Jessica Alba Says Therapy Has Given Daughters a 'Language Where They Can Communicate with Me' (Exclusive)

Jessica Alba says her daughters are learning effective communication skills while in therapy.

On Wednesday, PEOPLE attended the Honest Renovations screening with Alba and Lizzy Mathis at CHIEF Clubhouse in New York City, and spoke with the actress and Honest Company co-founder about parenting.

"They're at the age where their therapy is more individual, but it's given them, I think, a language where they can communicate with me their needs differently," Alba, 42, told PEOPLE of daughters Haven Garner, 12, and Honor Marie, 15. (She also has a son: 5½-year-old Hayes Alba.)

"It's so nice to be able to give them the tools to be able to understand themselves better and to be able to really articulate their needs," she added. "But when they were like ... 9, 10, 11, it was different. They didn't have the same kind of agency that they have now."

"So now they're like, 'Mom, I want to be able to talk to my therapist and you not always listen in,' " continued the mother of three.

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As for their personalities, "I would say they're all wildly different," Alba told PEOPLE. "They're all at different stages in life and they need something different from me."

"The one thing that is consistent," she continued, "[is] my 5-year-old gets jealous when I cuddle my 12-year-old or my 15-year-old. My 12-year-old gets jealous when I cuddle the 15-year-old and the 5-year-old. And my 15-year-old gets jealous when I cuddle the 12-year-old."

"If I cuddle one of them and rub their head, then all of a sudden I have all of them on top of me and they're all like, 'Mom, rub my head, rub my head, just rub my back,' " the Sin City actress added.

In May, Alba discussed how raising three kids with her husband of 15 years, Cash Warren, has made her love him "so much more."

“Marriage doesn’t feel the same as choosing to raise a human. That’s a different level of family," she told Maria Menounos on her podcast Heal Squad. "This person needs both of you forever, regardless of whether you guys grow together or don’t grow together.”

Back at the N.Y.C. press stop on Wednesday for Alba's new show, which just got picked up for season 2, she also shared how birthdays were "always a big deal" in her household growing up, so she likes to continue the tradition.

"I had a big Mexican family, and so we have at least 50 people at every birthday," she said. "So almost every other weekend was a birthday or a holiday, and there were always guitars and there was always a potluck of food."

And giving "meaningful cards" is a special birthday activity: "That's the thing that my kids really take pride in, is the cards they write for each other and for us. And so that's really sweet. That's probably what they cherish the most."

Honest Renovations will stream for free starting Friday on The Roku Channel.