Earlier this month, the Financial Therapy Association held its 2023 national conference and asked our Nathan Astle, LMFT, CFT-I™, to instruct a workshop on “Collaborative Practice.” The subject is close to his passion for closing the gap between financial health and emotional well-being.
“Mental health and financial professionals need to work more closely with each other,” he said. “Many perceived barriers to collaboration are more internal, such as inside the tradition, biases, fears of professionals, rather than external legal challenges. We can do more good if we learn to trust each other and work together for our clients’ benefit.”
His message at the 2023 Financial Therapy Association was “Collaborative Financial Therapy in Practice.” The premise of his presentation was that collaborative practices are rare, though they are instrumental in treatment.
Unfortunately, for clients of financial services, organizations don’t work as closely with accredited financial counselors or certified financial therapists as they could.
“There are perceived ethical and professional differences that separate the institutions from the clients who could benefit from their insight the most,” he continued. “Collaborative interventions could use input from both parties to provide continuity of care.”
Astle proudly represents his Financial Clinical Therapy Institute and organizations that believe in collaborative therapy, like Beyond Finance. With his help and others on the client’s financial counseling team, mental health and financial growth are connected so those working on getting out of debt can remain that way.
In addition to his work with Beyond Finance, Nathan Astle founded Relational Money, LLC. His financial and marriage counseling practice is based in Kansas City, MO. With clients nationwide, Astle’s insight on financial trauma has been featured in national outlets, such as CNBC, Money Geek and USA Today.