Worrying about money? Financial therapy can help

Personal finance is all about “managing your money as well as saving and investing,” as Investopedia puts it. And it’s true. Your individual goals and values guide the way you handle money.By that definition, personal finance is exactly that—incredibly personal.Money can evoke a wide range of emotions, from positive feelings like joy, happiness, and confidence to more negative ones such as fear, guilt, and shame, among others.To address the negative emotions, financial therapy has emerged as a form of intervention. This approach combines traditional therapy and counseling techniques and explores the psychological and emotional aspects that come with handling personal finance.“It’s very similar, but it is all going to be under the guise of finances and money,” Aja Evans, a New York City-based clinically trained and licensed mental health counselor, and forthcoming author, says.Evans works “solely under the guise of how money is interacting in people’s lives” and what behavioral health problems that brings up for them.A lot of times we look at it as how our finances are impacting mental health, but usually it’s how mental health impacts our finances. Everything you may have seen, heard, felt, or understood around money growing up is going to add to your...