Many couples and individuals find it hard to talk about money, and when in therapy, including couples therapy, money is a main source of conflict and/or concern in people’s lives. Communication is often a challenge alone, but discussions around finances are often more complicated. Conversations around finances are important, but they can often spark arguments in relationships.
Whether you want to gain control of your finances, fight about money, avoid the topic and/or have fear and anxiety related to money, financial therapy could be for you.
What is Integrative Financial Therapy?
Financial Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that concentrates on the emotional dynamics, behaviours, and beliefs around your relationship with money. In therapy, we will focus on your relationship with your partner(s), other family members and at work. Your financial therapist will explore your beliefs around money and what influenced these beliefs and values while growing up.
We will work to help you develop a healthier relationship with money. This may help you to feel more confident about money, in addition to strengthening partnerships and family relationships.
Our hands-on, practical approach looks at more than just money beliefs. We will also look at the real, financial numbers while considering your feelings, thoughts, emotions, and creating financial goals.
No matter the reason for financial therapy, Integrative Financial Therapy offers a safe environment where individuals and partners can explore, express, and develop a healthy relationship with money. This type of financial counselling is solution-focused and will help you get on track with your financial goals.
Here are some of the aspects we touch on during Integrative Financial Therapy:
- Recognize your money stories and how you learned to perceive money growing up
- Explore your personal relationship to money today
- Develop your money values and learn how to use these to guide spending
- Figure out your money triggers and practice communicating this with your partner
- Establish money goals as an individual or couple and understand how each individual will contribute
- Develop a plan and set up financial systems for managing your finances to make life easier and prevent issues from resurfacing
Your Bliss Integrative Financial Therapist will work with you (and your partner) to figure out the best methods to manage your finances. There’s no shortage of financial tracking, budgeting, and investing advice out there, so when you get an approach tailored specifically to your unique situation, you’ll be better set up for success.
Integrative Financial Therapy is for you if:
- You and/or our partner spend more money than you make
- Grew up with differing money beliefs than your partner
- You disagree on how you should spend money
- Spending often gets out of control and credit debt feels crushing
- You’re worried about saving — for the future (retirement) or a specific upcoming purchase like a down payment on a home, or education
- You’re looking to set up some healthy budgets and financial habits for life
Integrative Financial Therapy is different from financial advising and debt counselling.
Integrative Financial Therapy is unique because it explores you (and your partner) as whole individuals. It brings together your behaviours, emotions, psychology, and specific money concerns to work on your goals.
It’s a specialized form of therapy where you’ll work with a licensed therapist with financial competencies and discover the underlying issues and develop more self-awareness. Your therapist will guide you to financial and emotional balance.
In most types of therapy, we discuss key topics such as sex, trauma, and heartache but we rarely talk about the thing that impacts us in every aspect of our lives: money.
We will check in with your thoughts and feelings before, during, and after we look at the dollars and cents. With Integrative Financial Therapy, you won’t get any quick fixes or temporary solutions.
Bliss consults with individuals, couples, and professionals to help develop a healthy and empowering relationship to money.
Contact us today and start creating healthy new money habits.
If you live in Waterloo, Kitchener, or Cambridge and you think Financial Therapy could help you, call or e-mail Bliss to book an appointment or a free consultation at 226-647-4123 or info@blisscounselling.ca.