The Friend School

This Halloween special takes a chilling turn as Matt faces the night alone...no Paige by his side. But don't shy away; we’re peeling back the layers of the everyday masks we wear. Not the playful ones from your local Spirit costume store, but the subtle, invisible ones crafted from societal expectations, judgment, and a blobs of stress. Whether you're in ministry, business, caregiving, or...

When forever doesn’t happen…what does that say about your friendship? Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connection with others. This week we're tearing down the myth that “true friendship lasts forever” and exploring what it means when a close connection fades. If you’ve ever felt guilt, grief, or confusion ove...

You’ve heard it. Maybe you’ve said it: “I don’t need friends.” Whether it’s past wounds, a jam-packed schedule, or pride disguised as independence, many of us quietly buy into the myth that going solo is strong. In this episode, we dig into the deeper reasons people drift into loneliness without realizing it, and we unpack four powerful reasons that might be holding you back from friendship (yes,...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connection with others. What happens when a marriage doesn’t just break, but absolutely shatters? In this powerful conversation, we sit down with our dear friends James and Deb Mavis to hear one of the most stunning stories of honesty, damage, healing, failure, and hope that we’ve...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connection with others. Do you believe a true friend should “just know” how you’re feeling or what you need, without you ever having to say it? You’re not alone… but it’s a trap. In this mythbusters edition of the Friends School, we’re challenging the subtle (but relationship-wreck...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. In this episode of The Friend School, we dive into a freeing truth: you’re not meant to be everyone’s person. From people-pleasing and social media pressure to the spiritual tug-of-war between being kind and being burnt out, we unpack what’s under the surfa...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. In this first episode of season 2, we're kicking off our "Friendship Myth Busters" series by tackling a big one: the belief that friendship is easy, automatic, and effortless. Spoiler alert: it’s not. But here’s the good news: it’s absolutely possible! Jump in...

Hey Friend! Guess who's back?!? It's Matt + Paige and we're excited to be jumping into Season 2 of The Friend School! After a little hiatus, we can't wait to get back to tackling the growing loneliness and disconnection that abounds. It's everywhere. Even in spaces where hugs and high-fives abound (yep, even in the church), real, life-giving friendships can feel just out of rea...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. Today, we’re hanging out with our good friend, Dr. Matt Jarvinen, to dive deeper into the barriers that often get in the way of connection in friendship. We’ll also explore practical ways to show up emotionally for the people in our lives. As a clinical psychol...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. Holidays like Thanksgiving & Christmas are ripe for relational connection, but they often come with a side of stress, expectation hangovers, social overload, FOMO, and pressure to make everything special! Between trying to make things  perfect  and piling o...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. In this episode, we continue our conversation with our dear friend and Certified Grief Counselor, Susan Salluce. There are a 1000 topics we can cover when talking through friendship and connection. This topic of grief is not a "fun" one per se BUT, we all know...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. In this episode, we sit down to talk with our dear friend and Certified Grief Counselor, Susan Salluce. There are a 1000 topics we can cover when talking through friendship and connection. This topic of grief is not a "fun" one per se BUT, we all know that when...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. In this episode, we're looking at some drama that went down "back in the day" and gleaning some pretty important lessons from it. There's something for everyone here: Have you ever made a really bad mistake that negatively impacted your reputation? Ever made a...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. How many of our friendships suffer because we're not yet convinced we're lovable? Perhaps we've lived with a mask for so long, we've never allowed ourselves to be loved for who we really are. The good news of God's grace announces that we are both loved AND lov...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. Righteousness is more than just a churchy word—it's a lifeline for our friendships. Yet many of us struggle to believe we’re truly righteous. We might accept that God loves us, forgives us, and promises us a place in heaven, but righteous? Here and now?...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. In this ‘extended’ episode Matt & Paige sit down with longtime friends Drake and Lisa Kellas. Drake is the life of the party, while Lisa is the highly intentional social introvert—a perfect pairing in our opinion. Join in as we talk through their very d...

Summer has come to an end. Fall is starting up which means new environments. New people. New relationships, and hopefully new friendships! New spaces and places can bring up some social anxiety and stress as we think about meeting new people. In this episode, we reminisce on our own "first days" and what we were feeling as a new school year kicked off, and what has changed since then. Th...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others.   Some seasons of friendship are easy-peezy...they seem to maintain themselves effortlessly, while in other seasons we find our deep ties tend to struggle and stall out. Meh! Sometimes all it takes to regenerate and energize a fizzling friendship are a few...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others.   How are your affirmation skills? Have you been on the receiving end of life-giving words from a friend? What did those words do for your soul? I bet they changed you. In our experience, the affirmation we’ve received from people has had tremendous shaping...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. When it comes to friendship, one of the things that we’ve struggled with is the pressure to K.I.T…you know…keep in touch. There are so many feelings that surface with this topic: pressure, guilt, excitement, expectation, joy, fulfillment, regret, just to na...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. In this episode, we’re diving into the art of asking questions and discovering how a little curiosity can supercharge your connections. Wherever you’re at on the “interested in others” scale, the good news is that you can grow! And that, my friend, is an in...

Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone who is genuinely interested in you...someone who asks great questions, listens well, and is genuinely curious about your life? It can be so life-giving and such a powerful way to connect. If it IS so life-giving, why don’t we do more of that? The sad reality is that curiosity and interested people are rare…and honestly, friendships suffer and stal...

Have you ever been to a really fun gathering? A really great party? What made it fun? What made it memorable?  Have you ever been to a gathering that felt flat, dull, and just a little awkward and uncomfortable?  What was the difference? Chances are, the host had forethought and intentionality...or a severe lack of it. Hospitality is a gift! And the good news is we can grow in it and learn to crea...

You've heard the stats. Loneliness is on the rise. Life in a post-pandemic world hasn't solved the problem of isolation and loneliness...but it has exposed it. And according to the latest research, it's getting worse. Most of us inherently know the antidote to loneliness is friendship and connection with others, but there's another barrier we all deal with: busyness. We need connec...

Welcome to The Friend School podcast with Matt & Paige! It's time to discover your confidence and deepen your connections with others. Key Ideas from Episode 002: A+ conversations from the last week How "belief dictates behavior" How self-view shapes behavior and impacts friendships and how neuroscience research supports this idea. Feeling awkward or frustrated often stems from s...