What is financial therapy?
Financial therapy helps you change how you think about, feel about, talk about, and behave with your money. You can choose to attend financial therapy coaching sessions as individual, couple, or family depending on your unique needs. Whether you're dealing with debt, navigating financial conflicts, or planning for the future, financial therapy provides a space to explore your financial habits, beliefs, and goals.
Financial therapy might be right for you if:
You feel stressed or anxious about money.
You and your partner frequently argue about finances.
You struggle with managing debt or saving for the future.
You want to improve your financial literacy and decision-making.
You have experienced a significant life change affecting your finances, such as a job loss, divorce, or inheritance.
What does financial therapy consist of?
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Financial Genograms
You’ll create a financial genogram, which is a visual tool that maps out an individual's or family's financial history and relationships. It highlights patterns, behaviors, and attitudes towards money across generations, helping to identify influences on current financial decisions and behaviors.
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Financial Values Exercises
You'll uncover your financial values, meaning you'll identify the core principles that guide your money decisions. These values reflect what's truly important to you, such as security, freedom, or generosity, and they shape how you manage, spend, and save your money.
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Spending Patterns Recognition
You'll understand your spending patterns, meaning you'll identify where your money goes and recognize emotions that drive habits in your spending behavior. This awareness helps you understand your financial priorities and make adjustments to better align with your values and goals.
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Financial Communication Improvement
Improving communication about money and money decisions means fostering open, honest discussions about finances. This helps build trust, reduce conflicts, and ensure that everyone is aligned on financial goals and responsibilities. Whether you're attending financial therapy as an individual, couple, or family, effective financial communication strengthens relationships and supports better financial decision-making.
FAQs
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Financial therapy coaching differs from traditional therapy in a two key ways. First, financial therapy coaching does not assess, diagnose, or treat mental health disorders. This means that if you experience significant mental health difficulties, I may recommend you seek a licensed mental health professional who is able to support your mental health needs fully.
Second, financial therapy coaching is able to delve more fully into the money side of your life than traditional therapy. We don’t just talk about the emotions about money — we actually talk numbers. At the end of the day, financial well-being is a holistic experience — and that includes the numbers in your bank account.
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Yes! I typically use Microsoft Teams to work with clients virtually.
In my experience, the hardest part of working virtually is converting my time zone (Eastern Time) to other time zones. I do my best!
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I charge $200 per hour for financial therapy coaching sessions. Most sessions are hourly, but some clients prefer to book 90-minute or 2-hour sessions, which are billed at $280 and 360, respectively).
As this is not a mental health service, I cannot accept insurance for financial therapy coaching.
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Not at all! I tailor my financial therapy coaching to fit your needs, and I am transparent about:
How many sessions I expect we will need to address your concerns
How often I would recommend meeting
What we will work on over the course of our time together
How each session contributes to helping you reach your goals
I also tailor my plans to fit your pace. That includes providing resources to work through on your own — books, surveys, worksheets, etc. — but only if that's something you want to do. There is no pressure!