Financial Therapy
Feeling Anxious about Money?
- Embarrassed thinking that you “should” have this all figured out?
- Conversations about money get hijacked by shame and blame?
- Fearful about not having enough?
What is Financial Therapy?
Financial therapy brings mindfulness to your relationship with money. Your money behavior is shaped in large part by your environment: Family, culture, history, and the larger economic forces that impact us all. You are not alone. Awareness of these elements is the first step towards change. I offer a 6-session process for individuals and couples to introduce and work on these tools. With support and structure, you really can reduce the discomfort around money by noticing and changing patterns that are no longer useful. You can spend and save in a way that is guided by and honors your values.TOOLS we will use include:
- Mindfulness: Recognize getting triggered / reactive and put on the brakes
- Clear, supportive, productive communication with partners about money
- Exploring your personal, family, and cultural relationship with money — there’s more to this than just you!
- Nuts & bolts: Awareness of income and expenses, as well as planful spending. I am a huge fan of the friendly and useful system called YNAB.
Resources
- My interview in Portland Monthly: How Would the Buddha Budget?
- An interview with other financial helpers in Yahoo!Finance: You’ve Paid Off Your Debt: Now What?
- New York Times article on what financial therapy is.
- An article by Brent Kessel outlining 8 common archetypes that can play out in our relationship with money.
- Debtors Anonymous
- ClearPoint Credit Counseling is a helpful and free organization.