Session 443: What Do the Lonely Do At Christmas?
Therapy for Black Girls
iHeartPodcasts and Joy Harden Bradford, Ph.D.
4.8 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For so many, the holiday season can bring about feelings of depression, complicated family dynamics, grief, or the quiet ache of being alone when joy feels mandatory. In this solo episode, I’m talking about why loneliness can feel heavier this time of year, the many reasons we may find ourselves alone, and how to care for ourselves through a season that can be emotionally demanding.
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The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. |
| 0:23.8 | I'm your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. |
| 0:30.0 | For more information or to find a therapist in your area, visit our website at Therapy for Blackgirls.com. While I hope you love listening to |
| 0:40.4 | and learning from the podcast, it is not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with a licensed |
| 0:47.1 | mental health professional. |
| 0:56.6 | Hey, y'all. |
| 1:01.2 | Thanks so much for joining me for session 443 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. |
| 1:05.0 | We'll get right into our conversation after a word from our sponsors. |
| 1:11.2 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 1:13.3 | Guaranteed human. |
| 1:22.1 | So many of you may be familiar with the beautiful emotions record. |
| 1:23.9 | What did the Lonely Do at Christmas? |
| 1:31.0 | So the song was released in 1973 and is, I think, accurately about a breakup and having a Christmas holiday after a breakup. But I think it was ahead of its time because I think that |
| 1:37.0 | it named some very difficult emotions that we have just now started to talk about, which is |
| 1:43.1 | loneliness and sadness during the holidays. And so what I started to talk about, which is loneliness and sadness during the holidays. |
| 1:46.4 | And so what I want to talk about today is why some of those feelings come up for us, because I think |
| 1:52.7 | that there is often a lot of expectation and a lot of pressure for this to be the most joyful, |
| 1:58.5 | the most wonderful time of the year. And if you are not feeling that way, |
| 2:03.8 | I think it can bring up a lot of feelings of shame and guilt and confusion about why you can't |
| 2:09.3 | get into the holiday spirit. And I think it's important for us to have a place where we talk about |
| 2:13.6 | that. So there are a couple of different reasons, especially this year, I think, that may be |
| 2:18.9 | contributing to any loneliness or sadness that you may be feeling. So one, the holiday season |
... |
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