Amber Portwood’s mini-me daughter is told to go to therapy after enduring years of stress on Teen Mom series

Teen Mom star Amber Portwood’s mini-me daughter has been told to go to therapy to deal with the trauma from her childhood.

In Thursday night’s episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Leah, 16, whom Portwood, 34, shares with ex Gary Shirley, 38, was asked by her dad if she’d like to give therapy a try. 

Leah lives with Gary, step-mom Kristina, and little sister Emilee Grace, while Amber, who dealt with her own drama in the first part of season two of the MTV reality show, has visitation privileges. 

The suggestion to see a counselor came from another dad in the series, Tyler Baltierra, who told Gary how therapy had helped him deal with his relationship with his own father. 

When Gary sat down with Leah to discuss seeking help, she mentioned being approached by a classmate who had told her she’d seen an old Teen Mom video clip on TikTok.

‘It’s just weird. I’ve been seeing a lot of TikTok videos with, like, old clips and stuff,’ she told her dad, who asked if they were painful to watch. ‘It’s just weird to watch,’ the teen admitted. ‘It’s always Amber screaming at you, and then you leave.’

Teen Mom star Amber Portwood’s mini-me daughter, Leah, 16 (left), has been told to go to therapy to deal with the trauma from her childhood with her mom, right. The news was revealed in Thursday night’s episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter 

She also spoke about another clip, ‘where she’s yelling, like, “Why is Leah crying?” When she’s in a complete opposite room, just leaving me. And it’s just weird. I think those are just painful to watch ’cause it’s little me.’

The show then cut to the clip to which Leah was referring, and then showed more clips from similar situations. 

Gary said that therapy might help Leah to be able to ‘forgive’ Amber, ‘overcome’ her trauma and ‘move on.’ 

‘I think it would help to have someone to guide me on how to forgive someone because it’s hard for me to do that,’ the teen told the camera in a confessional.

‘I’m not really sure when I realized when she wasn’t there, but I know I do have abandonment issues from her not being around,’ Leah said. ‘But I do know that there’s a lot going on that makes it difficult for her to be able to be there for me.’

I feel like it does affect me every day because I’m always scared that [step-mom] Kristina’s gonna leave me. I’m always scared that people are just gonna leave me for no reason.’

Later in the show, Gary mentioned to Kristina that he’d made a therapy appointment for Leah, and Kristina mentioned that it had been ‘four months again with no contact,’ from Amber. 

‘I mean, that just plays with her emotions. I think moving forward … you and I just have to go with what Leah wants.’

Leah lives with her dad Gary Shirley, step-mom Kristina and little sister Emilee Grace

Leah revealed she was dealing with ‘abandonment issues from [Amber] not being around,’ adding, ‘But I do know that there’s a lot going on that makes it difficult for her to be able to be there for me’

In the episode, Kristina mentioned it had been ‘four months with no contact’ from Amber

Gary agreed, adding that Leah deserved privacy about her decision. ‘She can go to her therapist, and say whatever she wants. So, if she doesn’t want her mom to know, that’s final.’

After her appointment, Gary said his daughter ‘didn’t really talk much,’  and he didn’t press because he didn’t ‘want to pry.’

In his own confessional, Gary said Leah was his priority. 

‘Whenever dealing with Leah, I want it to be her thoughts, her feelings, I think that makes it, it kind of puts a lot of those hard questions out of my hands and into someone else’s hands [who’s] a professional. It’s only Leah [who] matters.’