Ashley Judd Says Judd Family 'Stick Together,' But Grieve Differently After Naomi's Death

For the first time since the sudden death of her mother Naomi Judd in April, Ashley Judd is opening up about the ways in which she and her family members, including sister Wynonna Judd, have processed their grief.

In an interview with grief expert David Kessler that premiered Tuesday on his Healing with David Kessler podcast, the actress, 54, described in detail how she and her family have adjusted to life without their matriarch, who died by suicide at age 76 on April 30.

"One of the things that I think we have done well as a family, meaning my pop, my sister Wynonna and me, is we have really given each other the dignity and the allowance to grieve in our individual and respective ways," Judd told Kessler. "And yet we've been able to completely stick together. So we can be at the same supper table and recognize, 'Oh, this one's in anger, this one's in denial, this one's in bargaining, this one's in acceptance, I'm in shock right now.' "

The star also opened up about the new routines she's developed, both on her own and with her stepfather Larry Strickland, who married Naomi in 1989.

"We don't try to control or redirect or dictate how the other one should be feeling at any particular moment. And I have had some of the most sacred and holy experiences with my pop. He, you know, my mom and pop and I are neighbors, and sister looks over the hill, and pop comes over every morning," she said, referring to Strickland and sister Wynonna. "I take care of myself first. I wake up and I do my readings and my writing and my meditation practice and connect with my partner. And then pop comes over and I make his coffee and his breakfast and we sit and we grieve together."

She added, "And that looks like different things on different mornings — he might cry, I might cry, we might just talk. I gave him a journal one morning and now he's got his practice of writing and I mean, it's just those times are so holy and we may be in slightly different places and yet we're in community."

As for her sister Wynonna, 58, who sang in the country music duo The Judds with Naomi, Judd said they are in a "different place."

"Sister came over yesterday and spent the day with me and spent the night and we talked about mom, we talked about social issues," she said. "She gave me a foot rub and she's in a pretty different place than I am right now. And we don't have to be congruent in order to have compassion for each other and I think that that's a really important grace that family members can hopefully learn to give each other."

She later added, "I had to let go of this controlling notion that yours [grief] needs to look like mine. I mean, that's really egocentric, isn't it? All my feelings are valid and appropriate by virtue of being mine, and everyone else's feelings are valid and appropriate by virtue of being theirs, and I don't need to add anything or take anything away from another person's experience."

The actress and her sister announced their mother's death in an emotional statement obtained by PEOPLE on April 30.

"Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public," the statement read. "We are in unknown territory."

The following day, The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and a tearful Wynonna accepted the honor onstage at Nashville's CMA Theater.

"Though my heart's broken, I will continue to sing, because that's what we do," she said during the ceremony.

Wynonna has since said she will continue on with the planned The Judds: The Final Tour without her mother to honor the legacy they built together.

"I've made a decision, and I thought I'd share it on national television that, after a lot of thought, I'm gonna have to honor her and do this tour," an emotional Wynonna said during CMT's Naomi Judd: A River of Time memorial special in May. "The show must go on, as hard as it may be, and we will show up together, and you will carry me as you've carried me for 38 years ... So we will continue this spectacle. That's what she would want, right?"

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "988" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.