If you've ever said,
"I'm bad with money" or "money stresses me out!"
You are not alone.
Financial therapy can help you understand your relationship to money and how you interact with it.
Money carries a lot of emotions for each and every one of us. It's common to hear from clients living with chronic illness that they get anxious, fearful, scared, stressed and confused when it comes to money. Living with a chronic medical condition can bring up new or worsening money emotions and behaviors for people. It adds an additional layer of stress to our lives. (Which we don't need more of!)
It's common to hear they're avoiding medical bills or insurance letters by hiding them.
Those spur-of-the moment impulse purchases ("This will solve the pain!") that gives a sense of control back when they've been waiting on the healthcare system to figure out what's happening in their body.
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The spending that becomes hard to stop. ​
Emotions can be uncomfortable.
And they can drive certain behaviors with money, often unconsciously.
Every single one of us has a money story that pulls from our life experiences from childhood through our present day. Our emotions and behaviors are a part of this story.
Can our money story be rewritten?
Yes! Parts of it can. While we can't change the past, we can reimagine our future by examining our values, beliefs and dreams about money. Then we can take action.
The first step of this process is awareness about what makes up our money story. Working together we can explore your current money story. Areas we'll look at:
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Emotions with money and topics around finances like debt, saving, wealth
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Behavior patterns: Are you spending more when you're in pain?
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Childhood experiences: What were you taught growing up about money? How was this modeled for you?
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Have you had any specific experiences as an adult that has had an impact on how you relate to money?
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Any trauma history can have an impact on our finances, whether the trauma is related to money specifically or not.​
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We'll then work together to understand your values, beliefs, and dreams alongside your money story. Then we'll start the rewrite. Aren't sure of your values? No problem. We can walk through this together so you can get clear on what these are today.
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It might be working through underlying beliefs holding you back through the use of somatic trauma therapy called EMDR.
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Need help learning how to identify your emotions and sitting with them? We can absolutely do that.
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Everything we do will be personalized to you.
If you're wondering, when do we get to the financial literacy part like learning more about budgeting, saving, improving my credit or other money strategies?
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I call these concrete financial strategies and we'll add these in to our sessions based on what you need. Part of a holistic financial wellness plan is understanding the emotional parts of money alongside the practical pieces. Starting out, we'll do more work on the emotional side first.
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If you have a chronic illness like rheumatoid arthritis or chronic kidney disease, we can also talk about ways to help with medical debt, finding disease based treatment assistance funds, and help you offset costs. When we live with a chronic medical condition, our financial wellness practices may look a little different than others so we'll tailor this to you and your needs.
I do want to take a moment to recognize that systemic oppression may be having an impact on your finances. As financial expert, Tori Dunlap states in her book Financial Feminist, "We cannot discuss personal finance, money, or economics without discussing systemic oppression. Outside forces - including but not limited to racism; ableism; homophobia; recession; natural disaster; and lack of access to health care, paid leave, or child support - are much to blame for why you might be struggling financially."
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We'll take a look at how certain systems might be affecting you and how to navigate the system as they stand today, while we continue to work on improving these systems through advocacy.
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Disclaimer:
I am not a financial planner or advisor. I cannot advise you on investments or how to allocate your assets. I can give referrals to you for other professionals that can make these recommendations.