HOUSTON (February 8, 2023) — Beyond Finance, one of the nation’s premiere debt help organizations, congratulates one of its financial wellness client counselors, Nathan Astle, for founding and opening the Financial Therapy Clinical Institute (FTCI). Astle, a Certified Financial Therapist™ and licensed marriage and family therapist, works with Beyond Finance. His responsibility is offering financial wellness counseling to its clients.
The core objective of FTCI is to train therapists, counselors, and planners on the foundational tenets of financial wellness. Additionally, FTCI will teach its clients to implement those economic principles into their work.
“It wasn’t until 2008 that a real transdisciplinary step was taken to establish the Financial Therapy Association,” said Astle. “That’s when therapists and financial planners created a new field to help people change how they think, feel and behave around money. The Financial Therapy Clinical Institute was made to bolster that work and continue developing this important field of study.”
Why Open the Financial Therapy Clinical Institute?
Astle established his new undertaking as a model for other industry practitioners to bring into their practices. His idea is to fill a gap in many of the training clinical professionals receive related to Acute Financial Stress. FTCI is already developing a curriculum on various scenarios to be studied, such as “Couples and Money” and “Financial Trauma.”
“We asked Nate to help lead our client’s financial wellness program with Dr. Erika Rasure. Based on his understanding of mental health issues related to personal debt, we are confident that we’re changing lives more holistically,” said Beyond Finance Chief Operations Officer Lou Antonelli. “The same care and expertise he is placing into FTCI are what he provides each of our clients searching to improve their relationship with their finances.”
His vision for the Financial Therapy Clinical Institute is simple. Astle wants to do more than help therapists understand how to directly serve their clients struggling with finances. “This is more than creating a healthy perspective about financial health, but making a real shift in how everyone approaches money,” he said.
For more information, contact either Yolanda Schufford ([email protected]) or Shawn Paul Wood ([email protected])