What Is Financial Therapy, and How Does it Affect Financial Planning?

Send us Fan MailFinancial Advisor, Stefanie Pickard, talks about Financial Therapy, and how she utilizes her training to help clients understand their financial past, how those biases impact their outlook on money and decision making, and how they can work through those barriers towards financial freedom.An ideal client for financial therapy is someone who recognizes that they are having mental and emotional blocks towards finances, and who can have an open mind to changing.It’s believed that most money behaviors are rooted in family and experiences with money throughout a lifetime. Financial therapy focuses on exploring and digging out those various relationships and events so that when you do behave in a certain way that goes against your best interest financially, you can identify the reason.Financial therapy can also help couples who have different opinions and approaches towards money, in turn creating conflict. Applying therapy techniques to both parties within the relationship can help them explore their individual relationships with money, understand the other party’s perspective and experiences, and provide perspective on how to support each other.Problematic financial behaviors that might be a red flag include overspending, compulsive buying, apathy towards money, workaholism, anxiety surrounding money and the feeling of not being able to get finances under control, and financial abuse towards a partner.There are a few tools used within financial therapy to help clients:·         The primary tool is called Klontz Money Script Inventory (KMSI), which is an assessment questionnaire, which will reveal certain money tendencies and beliefs, called “scripts”. The four scripts are:  Money Avoidance, Money Status, Money vigilance and Money Worship.·         The money genogram is when a client draws a family tree that includes any person who has had a financial influence within their life. Doing this allows the client to then assess how each of these individuals impacted their beliefs and biases.·         The Dow Jones exercise is when a client draw plot points on, above, or below a center line that are positive or negative money experiences in their life. Doing so allows the client to identify trends and visualize the incidents throughout their life that had a financial impact on them and are still influencing them today. ·         Another tool is having a client write out life aspirations and authentic goals. The client starts by writing down goals with no parameters or censoring whatsoever. They then narrow them down according to their level of enthusiasm, and eventually focus on the goals that are feasible, determine a dollar amount that is required to achieve it, and what steps need to be taken to make that goal concrete. If you have questions regarding how Stefanie can help you reach your financial goals, please do not hesitate to contact us at (503) 227-0200, and we can connect you accordingly.