Up next in 10
Actress AJ Akua Johnson is best known for her roles in classics like House Party or Baby Boy, but she has officially transitioned over the years to be a wellness coach. She has counseled some some of the biggest names in entertainment, from Brandy to Nicole Ari Parker and Boris Kodjoe to Steve Harvey and plenty more. She called into Sway In The Morning to talk about her new show Life Therapy on TV and ended up giving out some great advice for handling a break up.
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AJ Akua Johnson Talks New TV One Show Life Therapy | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
https://youtu.be/CIGdYpsQitA
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0:00
i'm aj aquia johnson yes y'all know me
0:02
best rain from house party
0:05
yes i can still do that and i'm also a
0:07
lifestyle and wellness coach i'm
0:09
inviting you to check out my new series
0:12
where i'm gonna show a few new friends
0:14
how to live their best lives and i hope
0:17
to inspire you all to rock here better
0:19
too
0:20
life therapy premieres this november on
0:22
tv one
0:24
ladies and gentlemen
0:26
she's here
0:28
[Applause]
0:30
a breath of fresh air she's here
0:32
yep yep a ray of light she's here yep
0:35
yep a drink of nourishment she's here
0:38
yep yep i like that yeah a vision of
0:40
beauty she's here ladies and gentlemen
0:43
the one and only aj aquia johnson is
0:46
here she's hey
0:53
oh my god
0:55
come on you know how we feel you know
0:57
how we feel about you
0:59
you got me over here in tears bruh i'm
1:02
like
1:03
you know listen it's it's it's it's
1:05
amazing it feels great to be honest when
1:09
people that are my family like you all
1:11
y'all you know you guys have always
1:12
showed me love before the cameras before
1:15
anything sway you know we always had our
1:17
healthy conversations how to live life
1:20
you know that was our connection years
1:21
ago so i want i want the citizens to
1:24
know
1:24
that your love and support over all the
1:26
years came way before the cameras but i
1:29
was hiding my healthy lifestyle when it
1:31
wasn't popular yeah when i was taking my
1:34
when i think of my ass home to go to
1:35
sleep everybody else will go to the
1:36
after party
1:42
i used to drink green juice and have and
1:44
heather with green juice shame me i know
1:45
what you're talking about aj come on aj
1:48
because we we would go out for these
1:50
really nice beautiful lunches and our
1:52
dinners and i have this thing about
1:54
sitting at the bar i love to sit at the
1:56
bars and places and suede would demand a
1:58
green juice sitting next to my my glass
2:01
of champagne and i'm like bruh
2:03
you are crushing the imagery right now
2:06
what are you doing screen juice shaving
2:09
first aj yes i was
2:14
listening you know all these years i
2:16
gotta share and this is part of why i
2:19
love the opportunity to do this because
2:20
all these years as i did my daily
2:23
devotion i kept getting you're not made
2:26
to fit in
2:27
you're not made to fit in
2:28
you're not made to fit in walk the road
2:30
less traveled you know don't be seduced
2:33
by the road that's trampled down by the
2:34
masses that's not your road i didn't
2:36
build your feet for that road and i kept
2:38
getting it y'all i kept getting it and
2:40
it just built my confidence to be my
2:43
full self and now here we are right
2:46
deep
2:47
deep deep yeah i love that i love that
2:49
you at this beautiful place spiritually
2:52
too aj when you can share that because i
2:54
think even that um your statement that
2:56
you made this affirmation this word that
2:58
you got you know there's a time when
3:00
people didn't even feel comfortable with
3:02
sharing something like that so i think
3:04
it's beautiful thank you so much for
3:06
sharing that
3:07
staying here i just feel like now
3:10
you know you know not just because of
3:11
the show but but just saying this you
3:14
know it's a time in my life when
3:16
i feel like it's my responsibility to
3:18
let people know this is not really about
3:20
the show for me this is about sharing
3:23
how i got here and who i am
3:26
and i hope that you know people stay on
3:27
ig and twitter and they've been saying
3:29
it for years oh you inspire oh you such
3:31
motivation and now my thing is i want to
3:34
show you
3:35
who i am so that you know it's not just
3:37
an instagram post on a sunday i want you
3:39
to hear and see how i think you know how
3:42
i process information what i'm curious
3:44
about like this is now you get to really
3:47
see the depths of who i am how i live my
3:50
healthy lifestyle how i help other
3:52
people heal and move forward and i'm
3:54
just excited man like this is just i got
3:57
beat over ahead with the blessing one
3:58
that's what my grandmother used to say
4:04
amen
4:07
on that note aj it is tracy it's so good
4:09
hearing your voice every single time my
4:11
queen
4:12
i'm wondering on your path or maybe if
4:15
you've spoken to others um who have
4:18
embraced a higher level of wellness
4:21
right from all different directions but
4:23
on their journey because they're still
4:25
flawed maybe they reach a point where
4:27
they feel superior to others
4:29
because they have all of this knowledge
4:32
because they're taking you know the road
4:35
less traveled and that becomes another
4:38
um piece that they have to detangle you
4:41
know what i'm saying it's like a a high
4:43
a spiritual hierarchy
4:46
a form of like well you know elite
4:48
can you speak on that yeah
4:51
yeah i mean first chase i i love you and
4:53
i can't wait till i can come to new york
4:55
and hug all y'all um i don't have
4:57
abandonment issues and so i'm missing
4:59
out on
5:02
look
5:03
you know that's one of the things that
5:05
i'm constantly in therapy about right i
5:07
i long for connection and when i don't
5:09
have it i feel empty and i can say that
5:12
because it's not something to be ashamed
5:14
of it's not something inside it's like
5:16
you know we all have something that we
5:19
have to work on or some things we have
5:21
to work on to be our best self and i
5:23
hope i'm hoping this show
5:25
and me being an example to a broader
5:27
expanded territory audience by having
5:29
this show i hope i'm an example of
5:32
therapy should not be a word that our
5:34
community doesn't use you know therapy
5:36
should not be scary therapy is just
5:38
there's something i'm dealing with that
5:40
i haven't been able to push through on
5:41
my own and so now i'm getting a little
5:43
help by somebody i trust and somebody
5:45
that i feel like is going to support me
5:47
and and and and be my wind as i continue
5:50
to fly higher so but what you're saying
5:52
i want to go back to what you asked for
5:53
yes i and one of the things i'm doing on
5:55
the show is i'm partnering with other
5:58
life workers from attorneys to
6:01
therapists to specialists to doctors in
6:04
different cases i go and find
6:06
and thank god to my amazing producer
6:08
team for helping me um swirl films and
6:10
all the episode producers they dug deep
6:13
with me to find these other light
6:15
workers because i want to show that you
6:17
know i don't know everything
6:19
you know just because i have a title and
6:21
the credentials and i studied you know
6:23
and i have the alkalates i don't know
6:25
everything and and one of the things i
6:27
wanted to do was take on cases and
6:29
guests that i that were totally out of
6:31
my wheelhouse because i also want to be
6:33
an example of
6:34
you know we we don't know everything
6:36
doctors don't know everything and you
6:38
know as the word says where two or more
6:40
gathered so i'm always as good as my
6:42
partnership you know and so part of the
6:45
show is partnering constantly every
6:47
episode with the proper light workers so
6:50
i tell everybody oh this is my avenger
6:51
team i mean i'm iron man and i'm and i'm
6:54
bad on my own but even iron man has to
6:56
call in the hulk and that's right that's
6:58
right spider-man every now and then
7:00
right so right yeah i mean i think
7:03
i think what you're saying is real and
7:04
we have to we have to normalize that we
7:07
have issues we all have them and the
7:10
more that we block them i don't care who
7:11
you are vip private plane it doesn't
7:13
matter and i feel like oh i feel like
7:16
the pandemics showed us that there's no
7:19
people in this pandemic you know
7:23
right there isn't and like everybody's
7:25
susceptible to coving everybody has to
7:27
fight life or death in this news in this
7:29
new space of this pandemic so i feel
7:31
like god in the universe already showed
7:32
us yeah you could floss on the red bombs
7:35
and the bags and the private planes and
7:37
all of that but the bottom line is you
7:39
know go out without your mask and go out
7:40
without being vaccinated and then let's
7:41
see what happens beyond that because
7:43
there's no there's no
7:45
there's no discrepancy we're all
7:47
susceptible so now what do we do well
7:49
what we got to do is reach for our best
7:50
life whatever that means for each person
7:52
you feel me
7:53
[Music]
7:55
wow i love it man um aj aquia johnson is
7:58
with us
8:00
and this this is a process because i i
8:02
used to think aj okay if i go sit down
8:05
with someone in therapy you know and i
8:08
do my 10
8:09
uh
8:10
sessions that i'm cured
8:13
is it right that i don't have to go
8:16
well i paid for 10 you said 10. you know
8:19
what i mean like i should be good but uh
8:22
what i learned is this is a lifetime
8:25
life therapy is a lifetime effort right
8:28
mm-hmm
8:30
yeah um
8:32
you know go ahead finish no go ahead
8:34
speak on it
8:36
no i was just gonna say you know the
8:37
reason why we named the show life
8:39
therapy is because
8:41
you know it was the best way especially
8:43
in our first season when everybody's
8:44
kind of getting to know and learning
8:46
what is the show right
8:48
we wanted to make sure that people
8:49
understood
8:50
i'm not saying relationship therapy i'm
8:53
not saying career therapy i'm saying
8:56
life which means relationship career
8:58
nutrition um physical fitness health
9:01
your financial health you know your
9:03
family health your sibling health your
9:05
parent health like
9:07
what like what you're saying is we your
9:10
life is twist and turn that's what life
9:12
is
9:13
and our better health depends on how
9:15
well we navigate those twists and turns
9:18
what's our navigation system of the
9:20
twists and turns they're gonna come
9:22
it's just a matter of not making and
9:24
making sure that if one of those things
9:27
throws you a curveball and you're not
9:29
really good at hitting the curveball it
9:30
doesn't mean you quit it means you
9:32
practice hitting curves
9:33
you feel me and if one of them throws
9:35
you into a valley
9:36
you know the valley is not your destiny
9:39
like you don't all of a sudden go to
9:40
target and start getting picture frames
9:42
and and throw rugs and trying to
9:44
live in the valley no you grab the
9:46
lesson in the valley you climb out and
9:48
you fly so right you know you're right
9:51
that that that's what life is and the
9:53
faster we accept life it's gonna throw
9:56
some twists and turns we just get it we
9:57
just gotta get swaggy with how we we
10:00
skate forward through the twists and
10:01
turns right we just gotta increase our
10:02
skill set i like that increase the skill
10:05
set aj the phone's lit up by the way and
10:09
so i know we got about 10 minutes right
10:11
but i want to see if we could
10:13
if you could touch people just a little
10:15
bit and then we'll drive them to watch
10:16
the show for more
10:18
or how they can reach out to you so uh
10:20
i'm going to start
10:22
with brooke in texas brook grand rises
10:24
how you doing brooke bro
10:26
good morning y'all
10:28
hi hey how are you
10:30
doing
10:33
hi so i'll just like try to make it
10:34
quick um i just need some like advice or
10:38
[Music]
10:39
i don't know so like a year and a half
10:41
ago i caught my um
10:43
my two and a half year old father
10:46
cheating on me with like my best friend
10:48
in his car
10:50
and so that took me a while
10:53
and it's still taking me a while to like
10:55
get over like every day i like
10:58
have so much of pent up aggression i can
11:01
i guess i could say like towards him
11:04
and so like
11:06
maybe
11:07
nine months ago i like forgave him and
11:10
you know we made up we moved back into a
11:12
house together and everything was good
11:15
um
11:16
and then i caught him again
11:19
but like spending like on his gmail like
11:22
i caught him sending
11:24
500 here 600 there to like numerous
11:28
females
11:29
um
11:31
any a trick and he kept denying he kept
11:33
denying it and he said
11:35
for his homeboy
11:37
this that and the other and then he kept
11:39
like coming home late and it just got to
11:41
a point to where i'm like dude come on
11:45
so so we've been like broken up for like
11:48
seven months now i'm sorry
11:51
okay you were broken up seven months you
11:52
finished
11:54
and so
11:55
i'm actually happy now to this point to
11:57
where i'm on my own with my daughter you
11:59
know doing what i have to do of course
12:01
um to make sure my baby's gonna be good
12:03
and everything's good and he doesn't
12:05
even like ask for his daughter
12:08
and he's already got like another female
12:10
like living with him and
12:12
um the female son
12:16
what a daughter i'm just like brooke so
12:18
what's your ask because i know you said
12:20
you didn't want to take a lot of time
12:21
but you accomplished that
12:24
because it's like i i think about it
12:26
like every day and i it's like brought
12:29
my self-confidence like super down so my
12:32
question is like how
12:35
do i like
12:37
get over that or like move on
12:39
and just be
12:42
okay okay okay so i have a couple quick
12:44
questions if
12:46
is this your is this your was this your
12:48
boyfriend and baby daddy or are you were
12:50
you married this is your husband yeah
12:53
yeah no it's a baby daddy and my um
12:55
boyfriend
12:57
okay so you're not married
12:59
no
13:01
okay so what what you've done
13:04
is you've decided to
13:07
um
13:08
to accept a covenant
13:10
with someone who has demonstrated that
13:13
they're not worthy
13:14
of your loyalty
13:16
and of your greatness
13:18
and you're acting like you're married
13:20
but you're not
13:21
there's been no vows exchanged there's
13:22
been no covenant in front of god there's
13:24
been no connection no no equal yoke of
13:27
your soul you just decided
13:30
you just decided
13:32
that that's what was happening so what
13:34
i'm going to say to you is well first do
13:35
you believe in god
13:37
of course yes
13:39
okay so if you believe in god then you
13:42
also have to believe that the god we
13:43
serve is not a god of dysfunction
13:46
he's not a god of confusion we create
13:48
that in our own lives
13:50
so what i want you to do is make a list
13:53
of 10 things
13:55
that you can admit
13:56
that you either saw before in this kind
13:59
of spirit this this disloyal spirit that
14:02
you will call on a boyfriend
14:04
write down a list of 10 things that you
14:06
saw
14:07
that you ignored
14:08
because he didn't just solve a sudden
14:09
sheet right you just decided to tolerate
14:12
the behavior that was less than what
14:13
you're worthy of i need you to write
14:15
down 10 things that you saw and next to
14:18
them i want you to write down 10 reasons
14:20
why you're worthy of more than that
14:23
you understand
14:25
yes
14:26
okay once you have your list of 10
14:28
things you're worthy of now you have to
14:30
walk in that loyalty you have to walk in
14:33
that that wisdom of you tolerated it but
14:36
that again that's not your destiny you
14:38
kind of tripped up and that's okay but
14:40
now we have to move into your solution
14:42
now we have to move into the behavior
14:44
not the talk but the behavior
14:47
that that lifts you out of that valley
14:49
and the first thing you have to do is
14:50
show yourself that you believe you're
14:52
worthy of the more
14:54
i can't do that you have to decide
14:56
you're worthy and then i help you with
14:57
the behavior as you move forward you
14:59
follow
15:00
yeah
15:02
thank you so this is not just for you
15:04
but this is to everybody everybody
15:06
remember everybody
15:08
yeah you know every this is for
15:09
everybody you know we gotta remember
15:12
that we are our choices
15:14
so the first thing i tell every client
15:16
whether it's on tv or not you've got to
15:17
take responsibility and accountability
15:20
for where you are in your life
15:22
because we can set boundaries we can
15:24
honor our boundaries we can respect our
15:26
boundaries and our boundaries help other
15:28
people learn how to treat us
15:31
so there's nobody asking me to go for
15:33
sake at midnight you know why because i
15:35
design and set and honor and respect the
15:38
boundary nutritionally in my life then
15:40
now over time people know that's not how
15:42
i get down
15:43
but what if i was sometimes
15:45
sometimes i ate fake or sometimes i had
15:47
nachos at the club what if sometimes i
15:49
had a street hot dog you know what i'm
15:50
saying it's like now i'm confused some
15:52
people around me and they don't know how
15:53
to treat me
15:55
so we have to be specific with the fact
15:57
that we are royal
15:58
that we are worthy of the more and it
16:00
starts with how we treat ourselves and
16:03
then teach other people how to treat us
16:07
brooke you're a citizen and if you want
16:09
to reach hey
16:10
you god bless you god bless you good
16:12
luck to you if you want to reach aj hit
16:14
her up on her social tell her you're
16:16
telling your social aj
16:18
yeah at the aj zone on twitter and
16:20
instagram at the aj zone
16:23
you on fire right now i gotta pass you
16:24
the ball again we got zoya on the line
16:28
yeah that was a lot brooke brook
16:30
represented like a million situations so
16:33
at least aj knocked down a million
16:34
people at one time thank you aj
16:37
you know what i mean
16:38
yeah i know you mean i like that aj okay
16:41
so this one is zoya she's in atlanta
16:43
grand rides and zoya how are you
16:46
i'm right thing how y'all doing
16:48
doing
16:59
[Music]
17:02
y'all hear her can we hear her no i
17:04
can't okay zoya we cannot hear you why
17:06
is she whispering with your chest
17:10
can you hear me now
17:11
a little better
17:12
what's your question
17:15
um i live in a situation where my son's
17:17
father pulled out a gun on me in front
17:19
of him
17:20
and i'm trying to figure out
17:23
how i'm supposed to help heal
17:25
my son
17:27
and this situation is such i did take
17:30
him out of the house
17:31
we haven't been to the house since
17:34
um
17:35
but i know as a young black man
17:39
and with that man being his father
17:42
it's going to be really hard
17:44
and i want to make sure i'm doing the
17:45
right thing
17:48
okay um tell me your name again sis
17:52
my name is
17:59
okay so
18:00
this is a situation that i'm not gonna
18:02
even try to to make you think is
18:05
something that i can advise in a
18:08
five-minute response or a three-minute
18:10
response but what i will ask first is uh
18:13
is the relationship over you said you're
18:15
out of the house yeah but is that
18:16
relationship over
18:18
yes
18:20
okay
18:21
are you sure
18:23
positive
18:25
okay so so number one i would say you
18:28
definitely need to find a therapist how
18:31
old is your son
18:33
sport
18:35
okay yeah i would say first start with a
18:38
child psychologist
18:40
um and you're here in atlanta so even as
18:42
you watch like therapy you're gonna see
18:44
a bunch of therapists that are here
18:46
local for you because we shoot in like
18:48
therapy i mean you shoot in atlanta
18:50
um the other thing
18:52
is that um
18:54
i feel like if you get your son in from
18:56
child therapy that your the therapist
18:59
can help you understand if he's already
19:02
affected by it and if so what steps to
19:05
take further so that you know he can
19:07
heal from that the other thing i'm going
19:09
to say is you have some healing to do
19:11
it's almost like what they say on the
19:13
airplane that the adult has to put on
19:15
the oxygen mask before they help the
19:16
kids
19:18
so it's the same thing with you you got
19:20
to heal you from it because i'm already
19:22
hearing it's still so raw and so painful
19:25
how long ago did it happen
19:29
last week
19:33
yeah it's very fresh so so you've got to
19:36
do some healing yourself and i'm going
19:39
to tell you kids are really resilient
19:41
and they pay closer attention to you
19:43
emotionally more than they do to what
19:45
you say
19:46
so the more you heal
19:48
it's going to help your son heal
19:50
so there's two healings that have to
19:52
happen you on your own your son with
19:55
therapy as well and then you guys as a
19:57
family unit but just know it's gonna
19:59
take some time and that's fine you know
20:01
um but to all the citizens and to my
20:03
family you know we have to also
20:04
understand that there you know we live
20:06
in a microwave society but that's not
20:08
what our spirits are that's not what our
20:10
hearts are and our minds are these
20:12
wounds are deep they cut really freaking
20:15
deep so we have to be patient with
20:16
ourselves we have to give ourselves
20:18
grace
20:19
and ask for god's favor of mercy and
20:21
take one day at a time so the good news
20:23
latoya is that you were smart and
20:25
healthy enough within yourself that you
20:27
got out of there that you didn't
20:29
tolerate it that you haven't gone back
20:31
so that tells me sis that you understand
20:34
you're worthy and you know what we all
20:36
have relationship issues where we kind
20:38
of sidestepped and found ourselves
20:40
tripped up in a bad one but that just
20:42
becomes your wisdom and you'll never let
20:43
it happen again to yourself or your son
20:46
do you agree with me yes ma'am
20:50
okay there you go thank you so i i love
20:52
that i can hear your tears dried up for
20:54
a second and i hope that means that in
20:56
this time you found a little bit more
20:58
strength and now what we have to do is
21:00
get your son some therapy and you too so
21:03
that you can keep that strength building
21:05
because you know just like fitness you
21:07
can't lift heavy heavy loads if your
21:09
muscles aren't strong enough so i don't
21:11
want you thinking you can lift this
21:12
heavy load and you're not training for
21:14
it you
21:19
okay okay zoya and then uh also reach
21:22
out to her on her social media as well
21:25
okay sawyer
21:26
okay we're in your corner
21:28
all right you too you're a citizen you
21:30
and your listen to you
21:33
all right god bless you
21:34
yes indeed um
21:36
let me get one more you got time for one
21:38
more aj
21:40
yeah i mean you know are you guys down i
21:42
don't know i i do this you know and you
21:44
know i do this but you know it it's so
21:47
sad i hope you guys are are also
21:50
um
21:51
not shocked but just this is one of the
21:54
reasons why i'm so excited about this
21:56
show because it's not that you watch me
21:58
do therapy it's that i take you with me
22:00
the show's very interactive i look at
22:03
you know i look in the camera constantly
22:04
saying did y'all see this breakthrough
22:06
did y'all hear what she said come on
22:07
look like i'm constantly looking in the
22:09
camera so this is the us thing and i've
22:11
been told you know they can say as an
22:13
executive producer i told the network
22:15
we're not shooting a tv show we're your
22:18
cameras are capturing a therapy session
22:20
and that's different you know so i'm so
22:23
glad that we can do this because people
22:25
are in need and i'm so proud of
22:26
everybody calling in
22:28
you know this is what we have to do this
22:30
should not be strange to us you feel me
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