Press & Media
For journalists covering adult friendship and loneliness.
Carole Stromboni is a friendship coach and the founder of The Friendship Practice. She is available for comment, interview, and expert quotes on adult friendship, loneliness, remote work and social connection, and the science of building relationships in adulthood.
Expert bio
About Carole Stromboni
Carole Stromboni is a friendship coach and the founder of The Friendship Practice, a practical coaching practice for adults navigating the real challenges of friendship in adulthood. She works with adults one-on-one, online, worldwide. Sessions are in English.
She is the author of Innover en pratique (Eyrolles), a leading French professional publisher, and hosted a 77-episode podcast on innovation and change. She splits her time between Hawaii and Paris, which has given her direct experience making and maintaining friendships across cultures, time zones, and major life transitions.
Her coaching work focuses on adults who are not struggling with social skills. They are navigating a specific situation: a move to a new city, remote work, new parenthood, or rebuilding after an important friendship ended.
Core media angle: Most adults seeking help with friendship do not have a friendship problem. They have a follow-up problem. The connection happened. The warm conversation happened. What did not happen is the small, deliberate act (the text two days later, the suggestion of a next time) that converts a good encounter into an actual friendship. That gap is where Carole's coaching work lives.
Adult friendship is less about chemistry and more about repetition. Fix the repetition, and the friendship follows.
Carole Stromboni
Key statistics
Data points for your story
The following statistics are drawn from peer-reviewed research and are frequently cited in coverage of adult loneliness and friendship.
How long does it take to make a friend? +
Research by Professor Jeffrey Hall at the University of Kansas found it takes roughly 50 hours of shared time to move from acquaintance to casual friend, and around 200 hours to build a close friendship. Source: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2018.
How much time do Americans spend socializing? +
The average American spends approximately 40 minutes a day socializing, less than a third of the time spent watching TV or commuting. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey, cited in Hall (2018).
How common is having no close friends? +
In 2021, 15 percent of American men reported having no close friends at all, up from 3 percent in 1990. Source: Survey Center on American Life, 2021.
What are the health risks of social isolation? +
Professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad at Brigham Young University found that chronic social isolation carries health risks comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Source: Holt-Lunstad et al., PLOS Medicine.
Does working near people build friendship? +
No. Hall's research shows that time spent in "closed systems" (workplaces and classrooms where people are grouped by obligation rather than choice) is a significantly weaker predictor of closeness than freely chosen time together. This helps explain why remote workers can feel lonely despite being "connected" all day. Source: Hall (2018), Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
What kind of conversation actually builds friendship? +
Hall's research identifies "striving communication episodes" (catching up, joking around, and meaningful conversation) as strong predictors of increasing closeness over time. Small talk, by contrast, predicted a decrease in closeness when it dominated. Source: Hall (2018), Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Ready-to-quote perspectives
Carole Stromboni on adult friendship
The following quotes may be used with attribution to Carole Stromboni, friendship coach and founder of The Friendship Practice (thefriendshippractice.com).
Following up after a good conversation is not neediness. It's the single most underused friendship skill adults have.
Carole Stromboni
Most adult loneliness is not about missing people. It's about missing the repetition that turns people into friends.
Carole Stromboni
What separates an acquaintance from a friend is usually not chemistry. It's someone willing to suggest the next time.
Carole Stromboni
A friendship doesn't need to be intense to stay alive. It needs to be consistent.
Carole Stromboni
You don't need a more charismatic personality. You need a more deliberate practice.
Carole Stromboni
Topics
Areas Carole can speak to
Carole is available for comment or interview on the following topics:
- Making friends as an adult after a move or major life transition
- The loneliness crisis in the United States
- Remote work and the collapse of ambient social contact
- Why men are losing friends at historic rates
- Friendship after a baby: the social network contraction no one talks about
- The science of how friendships form (Jeffrey Hall's 50-hour research)
- One-sided friendships and the psychology of reciprocity
- How to reconnect with old friends without it feeling awkward
- The difference between friendship coaching and therapy
- Expat loneliness and rebuilding a social life abroad
Contact
Get in touch
For interview requests, expert quotes, or media inquiries, email contact@thefriendshippractice.com. Carole replies to press inquiries within one business day.