Building Financial Awareness and Empathy in Therapeutic Spaces
| dc.contributor.author | Sulek, Jamie | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-01-09T20:47:12Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-01-09T20:47:12Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-12-22 | |
| dc.description.abstract | A vast range of financially rooted concerns arise in therapeutic settings, often intertwined with client-presenting issues. Despite the strong ties between financially related stress and overall well-being and its role as a significant source of personal and relational conflict, clinical research and evidence-based guidance on addressing this area remains limited. Although sparse, existing research suggests that many counselling clinicians tend to avoid assessing and leaning into money-related topics despite their deep connections to client identity and well-being. Whether or not existing research represents what occurs in practice, this capstone invites all clinicians, no matter their experience, to explore this impactful and complex area, fostering greater financial awareness and empathy within their work. This capstone aims to uncover financial assessment and inquiry barriers that may limit valuable insights and holistic client care. Offering clinicians introductory steps for deconstructing these barriers where relevant, this work encourages the cultivation of financial empathy through self-reflective practice, self-reflexivity, and a commitment to ongoing learning. Just as cultivating cultural humility helps clinicians understand diverse backgrounds, developing financial empathy enables them to better comprehend their clients’ and their own experiences with money-related matters. A core outcome of this capstone is to unpack financially rooted concerns, proposing a more nuanced framework to clarify which aspects fall within and beyond clinical scope. Findings suggest that while clinicians are well-positioned to explore many aspects of money-related stressors, many require additional support through training and evidence-based practices to navigate this territory confidently, even when it means making informed referrals. Ultimately, this capstone serves as an ethical call to action for clinicians, scholars, and leaders to lean in and amplify underrepresented voices and perspectives in the literature—voices that can better equip clinicians to approach financial matters with attunement to their profound impact on client identity and well-being. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11803/2658 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher.institution | City University of Seattle (CityU) | |
| dc.rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States | |
| dc.rights | openAccess | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ | |
| dc.subject | financial stress | |
| dc.subject | money | |
| dc.subject | financial anxiety | |
| dc.subject | financial assessment | |
| dc.subject | financial therapy | |
| dc.subject | counselling | |
| dc.title | Building Financial Awareness and Empathy in Therapeutic Spaces | |
| dc.type | Capstone | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Counselling | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | City University of Seattle (CityU) | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Counselling |
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