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. Create the repetition, and you create more opportunities for friendship to grow.
Carole Stromboni, founder of The Friendship Practice
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? +
In a study of friendship development, Professor Jeffrey A. Hall at the University of Kansas estimated that increasing levels of friendship closeness were associated with dozens to hundreds of hours of shared time. The exact figures varied by level of friendship and sample, so they are best treated as estimates rather than universal thresholds. See the science of friendship for the full picture. Source: Hall, J. A. (2019), Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(4), 1278-1296.
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 (2019).
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? +
A major meta-analysis led by Professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad at Brigham Young University, covering 148 studies, found that people with stronger social relationships had a 50% greater likelihood of survival across the studies analyzed. Source: Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B. & Layton, J. B. (2010), PLOS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316.
Does working near people build friendship? +
Not reliably. Hall's research found that time spent in "closed systems" (workplaces and classrooms where people are grouped by obligation rather than choice) was 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 (2019), 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 (2019), 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, founder of The Friendship Practice
Most adult loneliness is not about missing people. It's about missing the repetition that turns people into friends.
Carole Stromboni, founder of The Friendship Practice
What separates an acquaintance from a friend is usually not chemistry. It's someone willing to suggest the next time.
Carole Stromboni, founder of The Friendship Practice
A friendship doesn't need to be intense to stay alive. It needs to be consistent.
Carole Stromboni, founder of The Friendship Practice
You don't need a more charismatic personality. You need a more deliberate practice.
Carole Stromboni, founder of The Friendship Practice
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 research on shared time)
- 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
Sources
Research frequently referenced by The Friendship Practice
The Friendship Practice draws on peer-reviewed research rather than internal studies. A full, source-linked synthesis is available on the science of friendship page.
- Hall, J. A. (2019). How many hours does it take to make a friend? Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(4), 1278-1296. Time and friendship development
- Aron, A. et al. (1997). The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(4), 363-377. Experimental interpersonal closeness
- Wrzus, C. et al. (2013). Social network changes and life events across the life span: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 53-80. Social networks and life transitions
- Pezirkianidis, C. et al. (2023). Adult friendship and wellbeing: A systematic review with practical implications. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1059057. Adult friendship and wellbeing review
- Oswald, D. L., Clark, E. M. & Kelly, C. M. Friendship Maintenance: An Analysis of Individual and Dyad Behaviors. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(3), 413-441. Friendship maintenance
- Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B. & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLOS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316. Social relationships and mortality risk
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.