Episode 58: Nurturing Adult Friendships, with Dr. Andrea Bonior

I enjoyed a lively conversation today with Dr. Andrea Bonior, a licensed Clinical Psychologist and faculty member of Georgetown University. Dr. Bonior spoke with me today about nurturing adult friendships, and the importance of friendships to both physical and emotional health and well-being.  She talked about many aspects of friendships, including:

• picking and maintaining the right friends for your personality
• recognizing when friendships are healthy versus unhealthy
• how life events can challenge friendships and how to face these challenges
• recognizing the normal ebbs and flows of friendships
• differences between males and females on making and maintaining friendships
• frindships and social media
• simple suggestions for nurturing existing friendships

Dr. Bonior recently launched her own psychology podcast called Baggage Check: Mental Health Talk and Advice, which premiered November 1st.  Baggage Check is about getting real regarding mental health and making listeners part of the conversation. She’s written several books on topics of psychology, including THE FRIENDSHIP FIX about topics related to Adult Friendships.

Dr. Bonior is a frequent commentator in media outlets such as NPR, CNN, The Today Show, The NY Times, and the Washington Post, and her Psychology Today blog has been read more than 25 million times. She speaks to audiences large and small about work-life balance and mental and emotional health.