Trina Braxton Is ‘Coping Better’ After Sister Traci’s Death: ‘I Had to Realize That It’s Okay to Not be Okay’ (Exclusive)

The reality star tells PEOPLE that she had to learn that “it’s okay to move forward, but not necessarily move on” following the death of her sister Traci in 2022

Trina Braxton is opening up about how she’s been coping more than two years after her late sister Traci’s death.

Trina’s mother Dr. Evelyn Braxton expressed her concern that her daughter was “eating and drinking her feelings” following the loss of Traci, who died from esophageal cancer in 2022, in the season finale of The Braxtons.

“Ever since I’ve been to counseling, it’s changed dramatically,” Trina, 49, reassured her mother. “I don’t even cook at two o’clock in the morning anymore. I can sleep at night now.”

“I want to be around for my sons. I want to be around for my grandbabies. I want to be around for my family. I want to be around for my husband,” she added. “There’s so much more I want to accomplish. There’s so much more I want to do. And I don’t want you to lose another child.”

In a confessional, she admitted that she was in “dark place” before realizing “it’s okay to be in grief. It’s okay to grieve, but Traci would want me to still live my best life.”

Related: Towanda Braxton Heard Late Sister Traci Say ‘It’s About Damn Time’ After Getting Engaged: ‘Her Spirit Is Here’ (Exclusive)

During a conversation with PEOPLE, Trina says she is learning how to move forward in her grieving process.

“Each day is its own journey,” she explains. “You wake up and sometimes it’s a good day. Maybe another couple of weeks, it’s a not so good day.”

“You can see something that can be a happy reminder, and then sometimes there are happy tears,” she continued. “And then sometimes there are tears of, ‘I miss you so much. I wish you were here. Oh, my gosh, that’s something that Traci would do.’ Sometimes it’s a laugh, cry moment as well.”

Related: The Braxtons: Towanda Braxton Vows to Keep ‘Fighting’ for Late Sister Traci ’til the Day I Die’ (Exclusive)

In a joint interview with her sister Towanda, the reality star reveals that grief counseling has allowed her to “compartmentalize different things as far as my grieving process is continuing to go.”

“I had to realize that it’s okay to not be okay,” she shares. “It’s okay to cry. And it’s okay to move forward, but not necessarily move on.”

As for how she is doing now, Trina says, “I’m able to sleep now, I’ll tell you that. I’m definitely able to sleep. That’s been a big one. I’ve been able to manage how I cope as far as eating and drinking. Whatever the case may be, I’m definitely coping better.”

Trina admits that showing the family’s grieving process on the Braxtons was “nothing short of difficult, but it was necessary.”

Related: Towanda and Trina Braxton Say New Reality Show Is for Their Late Sister Traci: ‘She Wanted Us to Tell Her Story’ (Exclusive)

“One of the things that we prided ourselves on throughout even doing Braxton Family Values, and now The Braxtons, was our transparency,” she explains. “If we were going to do what we decided to do from the beginning was to also help other people try to find resolve within their own familial unit, it’s only right that we were transparent and vulnerable enough to show everyone how we were feeling.”

Towanda added the family didn’t discuss Traci’s death, explaining,  “It was just an unspoken thing. Like, ‘Okay, she’s gone, but we don’t want to talk about it because we don’t want to make it real that she’s really not here.’”

“Like Trina said, it was difficult,” she continues. “However, it was refreshing because we were able to really come together to talk about and to know and pinpoint how everybody was feeling, and where everybody was at that point in time with Traci’s transitioning.”

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