DARIEN, Conn., Feb. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — After reaching tens of thousands of listeners across more than 75 countries, award winning podcast The Healing Heroes is evolving into something more immersive. Chandler Stroud, founder and host of the Healing Heroes Podcast, today announced the launch of Happiness Academy, a year long, application based membership designed to help women move from inspiration to action in their healing journeys.
Happiness Academy will officially open in February 2026, in response to the growing demand from listeners who have spent years absorbing conversations about holistic healing but have struggled with one essential question: where to begin.
“The podcast is an all access education,” Stroud says. “But what women kept telling me was that they wanted a roadmap. They wanted to know what to do first, what to do next, and how to stay supported while they figured out what healing actually looks like for them.”
The Academy is a direct extension of the Healing Heroes Podcast, which has since been recognized with seven industry awards and over a dozen press features. As the show grew, so did the nature of its conversations. What began as interviews with practitioners and experts expanded into deeply personal stories through a newer podcast pillar, Healing Heroines, which centers on women who have navigated grief, trauma, chronic illness, and loss using holistic approaches.
Those conversations revealed a gap between learning about healing and actually living it.
The Happiness Academy is designed to bridge that gap.
Rather than offering a prescriptive program, Stroud has built the Academy as a guided framework that respects individuality. Members receive a structured curriculum that introduces a holistic way of thinking about healing across mind, body, and spirit. They are then supported through a private digital community of high achieving women who are doing the work alongside them, as well as twice monthly live office hours led by Stroud, with occasional guest sessions from practitioners featured on the podcast.
“I can’t tell someone exactly how to heal,” Stroud explains. “What I can do is give them scaffolding, context, and community so they can design a healing journey that actually feels authentic to them.”
Membership in Happiness Academy is intentionally limited at launch. The first cohort will be application based, with Stroud personally reviewing early members to ensure alignment and psychological safety within the group. While the long term vision includes a larger community of women, the initial phase is designed to prioritize depth over scale.
“This is as much about listening as it is about teaching,” Stroud says. “The first six months are about learning from the women inside. Their experiences will shape what this becomes next.”
The Academy will be available to women based in the United States, with plans to expand to Canada. Early members will be offered an introductory annual rate, with pricing expected to evolve as the program grows.
At its core, The Happiness Academy reflects the same belief system that underpins the Healing Heroes Podcast: that health and happiness are not achieved through a single modality, coach, or practice, but through self awareness, choice, and self trust.
“Healing is about remembering who you are beneath the noise,” Stroud says. “Once women reconnect with that, everything else begins to shift.”
About Chandler Stroud
Chandler Stroud is the founder and host of the award winning Healing Heroes Podcast, a platform that explores holistic approaches for women navigating trauma, illness, and life transitions. Through interviews with her own practitioners, personal narratives from women healing, and now Happiness Academy, Stroud’s work focuses on empowering women to reclaim agency over their health and happiness.
Media Contact:
Name: Chandler Stroud
Company: Healing Heroes, LLC
Location (City, State): Darien, CT
Email: Partnerships@healingheroespodcast.com
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2915691/Katharine_Calderwood.jpg
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