The Currency of Desire: Covering, Uncovering and Discovering Money Matters in Couples Therapy

Brad Sachs, Ph.D. 

November 16th, 2023 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

1.5 CE Credits

$30/ MPA/MSPA Members $55/Non-Members

Online via Zoom

Workshop Level: Intermediate- Psychologists who have experience in the content area or are familiar with the literature.

The topic of money is one of the primary, and most pervasive, sources of relational conflict, disrepair and dissolution. Learning how to communicate openly about financial matters is crucially important for all couples but because of our complicated and kaleidoscopic feelings about money, and an enduring taboo when it comes to exploring and discussing these feelings, effective communication is challenging and can quickly become stymied.

This workshop will focus on the ways in which couples therapists can help partners to better understand what money represents for each of them and how to enable them to resolve the inescapable tension that arises when those representations become misaligned and arguments erupt regarding how to collaboratively generate, manage and control money.

Attention will be paid to the ways in which gender, culture and religion, along with external economic factors, influence how couples think and feel about money, and inform the decision-making process that they engage in when it comes to managing, or mis-managing, their fiscal matters.

At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:

  • List three ways different ways in which members of a couple may think and feel differently about money
  • Identify four factors that account for the ways in which couples choose to acquire and manage their money
  • Identify five hypotheses that help to explain why money remains a taboo subject in our culture
  • Discuss four of the primary psychological meanings that money represents for us
REGISTER 
 

Dr. Brad Sachs is a psychologist specializing in the treatment of children, adults, couples and families, and the best-selling author of numerous books for both general and clinical readership. He and his wife, psychiatrist Dr. Karen Meckler, live and practice in Columbia, MD