How Lindsay Ell’s New Album Helped Her Heal From Her Traumatic Past

Lindsay Ell poured everything she had into her new album.

After all, heart theory—about what she calls the seven stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing and acceptance—helped the country star heal. “I feel like this record has been therapy for me in so many ways,” she shared with E! News. “I probably saved thousands of dollars in therapy writing this album.”

And while she delves into heartbreak—”Whenever we go through a breakup, we pause to look back at our life”—Lindsay also opens up about surviving sexual assault as a young girl in her ballad “make you.” “I feel like being able to validate myself as a little girl,” she shared, “being able to talk about my story as a little girl for the first time has been a huge step in the process to me fully feeling like I have gone to that place of acceptance.”