This is such a warm loving book validating the joys of the women working towards deeper friendships and relationships to build validation and strengthen self worth in a world doing the opposite..

I probably need a much deeper dive, and the opportunity to take notes, but at first blush. This is a really well done book with practical applications and questions for consideration at the end of each chapter.

Building healthy friendships takes a lot of work, and truly wonderful friends can become a sisterhood. What this looks like changes over time as women's needs change, and as the world changes. Dr. Joy Harden Bradford has helped Black women heal together for more than twenty years. Her work enables Black women to prioritize their mental health and become the best possible versions of themselves.

This is a book specifically about community healing and group therapy for Black women, but I think there are important takeaways for all women. As a therapist, Dr. Bradford introduces attachment theory, stages of development, the hierarchy of needs, and cognitive restructuring into this book. With this in mind, there are mini quizzes and questions to ponder scattered throughout the text, making it thought-provoking in the best way.

Suggestions for approaching the complicated emotions at transition points of life, changing friendships, and even navigating professional lives is invaluable. It is very gently discussed and validated; emotions are what they are, and it's how we deal with them that potentially builds or destroys friendships. The book is practical and straightforward and can help build a better life.

This book is a warm hug and filled with pages of validation. I mean chapter 6 & 7 I pretty much highlighted the entire chapter. This book is an absolute gem and should be a book club read.

This is a wonderful book that every woman, not just black women, should read. The author explains the power in simple language that even teenagers can understand. It offers real world resources for becoming a better friend and how to be supportive to others.

Sisterhood Heals is a very well thought out and informative book. The author has a way of provoking your thoughts and on how to nurture healthy relationships. I really enjoyed reading this book and loved the tips at the end of the book!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Dr. Joy Harden Bradford for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC of Sisterhood Heals, coming out June 27, 2023. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Sisterhood is a sacred space where women can speak openly with each other and all the masks that are worn for the world are removed. It’s the place where you lighten your load, and laugh. Our sister groups lengthen our lives. However, building and keeping healthy friendships takes a lot of work. How should these friendships develop as we age? What practices can we follow? Can they be the key to unlocking a more fulfilled existence? The answer is yes.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford has been working to help strengthen Black women for more than twenty years. In a sisterhood community with more than half a million members, she’s the go-to therapist for Black women looking to prioritize their mental health. Now she’s sharing all she’s learned using the tenets of psychology and group therapy to help us foster relationships that are not only positive, but transformative.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was the target audience for this book. I normally don’t read contemporary nonfiction. I’m also Samoan and white. But someone at NetGalley sent it to me, so I read it. I couldn’t help feeling the book wasn’t written for me though. It wasn’t directed towards me, so it just seemed like I was an outsider. The author speaks specifically to Black women about their friendships and experiences with other Black women. I think it was educational and well-written. I think it’s a heavy topic to discuss. It provided insight into experiences and relationships within Black culture. There were parts of the book that focused on sisterhood of all women. I was hoping for a little more of that.

I really enjoyed reading Sisterhood Heals. This book took me through so many emotions and a healing journey. I felt like I was having a conversation with my sustas my community. Each chapter addresses many facets of black women and topics that are often not addressed in the black sisterhood community. I loved the four S of Sisterhood. Also loved the chapters offered questions to ponder. Sisterhood heals has provided me a soft place to heal and I’m forever changed and grateful. #sisterhoodheals #TBG

The transformative power of Healing in the Community was written by a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford. She is also the driving force behind the award-winning podcast Therapy for Black Girls.

This reads like a map of sorts. How to improve your connections with other people.

Sisterhood is a safe place. A place where we drop the face we show to the world and just be who and what we are. These circles of friends are a community. But there is so much more to those friendships. They must be nurtured. They need to evolve as we do. This book will help you with that.

Dr.Joy shows us ways in which modern relationships with black women are influenced by the past. She shows us how to grow in those friendships even after we fall out. So many ways to have healthy and sustainable relationships. Full of love, empathy, and a desire for us all to be better and have better relationships.

NetGalley/ RHPG/BALLENTINE June 27, 2023

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Friends bring us both joy and heartache. This book makes you question your role with yout friends and how things could be different. This book was very insightful.

Great book. An important one to read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars. I would suggest reading this because it deals with healing and that is a great thing to do for yourself!

A wonderful, insightful book full of moving, thought-provoking, and practical reflections, questions, and suggestions for tapping into your friendships and support/sister circles. As the book blurb notes, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is an in-demand therapist for Black women and has an award-winning podcast Therapy for Black Girls - Sisterhood Heals is centered on the experience of Black women and I think the content will resonate with any woman looking to self-reflect and nurture and/or repair their relationships with their friendship group/sister circle.

Thank you very much to Random House Ballantine for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Sisterhood Heals is my first non-fiction read of the year. And I’ll be honest when I first saw the title I was hesitant, because I believe that what I knew about relationships between woman were spot on, and that there was nothing more for me to learn in this one area. Boy, was I wrong. Doctor Joy not only brought light to situations that I always felt I was alone in or always needed clarity on and made it relatable, authentic and really suitable especially I think for people in my stage of life who have and or are repairing friendships. This book found me at the perfect time and read more like a story of fiction that I’m used to than a traditional nonfiction book. It’s a book I recommended in my family group chat and I’m thankful for this advanced reader copy.

Sisterhood Heals is a deep dive into the unique ways that Black women create sacred spaces to commune, heal, laugh, and destress. Dr. Joy explains ways to foster healthy relationships with our sisters and how to validate and allow space for one another and examines how these sister circles literally prolong our lives. This book is so important and valuable and contains a wealth of information. I plan to buy hard copies for myself as well as all the sisters in my circle. I'm grateful to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Sisterhood Heals is a practical handbook/guide that specifically highlights how black women can use our community, friends, and girlfriends in our healing process. I think this book will be helpful to not just black women but all women that have really close friendships and support groups. The author is a psychologist who has practical experience with these sisterhood groups, and you can tell from the way she writes. I loved the writing style, and I also really liked the questions and practical resources/steps at the end of each section. The way the author wove in pop culture, society, current events, and social media was fun and relatable.

I definitely recommend this book not only to individuals and friend groups but also to social workers and people that work in group settings. I really enjoyed it and will be trying to incorporate the practical steps outlined in the book when I can with other women in my community.

Thank you, Random House- Ballentine, for this arc for an honest review.

Sisterhood Heals by Joy Harden Bradford, PhD was full of fun, wisdom and joy.

A powerful book on transformative power of healing in community.
WoW, after reading this book I’m now convinced many women will find this too big such a big helpful read.
I was impressed by how quickly I got into it.
Joy Harden Bradford will help you with new ways on how to grow your relationships in a more healthy, nurturing way.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley, Random House & Ballantine for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this
amazing eARC!

Great book. An important one to read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars. I would suggest reading this because it deals with healing and that is a great thing to do for yourself!

Sisterhood Heals by Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 as a psychotherapist who incorporates the use of bibliotherapy in my practice. Dr. Joy is the founder of Therapy for Black Girls and as a Black, woman, licensed psychologist based in Atlanta, she has made it her mission to help Black women create community for ourselves among each other. Sisterhood Heals is both a culmination of her work as a clinician in practice and a handbook for Black women on a healing journey who want to heal in community.

Sisterhood Heals is broken up into four key parts:

Part One: An exploration of how our relationships with other Black women are shaped by our childhood experiences. An overview of how sister friendships have been essential to our well-being and survival as Black women both historically and in the present day.

Part Two: An exploration of the role vulnerability and our ability to be (or not be) vulnerable with each other impacts our relationships.

Part Three: Understanding how barriers and conflicts get in the way of our sisterhoods being successful over time. An exploration of how we know when our friendships have ended and how we can go about grieving those losses. This chapter is going to free a lot of people!

Part Four: Strategies for finding sister friendships and how to navigate sisterhood online in the digital age.

I cannot overstate how amazing this book is. Dr. Joy has provided her readers with a core understanding of attachment theory, a broad overview of the attachment styles and attachment wounds of Black women, and a roadmap for how to heal from attachment wounds and find community with like-minded sisters along the way.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the e-arc copy!