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Wellness Compass Podcast: "How's the Family?" — Season Premiere
Sep 18, 2026
Overview
Holly and Scott Stoner return from their summer break to launch a new season of the Wellness Compass Podcast built around a single recurring question: "How's the Family?" For the year ahead, the husband-and-wife team of marriage and family therapists will focus every episode on family wellness across all ages, stages, and configurations. In this premiere, they explain why they chose the theme, share how nearly 50 years of marriage and decades of clinical practice have shaped their own family, and introduce this episode's framing idea: family as our first, lifelong school.
In This Episode
Welcome back & the new season theme. After a summer off (spent, in part, on their own well-being), Holly and Scott announce this year's focus: family wellness in every configuration, across the full life cycle — not just parenting.
Why "How's the Family?" The question tested universally well because everyone already asks some version of it, and few things affect our own well-being more than the state of our family relationships.
Why Holly loves this work. Families often arrive carrying unspoken history — old wounds, unresolved grief, things that happened but were never talked about. Every family has its own unique "culture," and helping them reconcile is, as Holly puts it, a sacred honor.
Family as our first school. Timed to back-to-school season, Scott introduces the episode's central metaphor: family is the first school we attend, we don't choose our "teachers," and unlike traditional school, we never graduate — we're lifelong learners.
Holly's evolving roles. From child to teenager to young wife, mother, and now grandmother, Holly reflects on her current growing edge: learning to let go as her adult children build lives (and marriages) of their own, and adjusting to becoming an elder in the family after losing both of their parents in recent years.
The "multiple marriages" bit. A favorite line from their retreat days: every long marriage is really a series of marriages — pre-kids, raising kids, empty nest, mid-life, and now the post-parental-loss years. The relationship keeps evolving, and that's the point.
Scott on grandparenting without a model. Scott grew up without any grandfathers (both of his grandfathers died at 40) and is now, 13 years into being a grandfather himself, "making it up as he goes" — including adjusting as his grandson approaches the teenage years.
The core skill for family wellness. Humility, openness to learning, and flexibility — because change in family relationships is the norm. Closing thought: "Change is inevitable. Growth is optional."
Memorable Quotes
"Few things affect our own well-being more — the quality of our own lives more — than the well-being and the quality and the state of our family." — Scott
"Families hold so much... frequently without really talking about it and working through things. But they always seem to want to reconcile." — Holly
"In the school of family life, we don't ever graduate, nor should we. We are lifelong learners." — Scott
"I'm still learning how to let go... You'd think that maybe by now I'd have it." — Holly
"Change is inevitable. Growth is optional." — Scott
Reflection Question for Listeners
Holly and Scott close with a version of this season's core question:
How are you a student right now? What lessons are you having the opportunity to learn within your family, or within a family relationship?
Where are you the teacher right now? Where do you have opportunities to teach and influence others in your family?
About the Hosts
Holly and Scott Stoner are marriage and family therapists who have been married 49 years and have three adult children, two grandchildren, and three in-laws. Together they co-host the Wellness Compass Podcast, drawing on decades of clinical experience working with families of every configuration.
Connect With Us
Have a family story, question, or challenge you'd like Holly and Scott to address on the podcast? Send it in — anonymity and identifying details are always protected.
Holly: holly@wellnesscompass.org
Scott: scott@wellnesscompass.org
This podcast and its companion column release every other week. Next episode in two weeks — same question: How's the family?
Connect with Holly and Scott
📧 Holly: holly@wellnesscompass.org
📧 Scott: scott@wellnesscompass.org
📧 Podcast & column: connect@wellnesscompass.org
And please remember to subscribe to this podcast to get updates regarding new episodes. We would also appreciate you reviews and ratings in your app, as well as helping us to grow this nonprofit podcast by sharing it with others. Thank you!
There is a weekly Wellness Compass Column that is emailed each Friday morning that corresponds with this podcast. You can sign up to receive this free weekly email at www.WellnessCompass.org
