'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills': Expert psychologist decodes Sutton Stracke's behavior with Teddi Mellencamp
Sutton Stracke, the newest addition to the 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' franchise has managed to ruffle quite a few feathers, despite it being her debut season. The housewife has managed to draw attention to herself through her obnoxious display of wealth, and as a "mean girl" after she ended up making Teddi Mellencamp cry.
When Sutton revealed to Teddi that she thought Teddi was a "boring" person, the housewife took great offense and began crying. Although Sutton apologized to Teddi and made sincere attempts to make peace with the housewife, fans still viewed her as a "mean girl".
In an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), psychologist Dr Tracy Thomas, who specializes in emotional sensitivity and identifies herself as an emotional scientist, explained Sutton's behavior and why she doesn't think Sutton is a mean girl.
Tracy is a foremost expert on emotional sensitivity and a keen observer of people. As an emotional scientist, she helps emotionally sensitive people, who are highly driven people build the emotional string that they need to succeed.
Tracy explained how people assume Sutton to be a certain type of person because she is surrounded by wealth and privilege. But in reality, Sutton is a very "emotionally sensitive person," according to Tracy.
She explains, "Sutton is incredibly fascinating, I'm witnessing the projection of her life of privilege in a little bit of that Camille kind of (way) the expression of like leading with her position, her privilege, you can say well this is a real-life, she probably is sleeping on a mattress of, $100 bills or whatever and you can say."
"Sutton is living the life of privilege and this is real to her and she's used to it and surrounded with that privilege so she's just not self-aware enough to realize that other people are in it and that could sort of is obvious like that's what's going on but I see it more deeply than that and I see how emotionally sensitive Sutton is."
Tracy also points out why Sutton tends to show off her money and wealth. According to her, it is Sutton's way of assuming a role of "significance". She says, "If I (Sutton) tell you about how much money I have, if I tell you about my dresses and the designers and all of that, then I can be significant."
"And that's the way that you're going to somehow think that I'm worthy of the situation but ultimately I could really see that Sutton wants to be connected with people. She wants to be friends. She wants to have these relationships."
Although Sutton wants to be connected to people and form strong bonds, the reality star has quite a few hits and misses when it comes to accomplishing it. Tracy cites the example of Sutton's interactions with Teddi.
According to her, Sutton pointing out to Teddi about how her invitation to the retreat sent the wrong message. It is Sutton's way of trying to help and understand Teddi. However, her comments about assuming Teddi being boring was not a smart move on Sutton’s part.
Tracy shares, "What I think is really interesting about her (Sutton) is I liked that when she’s trying to share with Teddi 'listen Teddi if you want people to go to your event just say, I'll be really, you know, I'd love you to come and then, whoever comes, comes and whoever doesn't doesn't."
"And she was trying to say to Teddi something that I really wanted to say to Teddi. Hey, which was, you don't want to send them a message and invite people and then, and then say, I don't care if you go, which everybody knows that's not true and so, Sutton was trying to help her understand that."
"I really liked that Sutton was speaking, something that I would help a client with," added Tracy.
"Now the other side is where Sutton smart enough to know that Teddi is really sensitive, and can be kind of emotionally fragile and some of the things she was saying to Teddi, you can feel that she was trying to have Teddi sort of feel off-kilter," points out Tracy.
She also reveals why she doesn’t think Sutton is a "mean girl". "Sutton is smart enough to know that somebody like Teddi is going to feel overwhelmed and then that doesn't really put Sutton in a great light and then, here she is defending herself you know that she's not a mean girl and I don't think she is, but she's got a platform and I really want to see her use it to be a very direct person without being a cool person."