There are many potential reasons that couples attend couples counseling or coaching. Sometimes couples go in order to stop conflict and learn better skills to hopefully avoid divorce. Other times couples go in order to build and strengthen an already good relationship.  In the U.S. up to 50% of ...

Do you feel that your partner's habits with money are irrational? This is all too common in intimate relationships. Especially when two partners have different spending styles like when one is a spender and the other is a saver.  Whether your partner is a spender or a saver, you may find that y...

One of the number one issues I see in couples is the spender-saver dynamic.  The spender-saver dynamic is when one member of the couple wants to save most of their money whereas the other member of the couple is a spender and wants to spend without thinking too much about savings goals.  When t...

Welcome to Your Unfolding Life.  As you continue to embark on this life's journey it is important to continue to reflect on who you are.   We are all living an unfolding story with plenty of plot twists and turns. When we take the time to reflect on our money story and the one unfolding with ou...

Self-worth can be based on a variety of things. Some people base their self-worth on their achievements, others on their physical appearance and others on their moral or ethical standards. There is another group, however, that bases their self-worth on how financially successful they are and view...

Debt isn't isolated to only certain people. It's something that plagues people from all social and cultural backgrounds. It's something that almost everyone in our society has struggled with at some point. And it's something that strongly impacts your financial well-being. ⠀ When you have a high...

Defense mechanisms are the way that we try to psychologically protect ourselves from things that seem overwhelming or threatening.  This can be anything from being confronted with a big loss, like the loss of a job. Or it can be when we’re confronted by being wrong about something, like getting ...

It’s that time of year where we think about being with our families and about the family that we do not have.  It can be both a joyful and sorrowful time of year.  The holidays evoke a wide range of emotions and feelings.  As I like to tell my clients it is a psychologically activating time of...

Denial is a common defense mechanism where you refuse to accept facts or reality. Avoidance is a defense mechanism where you might avoid dealing with a tough issue through different behaviors and responses such as procrastination, rumination, and passive-aggressiveness.  Together, denial and av...

Projection is a psychological defense mechanism where someone avoids recognizing their unacceptable impulses and traits by projecting them onto another person.  In relationships, projection can be harmful because it creates a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding between partners.  An ex...