Nathan Astle, CFT™ at Beyond Finance

Nathan Astle

Client Financial Therapist, Beyond Finance

CFT™ | Founder, Financial Therapy Clinical Institute

Nathan Astle is a Certified Financial Therapist™, and one of the country's leading voices on the emotional and relational dimensions of money. At Beyond Finance, he leads weekly financial wellness sessions with clients navigating debt, and brings a clinical framework to financial recovery that no other debt solutions company offers.

About Nathan

Nathan Astle didn't set out to become a financial therapist. He followed his curiosity about the hidden connections between money, relationships, and emotional wellbeing — and built a career at the intersection of all three. Today he is one of a small number of practitioners in the country who holds both a marriage and family therapy degree and a Certified Financial Therapist™ designation, giving him a genuinely rare clinical perspective on why people struggle with money and what actually helps them change.

His core belief: money is not a math problem. It is an emotional one. The way people think, feel, and behave around finances is shaped by family history, shame, fear, relationships, and identity — and until those layers are addressed, financial recovery is incomplete. At Beyond Finance, Nathan leads weekly group sessions with clients, helping them work through not just the mechanics of debt but the emotional weight that keeps people stuck.

Nathan is also the founder of the Financial Therapy Clinical Institute — a training and research hub for mental health and financial professionals seeking to bridge the gap between emotional well-being and financial health. He co-hosts the Money Minus Shame Podcast with Tyrone White Jr., and writes a monthly column for Psychology Today entitled "The Psychology of Debt."

Beyond Finance’s graduating clients rate their financial habits at an average of 5.7 out of 10 before enrolling in the program, and 8.1 out of 10 after — a 42% improvement that reflects the kind of behavioral and emotional change Nathan's work is designed to support.

Areas of Expertise

  • Financial therapy and the psychology of money
  • Couples' financial conflict and communication
  • Financial trauma — causes, symptoms, and treatment
  • Shame, secrecy, and emotional barriers to financial change
  • Men's financial mental health
  • Collaborative practice between mental health and financial professionals
  • Family financial socialization and intergenerational money patterns
  • Financial infidelity and trust repair in relationships
  • The emotional dimensions of debt recovery

Credentials & Education

  • Certified Financial Therapist™ (CFT™)

Professional Roles & Board Memberships:

Awards & Recognition:

  • Financial Therapy Association Outstanding Practitioner Award — 2022 (the field's top honor for practitioners)
  • Financial Therapy Association Best Educational Program — 2025, for the FTCI Externship Program
  • Financial Therapy Association Best Paper Award — 2025, for coauthoring "Treating Familial Identity Theft Using the Collaborative Relational Model," Journal of Financial Therapy

Role at Beyond Finance

As a Client Financial Therapist, Nathan co-leads Beyond Finance's weekly client group sessions — delivering clinically-informed financial wellness support to hundreds of clients each week. He was brought to Beyond Finance because of his rare combination of marriage and family therapy credentials and financial therapy certification, making him uniquely qualified to address both the emotional and relational dimensions of debt.

He collaborates closely with Dr. Erika Rasure to deliver Beyond Finance's financial wellness programming and co-develop the content and tools that make Beyond Finance the only major debt solutions company with accredited financial therapists embedded directly into its program.

Monthly Column — Psychology Today

Nathan writes a monthly column for Psychology Today entitled "The Psychology of Debt" — covering the emotional side of money, financial secrets in couples, shame and self-distrust around finances, men's financial mental health, and the behavioral patterns that drive financial struggle.

Read Nathan's Psychology Today column →

Media & Press

Nathan's expertise has been featured in major national outlets across print, broadcast, and digital media.

Major Publications

Broadcast & Satellite Media

Podcasts

Speaking

Academic Publications

  • Journal of Financial Therapy — "Treating Familial Identity Theft Using the Collaborative Relational Model"
  • Contemporary Family Therapy — Research on financial stress and relationships

Connect With Nathan