Therapy for Black Girls

This week we're back with another Ask Dr. Joy episode and today all of your questions are about the unspoken gaps in how many of us were raised to think about love. Dr. Joy discusses getting back into dating after years away, feeling a quiet disconnect with your spouse, and finally naming why relationships often feel so hard to navigate. These are the kinds of realizations that can sit with you for years before you find the words and today's conversation is about giving yourself the grace to learn what you didn't know you were missing.
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
Want to reflect on this conversation in community? Join us inside our Patreon community where we’re unpacking this episode together.
You can now catch episodes of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to get new episodes every week.
Did you know you can leave us a voice note with your questions for the podcast? If you have a question you'd like some feedback on, topics you'd like to hear covered, or want to suggest movies or books for us to review, drop us a message at memo.fm/therapyforblackgirls and let us know what’s on your mind. We just might share it on the podcast.
Grab your copy of Sisterhood Heals.
Connect with Dr. Joy on Instagram.

Stay Connected​

Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox.
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:
Instagram: @therapyforblackgirls
Facebook: @therapyforblackgirls

Our Production Team
Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Gabrielle Collins
Director of Podcast & Digital Content: Ellice Ellis
Producer: Ndeye Thioubou
Production Assistant: Bria Mosley
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to our minisode series, "I Have Some Thoughts." These short episodes are designed to contextualize the pop culture moments we're currently paying attention to through a mental health lens. Pop culture isn't just fun to chat about, it can reveal important information about how we relate, cope, and understand ourselves. Join us each Friday to hear Dr. Joy share her thoughts about the happenings of the week.
This week, we're chatting about Kandi Burruss & Todd Tucker's divorce, the tragic passing of Raz B & Mona Li's son, Karmelo Anthony's past, and the job market for new college grads.
Stay Connected​

Wanna chat more about the pop culture hot topics of the week? Join us inside our Patreon community.
Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox.
If you're looking for a therapist in your area, check out the directory at https://www.therapyforblackgirls.com/directory.

Make sure to follow us on social media:
Instagram: @therapyforblackgirls
Threads: @therapyforblackgirls

Our Production Team
Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Gabrielle Collins
Director of Podcast & Digital Content: Ellice Ellis
Producer: Ndeye Thioubou
Production Assistant: Bria Mosley
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Marisa Franco is back, and this time she's turning her attention from friendship to something underneath it: self-worth. Her new book, Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment, starts with a confession. While her relationship was falling apart, she was performing security, saying all the right things, staying calm, doing everything the books tell you to do, while quietly abandoning what she actually felt. She and Dr. Joy talk through why that kind of self-abandonment is so familiar to Black women in particular, and what it costs us.
The conversation moves through what Dr. Franco calls the difference between the good twin and the bad twin of high self-esteem, both of whom say they feel good about themselves, but only one of whom can sit with a hard feeling instead of pushing it away. She explains why insecurity isn't a flaw so much as a coping strategy our brains developed to protect us from repeat harm, and introduces memory reconsolidation, the idea that revisiting an old memory with care can actually change its emotional charge and help you feel safer moving forward.
They also dig into stigma, identity stretching, and what happens when we spend our lives chronically evaluating ourselves against an ideal we didn't choose. Dr. Franco talks about raising kids with real self-worth instead of just confidence, why chasing achievement often keeps us from feeling anything at all, and what it means to aim for secure-ish instead of secure.
Resources & Announcements
Want to reflect on this conversation in community? Join us inside our Patreon community where we’re unpacking this episode together.
You can now catch episodes of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to get new episodes every week.
Did you know you can leave us a voice note with your questions for the podcast? If you have a question you'd like some feedback on, topics you'd like to hear covered, or want to suggest movies or books for us to review, drop us a message at memo.fm/therapyforblackgirls and let us know what’s on your mind. We just might share it on the podcast.
Grab your copy of Sisterhood Heals.

Where to Find Our Guest
Grab your copy of Worth
Instagram: @drmarisagfranco
Website: drmarisagfranco.com
Newsletter: Attached (on Substack)

Stay Connected​

Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox.
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:
Instagram: @therapyforblackgirls
Facebook: @therapyforblackgirls

Our Production Team
Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Gabrielle Collins
Director of Podcast & Digital Content: Ellice Ellis
Producer: Ndeye Thioubou
Production Assistant: Bria Mosley
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to our minisode series, "I Have Some Thoughts." These short episodes are designed to contextualize the pop culture moments we're currently paying attention to through a mental health lens. Pop culture isn't just fun to chat about, it can reveal important information about how we relate, cope, and understand ourselves. Join us each Friday to hear Dr. Joy share her thoughts about the happenings of the week.
This week, we're chatting about influencer behavior at the U.S. Open, Raven Symone's relationship to Blackness, and Vic Mensa & Chance the Rapper's friendship challenges.
Stay Connected​

Wanna chat more about the pop culture hot topics of the week? Join us inside our Patreon community.
Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox.
If you're looking for a therapist in your area, check out the directory at https://www.therapyforblackgirls.com/directory.

Make sure to follow us on social media:
Instagram: @therapyforblackgirls
Threads: @therapyforblackgirls

Our Production Team
Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Gabrielle Collins
Director of Podcast & Digital Content: Ellice Ellis
Producer: Ndeye Thioubou
Production Assistant: Bria Mosley
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when you combine psychedelics with the therapeutic process? Psychedelic-assisted therapy is gaining attention as more people look beyond more familiar approaches to mental health, but there’s still a lot we’re learning about how it works and what it actually feels like to experience. In this conversation with Dr. Sierra Carter, an Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Family Research at the University of Georgia, we’re unpacking the science behind psychedelics in therapy, the ways it may affect the brain and body, and what to consider before deciding whether this approach is right for you.
Resources & Announcements
Want to reflect on this conversation in community? Join us inside our Patreon community where we’re unpacking this episode together.
You can now catch episodes of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to get new episodes every week.
Did you know you can leave us a voice note with your questions for the podcast? If you have a question you'd like some feedback on, topics you'd like to hear covered, or want to suggest movies or books for us to review, drop us a message at memo.fm/therapyforblackgirls and let us know what’s on your mind. We just might share it on the podcast.
Grab your copy of Sisterhood Heals.

Where to Find Our Guest
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sierra-carter-751b0224
Website: www.drsierracarter.com
UGA Profile: psychology.uga.edu/directory/people/sierra-carter

Stay Connected​

Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox.
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:
Instagram: @therapyforblackgirls
Facebook: @therapyforblackgirls

Our Production Team
Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Gabrielle Collins
Director of Podcast & Digital Content: Ellice Ellis
Producer: Ndeye Thioubou
Production Assistant: Bria Mosley
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.