Services for Therapists, Counsellors and Coaches

Our focus here is on financial training for those helping others with finance, specifically those who are trained to help, but not trained in finance or the psychology of finance.

According to the Office of National Statistics, around 10% of the UK population were saying they were in debt or arrears, and that was in 2002, before the credit crunch. Debt is ‘a pathway to mental health problems’, according to a 2008 MIND report and financial difficulties are commonly quoted as one of the three major causes of relationship/marriage break-down.

But as an article in Therapy Today in October 2008 pointed out in relation to the MIND report;
"health professionals are failing to engage with the issue. Why? Apparently because they lack the relevant knowledge to do so".

The therapy today article is at
http://www.therapytoday.net/index.php?magId=21&action=viewArticle&articleId=49

It also points out that:
"neither BACP nor the British Psychological Society even provide a tick box for practitioners to list debt problems as an area of interest or expertise. In both cases, this is apparently because there has been no call from practitioners for such a category to be created."

In the same way, in late 2008, the TV programme “Dispatches” claimed that more than 4 million households were in "negative cash flow" (that is, they had more money going out on a regular basis than was coming in). Despite this, there is nothing that gives guidance to people about why so many people have trouble and what they can do to avoid these problems, it is a case of (lack of) cure rather than prevention. Individuals have to wait until disaster strikes, then they have to find appropriate help, and the appropriate help doesn’t seem to be there.

We provide a way for those who have professional qualifications in these areas (such as BACP or BPS qualifications) and Employee Assistance Providers (EAPs) to have more confidence and specialist information in dealing with financial issues. We work on the basis that if you offer services in this area you will be qualified in appropriate areas (such as CBT) and have up to date CPD etc. Our basic focus is therefore on the application of your professional skills to the specific issues that arise in relation to handling money, and the basics of budgeting and financial competence to assist you in dealing with the problems arising from clients’ "unhealthy" relationships with money. Contact us.

Similarly, many of those who are involved in both executive and life coaching encounter clients who have money issues. In this case, we provide the experienced coach some basic financial information and specific tools around the psychology of finance to use in their practice, but also teach the signs that we use ourselves to appreciate when a client has issues that require a different skill set, such as professional counselling training, so that referrals can be made when appropriate. This allows coaches to have more confidence in their ability to help with financial challenges and to work with the more basic psychological issues around irrational beliefs regarding money, but to avoid going into areas where the coach is not qualified to give relevant help. Contact us.

We have set out some details of our financial coaching and training services to help people in handling money, which you may like to read. This also gives you the opportunity to receive our newsletter on the psychology of finance.