Practitioner Profile: Ed Coambs

Practitioner Profile: Ed Coamb

The Impact of Psychological Trauma on Finance: Narrative Financial Therapy Considerations in Exploring Complex Trauma and Impaired Financial Decision Making

The current paper aims to foster new discussion on the complex, deleterious, and conflated relationship between psychological trauma and financial management processes. Trauma and financial distress are interconnected, affecting the cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and relational aspects of our lives. A case vignette is presented for financial therapists which utilizes an integrated, trauma-informed approach addressing the lasting impact of childhood trauma on financial management behaviors and the client’s life story. Treatment modalities consider narrative financial therapy, four categories of sexual and financial shame, and four phases of trauma restoration. Ethical and practice implications are discussed

Trauma of the Past: The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Adult Attachment, Money Beliefs and Behaviors, and Financial Transparency

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a strong, lasting impact on our mental and relational outcomes as adults. They may also impact how we address financial beliefs and behaviors. The current study utilizes 500 participants from Amazon MTurk and structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the relationships between ACEs and relational financial transparency behaviors through attachment style and money beliefs and behaviors. Findings indicated significant direct and indirect associations across these pathways, particularly for experiences of reported neglect, verbal, and sexual abuse on less security in adult attachment styles. In turn, insecure attachment styles were linked to increased maladaptive financial beliefs and behaviors which were significantly associated with less financial transparency in the relationship. The findings provide support for the impact of childhood trauma on inter-and intra-financial behaviors. Practice implications are discussed for financial practitioners in utilizing a narrative financial therapy modality while still adhering to ethical considerations