Financial Therapy with Families

Abstract

A manualized form of financial therapy for families is proposed to decrease tensions caused by conflict arising on family members' understanding of money. When used with families, financial therapy goes beyond financial education by addressing individual behaviors and attitudes toward personal finance within the dynamics of a family system. To address a therapist's lack of formal training in family systems and/or financial therapy, a manualized form of financial therapy is introduced. A case example is presented to illustrate the benefits of this approach. This article demonstrates that therapists can use a manualized format of financial therapy for families to promote positive changes in a family's dynamics and behaviors in regards to finances.

MFTs: Confidence, Comfort, and Training to Address Client Financial Concerns

“…MFTs must know the limits of their competence and understand that, if not skilled in addressing financial concerns, referral of clients to a financial professional is a critical and ethically appropriate skill (Aniol & Snyder, 1997). It is especially important for clinicians to be aware of implicit biases regarding assumptions of normative financial behaviors (Smith et al, 2017), particularly when working with families experiencing significant economic hardships. These clients will have fewer financial resources and may therefore reach out to their therapist about concerns that others may direct to a financial planner or financial advisor.…”

“…Klontz et al's (2015) book, Financial Therapy: Theory, Research and Practice, provides assessment tools, theoretical models, money-based disorders, and ethical considerations for MFTs when working with client financial concerns. Recently, Smith et al, (2017) proposed a manualized format for conducting financial therapy with families. Other researchers have begun adapting family theories to financial issues and have developed successful systemic tools and approaches to money-related therapeutic concerns (e.g.…”

Moonlighting to the Side Hustle: The Effect of Working an Extra Job on Household Poverty for Households With Less Formal Education

“…Given our findings of the disparate benefits of multiple jobholding on household poverty, incorporation of assessments on whether and how individuals and families use working more than one job to support their economic well-being into financial capacity and asset building practice (Sherraden et al, 2018) and “financial therapy” interventions (Smith et al, 2017) could prove beneficial. The effect on the poverty rate of consistent versus occasional multiple jobholding, and of combining casual earnings with a primary job versus other arrangements, suggests that evaluating income flows for economically vulnerable households should take into consideration current or potential side hustles and/or the capacity to consistently rely on this strategy until achieving sustainable wages and hours on a single primary job.…”

Perspectives on Finances and Mental Health Status among Low-Income Los Angeles Latinas

“…Financial therapy approaches may result in improvements on the emotional and physical wellbeing of low-income Latinas. This may be achieved by helping them determine present and future financial goals over time, focusing on problem-solving and solutionoriented behaviors (Archuleta et al, 2020;Delgadillo & Britt, 2015;Kim et al, 2011;Smith et al, 2017).…”