Ageless Valerie Bertinelli, 66, Poses in No-Makeup Selfie as She Gives Heartfelt Advice on Trauma: 'Heal Those Childhood Wounds'

One Day at a Time actress Valerie Bertinelli shared a heartfelt message about healing from trauma while posing without makeup in a close-up selfie.

The 66-year-old posted the long, thoughtful message to her followers in a July 6 Instagram post.

“I’d like to share something with you that might help with some challenges you may have gone or are going through,” she said. “The revelatory lesson I was able to learn in the last few years was this - unless and until you take care of the original shame that never ever belonged to you, someone will come along and try to use that vulnerability to take advantage of you.”

“It’s your responsibility to safeguard yourself from this,” she added.

Bertinelli rose to stardom as a child in the 1970s and 1980s when she played Barbara Cooper Royer on the sitcom One Day at a Time. The role earned her two Golden Globes.

“Take care of and start to heal all of those childhood wounds. Get curious. Study your emotional bruises. Treat clarity and self-love like a muscle,” she told her followers. “Stretch it and strengthen it. Learn to trust your body’s intuition, not what your brain is trying to make sense of.”

“And ask your inner critic to back off and instead become unflinchingly self-compassionate,” Bertinelli wrote.

Earlier this year, Bertinelli released a memoir entitled Getting Naked, in which she detailed being sexually abused at just 11 years old.

She told People she no longer feels ashamed about that part of her past; instead, she’s angry for her younger self.

Bertinelli has been open about her trauma and now coaches her followers on how to keep “manipulative people” from getting “under your skin.”

“Don’t try to make sense of their abusive behavior; it’s actually a very good thing that you don’t understand it,” Bertinelli said. “Blackmail, public shaming and smear campaigns will no doubt be uncomfortable, and yet when you believe in yourself, all of that vilification will bounce right off of you, overcoming your need to defend yourself.”

“Clarity, strength, and self-love will win over manipulation and mind games every single time,” she added.

Bertinelli also hosts a podcast called “Getting Naked” where she dives deeper into “life, growth, creativity, and showing up as your real self.”

“You will never control someone else’s behavior, nor should you. That’s on them. What you can control is your reaction and what you take away from it,” she continued on her social media post.

“Your work is within yourself. Focus on that. It’s none of your business what other people think of you,” the actress concluded. “That painful lesson will become a gift. And the wisdom you gain will change your life.”

Bertinelli’s thousands of supporters chimed in in the comments section to praise the actress for her vulnerability and ageless beauty.

“Your cuteness exceeds normal. It is beauty that lasts,” one person wrote. “And backed by a positive attitude to the struggles that occur in life is inspiring.”

“You have great character and hair,” a second commented.

“Beautiful and so relatable,” another said. “Thank you for your honest and vulnerable share!”