This is the American financial picture on the macro level. Viewing the challenge at the level of the individual, psychotherapists working with couples often see relationship and money problems intertwined. Understanding our relationship with money can reveal much about who we are. We Are Money is an important symbol of agreement. We agree to exchange a huge variety of products and services for money, and we agree, with each transaction, on a perceived value of the product or service in question.
Money represents perceived financial value.
Yet, in addition to paying the bills, many people expect money to provide comfort, happiness, and to lower the stress in their lives, as well as to make them feel powerful, secure, and loved. Others nobilize their lack of money in order to feel virtuous, minimalistic, or altruistic, often in connection with spiritual pursuits. For many, money is seen as a substitute for or a means to reclaim lost parts of childhood. In short, our relationship with money reveals significant things about our mental health. Understanding the inappropriate expectations we place on money, which are perhaps rooted in childhood, may help us to make more mindful decisions, to feel more fully alive, and ultimately to remove the blocks preventing money from coming freely into our lives.