Bishop Briggs, courtesy Nick Walker.

Bishop Briggs’ third record, Tell My Therapist I’m Fine, became its own vehicle for therapy and the rollercoaster that took her from grief to love. Weary from pandemic doldrums, Sarah Grace McLaughlin needed a spark, which she found by returning to songwriting and a chance collaboration with blink-182’s Travis Barker on the emo-tinged “isolated love.”

“I remember writing that and thinking how freeing it was to write that way and to sing that way,” she said during a recent call ahead of the new album’s release. “I’d never done that, and who knows if I’ll do that again. I didn’t know what to do with that information. Was this just the Travis Barker effect?”

As she continued to write, the enthusiasm and energy continued to flow. The catalyst wasn’t the drummer but her late sister, Kate, who passed away  from ovarian cancer in 2021.

“I had written songs in the past that were about her and they were very depressing,” she said. “They were just total ‘longing for this person’ songs, and as much as I think they were important to do, they really didn’t represent her.”

Bishop Briggs found the inspiration by channeling the bands Kate would introduce her to growing, like My Chemical Romance, with provocative lyrics and soaring melodic choruses. Her sister was an avid Warped Tour attendee.

“She adored music and would be the person in the front row at the concert screaming the lyrics,” she said.

The other life event that changed the course of not only the record but McLaughlin’s entire outlook was having a child. That’s what convinced her to prioritize her mental health. That journey led to the songs on Tell My Therapist I’m Fine. “Undone” and others became a coping mechanism with acknowledging that she was feeling “off.” Elsewhere, the album chronicles her stepping stones.

“I was in such a dark place with losing my sister so unexpectedly that I had to do a lot of self work before even entreating the idea of having a baby,” she said. “On a song like ‘Growing Pains,’ I was eight months pregnant when I wrote it. Then with ‘My Serotonin,’ I had be a mum for a year at that point.”

Even when the lyrics may be serious or challenging, Bishop Briggs infuses an energy that captures the pop-punk aesthetic. While writing, she gravitated toward live arrangements. Before she would fine-tune her songs on stage during tours. That all changed with the pandemic.

During this time, the artist also worked as a judge on reality TV music competition “No Cover,” alongside Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale and Alice Cooper. She’d already committed to the show before the loss of her sister, but what could have been painstaking became a turning point by creating structure in her life.

“I had to show up each day, hear incredible music, talk to different artists,” she said. “I had to get dressed, I had to brush my teeth. Anyone who’s going through grief knows that those things are so hard.”

Bishop Briggs also appeared on—and won—season 9 of FOX’s “The Masked Singer.” As Medusa, she fittingly performed songs like MCR’s “Welcome to the Black Parade.” Having a child has helped fuse her personal and professional lives.

“There I am backstage, pumping with a little newborn at home,” she said. “I had no idea what to expect going into that and it turned out to just be the best thing ever.”

McLaughlin’s husband and son have accompanied her at her shows and the tours she’s undertaken recently, and she said her son has learned to walk on their last outing. Both have helped her get ready and take on whatever comes next.

“I allowed myself to dream of futures again, which was really difficult because for a long time I saw no future,” she said. “Walking out on stage with my baby having the little headphones and there being a crowd of people; that was the vision, that was the dream.”

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.