Episode 139: Teach Me How to Make Friends As An Adult, with Psychologist and Friendship Expert Dr. Miriam Kirmayer
There’s a new epidemic in town: Loneliness. And while making friends is intimidating at any age, it feels especially daunting as adults. As we hit our 30s, our groups of friends are getting smaller and smaller (fun fact: We replace half our friend group every seven years as adults!). Life gets busy, people move away, and milestones come at different times. Even though this seems to be universal, it can still feel like something is wrong with us.
If we’ve learned anything along our adulting journey, it’s that friendships are crucial to our mental and physical wellbeing. So this week, we’re learning how to prioritize the most underrated of our relationships, how to make new ones, and why it’s so damn hard to maintain friends as an adult.
We’re not the experts, so we called in Dr. Miriam Kirmayer. Having spent over a decade researching the science of friendship and helping people live more connected lives, Dr. Miriam is a clinical psychologist, writer, speaker, and leading expert on friendship and social connection. She’s appeared on some of our favourite media outlets, from Call Her Daddy to Vogue and The New York Times.
She sits on the Mental Health Advisory Committee for Wondermind, a media company co-founded by Selena Gomez, and is a member of The GenWell Project, a human connection movement. She also has a private practice and is one of the first and only licensed clinical psychologists to specialize in friendship therapy!
Join us as we chat about:
Why our friendships dwindle as we age
Dr. Miriam’s best tips for making new friends
Overcoming the fear of rejection
How many hours it actually takes to establish a true friendship
How our attachment styles affect our friendships
Adapting to new life stages and navigating changing relationships
Why one friend can’t check every box
How to prioritize friendships (and why it’s good for your health!)
Advice on letting go of friendships that have run their course
We hope this episode helps you feel less alone and inspires you to get back into the friendship market. Remember, you’ve always got a friend in us!
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