Session 447: Getting Through Friendship Breakups
Therapy for Black Girls
iHeartPodcasts and Joy Harden Bradford, Ph.D.
4.8 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Friendships are a life line for us. Friends keep our secrets, they celebrate our wins and hold us up during the difficult times. So when a friendship ends, for whatever reason there is an acute grief associated with no longer having this life line and sadly this grief is often misunderstood and minimized. Today I’m sharing some thoughts on why friendship breakups are so difficult to navigate, what kind of support you may need to get through one, and how you might know if it’s time for a friendship to end.
About the Podcast
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.
Resources & Announcements
If you find yourself wading through the waters of a friendship breakup and you're looking for support, we’d love to have you join us in our Patreon for our Sunday night check in on January 25, 2026 at 9pm ET where we’ll be walking through the pages of our Friendship Breakup Companion Guide designed to help you process the grief of the breakup.
For more insights on friendship breakups and what it takes to strengthen our relationships with friends, grab your copy of Sisterhood Heals.
Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? You can submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox or you can leave us a voice memo at memo.fm/therapyforblackgirls
If you're looking for a therapist in your area, check out the directory at https://www.therapyforblackgirls.com/directory.
Grab your copy of our guided affirmation and other TBG Merch at therapyforblackgirls.com/shop.
The hashtag for the podcast is #TBGinSession.
Make sure to follow us on social media:
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Facebook: @therapyforblackgirls
Our Production Team
Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Gabrielle Collins
Director of Podcast & Digital Content: Ellice Ellis
Producers: Tyree Rush & Ndeye Thioubou
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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. |
| 0:29.8 | For more information or to find a therapist in your area, visit our website at Therapy for Blackgirls.com. |
| 0:38.4 | While I hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, it is not meant to be a |
| 0:44.3 | substitute for a relationship with a licensed mental health professional. |
| 0:56.4 | Hey, y'all. |
| 1:00.4 | Thanks so much for joining me for session 447 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. |
| 1:01.9 | We'll get right into our conversation after word from our sponsors. |
| 1:13.2 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 1:15.2 | Guaranteed human. |
| 1:21.5 | Friendships are a lifeline for us. |
| 1:23.2 | Friends keep our secrets. |
| 1:27.1 | They celebrate our wins and hold us up during the difficult times. So when a friendship ends, |
| 1:29.2 | for whatever reason, there's an acute grief associated with no longer having this lifeline. |
| 1:34.8 | And sadly, this grief is often misunderstood and minimized. Today, I'm sharing some thoughts |
| 1:41.1 | on why friendship breakups are so difficult to navigate, what kind of |
| 1:45.0 | support you may need to get through one, and how you might know if it's time for a friendship |
| 1:49.8 | to end. |
| 1:54.6 | When we were planning out the episodes for this year's January Jump Start series, we knew we |
| 1:59.5 | wanted to include an episode on friendship |
| 2:01.2 | breakups because there aren't enough spaces that talk about the ways you change after a friendship |
| 2:06.0 | ends, about the grief you carry, the stories and laughs that you feel like no longer have a place |
... |
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