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The fight between Monique Samuels and Candiace Dillard, which fans witnessed during the current season of “Real Housewives of Potomac,” escalated quickly. Neither fans, cast members, or Dilliard and Samuels could truly seem to grasp how things got out of control the way that they did. However, after undergoing therapy, Samuels believed that the altercation was the result of “childhood triggers.”
“I’ve had many therapy sessions after the fight. I started out with two therapists,” the reality star told E! News on a recent episode of “Just the Sip”. “I usually will counsel with my pastor or my godfather…but this time I wanted to take it a step further. I said, ‘I want to find someone who doesn’t know me, who’s going to be completely unbiased…to just, like, really dig deep and help me figure out what caused me to get to that point.’ ”
According to the 37-year-old mom of three, her therapist helped her to recognize the similarities between the incident with Dilliard, the bullying that she experienced when she was around 5 years old when she was “beaten up by a little boy,” and her father’s parenting style.
“I actually learned I had some childhood triggers that I did not realize I developed over the years,” she admitted, “and that were harboring within me for a very long time.”
Samuels adds about her father, “He was very much a person that would stick his finger right in your face like, ‘What’d I say?!’ and as a child, you can’t do anything about it,” she recalled. “And in that moment is when I broke down in that session and my therapist was like, ‘Okay now this is starting to make sense why something that seems so small and insignificant to other people is major to you.’ She said it’s almost like that 5-year-old, 6-year-old Monique jumped out and said, ‘You are not going to put your hand in my face.'”
Although the “Not For Lazy Moms” podcast host initially told castmates that she “blacked out” during the fight, therapy has helped her to understand “that was the best way that I could describe the feeling that I felt,” Monique said. “It was almost like my body was still moving but I was just not there.”
She went on, “Then moments later, days later, everything started coming back,” Monique added. “Certain pieces were coming back to the point where I wasn’t sure which order of events happened.”
The Bravo star, however, adds that her triggers are still no excused for attacking Dilliard.
“I really wanted to investigate what my triggers were, what would cause me to get to that point,” she said. “So now that I’m more aware of what those triggers are, nothing like this will happen again.”
She continues to seek therapy.
“We have not slowed down the process and it’s been amazing,” she said.
