Cassie Ventura underwent Prince Harry’s favorite trauma therapy method to cope with the impact of Diddy’s freak-off parties, she testified today.
The R&B artist revealed during Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ sex trafficking trial that in 2023, she sought mental health treatment at the Willow House facility.
Ventura said she received treatment for PTSD and neuro feedback during her 45-day stay at the facility.
At the facility, she underwent eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, a method that the Duke of Sussex has spoken highly of.
Ventura told the court that EDMR treatment intended to ‘help me with my trauma’ by helping to ‘recount memories’.
She also underwent Somatic Experiencing therapy, a body-oriented treatment aimed to help resolve trauma and stress-related disorders.
Prince Harry was filmed undergoing EDMR treatment for Oprah Winfrey’s Apple TV+ docuseries The Me You Can’t See in 2021.
He said the therapy intended to help with the PTSD from the death of his mother Princess Diana when he was 12 years old.
Cassie Ventura is depicted during her cross-examination at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial in New York on Friday, where she shared her experience receiving mental health care at Willow House in 2023.
Ventura told the court she underwent eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EDMR) treatment while at the facility. The therapy is a known favorite of Prince Harry, who is pictured demonstrating the treatment in 2021 for Oprah Winfrey’s Apple TV+ docuseries The Me You Can’t See
Ventura told the court she underwent ‘EMDR’ therapy to process trauma – and gave an example of recalling a traumatic moment when you couldn´t escape a room, but through therapy are able to experience what it´s like to escape the room.
Defense attorney Anna Estevao during her cross examination of Ventura, noted that the center offered treatment for sex addiction, sexual compulsion and love addiction.
She asked the singer if she was treated for any of these things during her weeks-long stay.
Ventura said she was not – but that she did undergo neurofeedback therapy: ‘They hook your brain up to a machine and you watch something and it regulates your brain waves.’
She said she underwent it five or six times or about once a week during her stay, and that she believed it was to help her process trauma.
Prince Harry, who has spoken out before about the therapy he has undertaken, is a known supporter of EDMR.
He started to see a therapist after ‘total chaos’ in his late 20s, before undergoing a further five year analysis after meeting his wife Meghan Markle.
After moving to the California in 2020, Harry experimented with different styles, including EMDR therapy, which aims to help someone come to terms with trauma.
Harry was seen closing his eyes and tapping his chest during a therapy session via videolink with Sanja Oakley, a UK-based psychotherapist, during the Apple TV+ show in 2021.
He and Meghan were also filmed taking part in an emotional guided meditation exercise in an episode of their Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries.
Cassie Ventura leaves her home to head to the Diddy trial on Friday
Ventura was back on the witness stand for a second day of cross-examination by Combs’ lawyers, after having been forced the day before to read aloud explicit and lurid messages she sent Combs during their tumultuous, nearly 11-year relationship that ended in 2018.
The singer is the prosecution’s star witness. Her lawsuit in 2023 accused Combs of physical and sexual abuse, and it set in motion the investigation which culminated in this month’s trial. Several other women who accuse him of abuse are set to testify.
Prosecutors allege that Combs used his fame and fortune to orchestrate an empire of exploitation, coercing women into abusive sex parties.
His lawyers argue that all the sexual acts were consensual, and although he could be violent, he never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. His defense says that, although he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. Combs insists all the sex was consensual.
