashamed, nor did she imply that she’s the only person who’s ever felt depressed. Just because you didn’t feel ashamed doesn’t mean it’s the same for everyone else.
I’ve felt shame about depression when I’ve had it. Talking about the shame that some people feel about feeling depressed is a good thing in my book. It’s her experience.
As a therapist, statements like this make me angry. Who are you to dictate what’s right or wrong about someone else’s feelings towards their own mental health issues?
That was my thought too. When you are in therapy, a therapist doesn’t edit you. Usually one of the problems is that people feel they can’t express themselves. If she said it a way that wasn’t natural then it wouldn’t be useful.
So this has got nothing to do with your album promotion? Sure Jan.
No, its as private as Taylors relationships. Nothing to do with business.
Wake me when she posts the shrink session about being a bad singer. Her Carpool Karaoke with James Corden was embarrassingly bad.
yeah, I really wish she’d stay away from microphones. She cannot sing or dance and her hair is awful. IMO, she’s now brought annoying to a whole new level.
I get why she feels ashamed. I believe it may be in part because she is a Christian and the beliefs that go with that maybe. True she shouldn’t, but you cant tell others how they should feel and she is brave I suppose to film this session, but it stinks of album promotion to me. Re her cutting her hair and trying to get rid of Katy Perry…..hmmmm, this sounds she may be trying to back track on her comments on Brit brit and her shaving her head…….
I never talk to the person doing my hair and I’m very, very happy when they don’t talk to me either.
Yup. Maybe because I’ve never really stuck with one person (and the one I did, way back when I got more frequent haircuts, was also thankfully not chatty.) Why ruin such a relaxing thing with unnecessary babble? Pleasantries and politeness aside, of course.
Sames!!!!
Right? I hate it when hairdressers talks non-stop, even I only answer in monosyllables.
Exactly the same. I dread going to the hairdresser (I usually do just walk-ins) knowing I’ll be required to do some small talk. Once I’ve told the person what I’d like done, I prefer to not chat. Luckily my haircuts tend to take no more than 15-20 mins, haha.
I’m the same; I’ve never understood that “hairstylist bond” thing. I usually bring my tablet or a magazine to avoid conversation LOL
I feel like we are just watching a live stream of a breakdown. Its inappropriate and uncomfortable
also her whole discussion about how people need to speak kindly and calmly to her whenever she does something offensive pissed me.
Perry’s new album is titled ‘Witness’ When she was at the Met Ball, she talked about her being a witness to others and others being a witness to her. I think doing a four day live stream is totally on point with that. I didn’t see much of the livestream, I just watched her interview with Ariana Huffington. I thought she came across well as an advocate for women’s rights.
I guess the Swifty Stans are out in force today.
I’m divorced and the first time I heard By The Grace of God I was on my way to work in the car. I had to pull over I was crying so hard. Fantastic song – one of her best I think.
It’s just a shame her new album is so bad because I like her, she’s not as mean spirited as Taylor, and she seems rather normal for a pop star.
As for “stimulating the nervous system by touching the hair/head”, that makes no sense, at all.
@Erica,yes that’s my favorite song from her too. I’ve never experienced nothing that she’s talking about in that song,but I cried ugly tears everytime it comes on my playlist. Good on Katy,therapy is an amazing thing.
Paranormal Girl – hate to break it to you but this is a snarky gossip site that covers celebs & politics. We joke and have serious discussions.
As the Joker 🃏 say – why so serious? I’ve been in therapy for a while. I’m a tad curious that instead of offering suggestions to people on how to deal with things you are hardcore lecturing them? I would appreciate some things you share with your patients.
It’s disingenuous for someone who has publicly shamed Britney for her mental health not to publicly apologize. Especially when she is cleverly using social issues to extoll the virtues of therapy to sell an album.
It’s positive that she’s normalizing this for her fans. It will encourage some fans to go to therapy and to support family & friends who are in therapy. Good that she discussed issues about her feelings, self-harm. Shade that she threw Russell Brand under the bus.
As for me, meditation helps. Medication and being in compliance is important as these issues can be complicated due to the wiring or brain soup as I call it (neurotransmitters). Writing can be very helpful. I’m working on using a drawing pad. Plus I’ve always been into coloring books as an adult lol. My dog Sam helps a lot. Kids, family. I need to walk more & be in nature but I’m processing a lot due to dealing with PTSD issues. I use mantras, metta and other Buddhist prayers.
http://www.worldhealingprayers.com/3.html
May all of you have an amazing day! I especially want to thank Celebitchy, Kaiser, Hectate, Bedhead and everyone posting as this is part of my practice. Namaste.