Kelly Chase Says She Hired a Mindset Coach After Love Is Blind Season 1 Because She Was 'Not in a Good Place' (Exclusive)

• Kelly Chase appeared in the first season of the series Love is blindwhere she turned down fiancé Kenny Barnes at the altar.
• The Netflix star tells PEOPLE that after joining the show, she hired a mindset coach who “brought to light a lot of things that I was struggling with.”
• Chase says she tried to serve as a resource for the future Love is blind contestants and addressed them to offer support.

The conversation about reality TV and mental health has grown since Kelly Chase was filming Love is blind season 1 in 2018.

But when she left the show, Chase told PEOPLE that her mental health “wasn’t in a good place.”

“You’re in such a closed tank for eight weeks and you get to know someone so quickly, so you get to know so many people on such an intensely deep level in such a short period of time, and then it’s just gone,” Chase said at the Wildly Better Well-Being event in NYC which celebrated the June 21 launch of Roxanne Kaiser’s Proxy Gummies: “Everything is gone, and you’re like, ‘What am I going to do with my life now?'”

Chase eventually hired a mental health coach “because I recognized that I was depressed,” she said. “She brought to light a lot of things I was struggling with. Even though I asked her for something completely different, but she said, ‘We have to work it out.'”

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While speaking on a panel with health professionals and other Netflix stars at the Wildly Better Well-Being event, Chase shared that she and her trainer “talked about everything from the show,” which “was very traumatic.”

“I was running my own health consulting company at the time,” Chase said. “I wasn’t in a good place to appear in front of clients, so I felt like my business was failing.”

The reality star revealed that she “finally felt more like herself” only in the last six months.

“It was tough,” Chase admitted. “But meeting people, opportunities, that was a blessing. So I say it was such a great experience and I don’t regret saying yes to being a part of it.”

The first season of ‘Love Is Blind’ stars Kelly Chase and Kenny Barnes. Getty Images; Netflix

Part of the challenge for Chase came from the influx of social media followers she gained after Love is blind season 1 — in which she turned down her fiance Kenny Barnes at the altar — aired in February 2020.

“I use the term self-abandonment,” Chase told PEOPLE. “I’m a recovery fan and I know I was just doing what I felt my audience wanted instead of just showing up as 100% authentic me. Or I would see that maybe another actor was creating some kind of content, and I was like, ‘Oh, they got a million likes. I will create something similar.’ It’s not that I’m different online, but something is wrong.”

It didn’t help that Chase would wake up to watch new episodes of her season at 3am as soon as they aired.

“Well, of course, I’m sleep deprived now,” she said. “I just remember sitting on the couch being so emotional and crying.”

Kelly Chase (left) at the Wildly Better Well-Being event in New York City on June 21.

Gabrielle Morales, Founder, Higher Culture Media | @visoka kulturamedija

Along with her mindset coach, Chase relied on her castmates for support when the show aired. The ChaseLife with Kelly The podcast host stays in touch with Season 1 alumni Jessica Batten, Giannina Gibelli, Lauren “LC” Chamblin and Damian Powers, and connected with Season 3’s Nancy Rodriguez and Season 5’s Stacy Snyder when they joined the franchise.

“Definitely in Seasons 2 and 3, I reached out to the cast and said, ‘I’m just offering my hand. If you need me, I’m here if you want to talk about anything. I know what you might go through if you have questions,’ Chase said. “Because I didn’t have that support and because their friends don’t know unless they’ve been on a reality show.”

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Despite the challenging mental health journey that followed her time on Netflix, Chase said she would return to reality TV if given the chance.

“When we were wrapping up my last day of shooting, my producer said, ‘Would you do this again?’ I said, ‘Absolutely. If there wasn’t a wedding at the end,’ she said. “If I could do it again, I would definitely do it differently. Honestly, put me on anything else. I don’t know if it’s the Leo in me, but I really like being the center of attention. I’m not camera shy. And when I see the impact and the connection you can create from that, I think I want to do more.”

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Love is blind currently streaming on Netflix.

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Source: HIS Education