Author Archives: Shervan K Shahhian, LIBERTY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, The Most Comprehensive Online Library Regarding Mental Health, Psychology and Parapsychology in the World.

Doctored Degree in Clinical Psychology (PSYD) (ABD) All But Dissertation, a Masters (M.A.) in Clinical Psychology, a Bachelor's Degree (B.A.) in Psychology, a Associate Degree (AA) in Liberal Arts with an emphases in Psychology, Certification in Anger Management, Certification in MRT-Moral Reconation Therapy®, Certification in Clinical Hypnotherapy, and Certification in Advanced Hypnotherapy.

Compassion Psychology

The Path of the Reduction of Suffering

“Compassion Psychology, it’s a modern approach to Psychology, with its practical applications. This theory was conceived by:

Shervan K. Shahhian in Los Angeles, California, USA and it is still developing as a theory of interpersonal development and Compassion. In Compassion Psychology, the effort is made by an individual to understand themselves better by self reflection, contemplation, meditation and helping others. Once a person understands their own strengths and weaknesses they can possibly make better decisions. Compassion Psychology can only work if a person is willing to make positive changes in their thoughts, words and behavior. Self improvement, compassion for self and compassion for all living things are at the core of Compassion Psychology.”
Copyright 2021
Literary Division
United States Copyright Office

Compulsive Buying Disorder, explained:

Compulsive Buying Disorder:

Compulsive Buying Disorder (CBD), also known as oniomania, is a psychological condition characterized by an overwhelming, uncontrollable urge to shop and spend money, often leading to negative consequences in a person’s life. It’s more than occasional overspending — it’s repetitive, impulsive, and distressing.

Key Features:

Preoccupation with shopping — Constant thoughts about buying things, planning shopping trips, or looking for sales.

Impulse control issues — Difficulty resisting the urge to purchase, even when unnecessary or unaffordable.

Emotional triggers — Shopping often serves to relieve negative emotions like anxiety, sadness, boredom, or stress.

Negative consequences — Financial problems, debt, relationship conflicts, or feelings of guilt and shame.

Temporary relief — Buying may provide a short-term mood boost, but it’s usually followed by regret or remorse.

Psychological Aspects:

  • Often linked with anxiety, depression, or obsessive-compulsive traits.
  • Can involve low self-esteem; shopping becomes a way to cope with emotional distress.
  • May show similarities to addictive behaviors, because it activates reward pathways in the brain.

Signs & Symptoms:

  • Frequent shopping sprees beyond means.
  • Hiding purchases from family or friends.
  • Feeling tension before buying and relief afterward.
  • Accumulation of unnecessary items.
  • Repeated unsuccessful attempts to control spending.

Treatment Approaches:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — Helps identify triggers, challenge maladaptive thoughts, and develop healthier coping strategies.

Medication — CONSULT A PSYCHIATRIST

Financial Counseling — Learning budgeting, self-monitoring, and avoiding debt.

Support Groups — Groups like Shopaholics Anonymous provide peer support and accountability.

Compulsive buying is often hidden and underdiagnosed, because it doesn’t always involve illegal activity and can be socially acceptable in consumer-driven societies. Awareness and early intervention are crucial to prevent financial, relational, and emotional harm.

Shervan K Shahhian

Financial Hoarding, what is it:

Financial Hoarding:

Financial hoarding refers to a compulsive or excessive accumulation and retention of money or financial resources, often beyond what is necessary for basic needs or reasonable security. It’s considered a type of behavioral or psychological pattern, sometimes overlapping with anxiety, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, or certain personality traits.

Here’s a detailed breakdown:

Key Characteristics

Excessive Saving or Retaining: Keeping money even when there’s no practical reason to do so. This can go beyond simple frugality.

Anxiety About Spending: Spending money may trigger guilt, fear, or intense anxiety, even for essential items.

Reluctance to Share or Invest: Hesitancy or refusal to share wealth, donate, or invest in opportunities.

Focus on Security: Money is often hoarded as a symbol of safety, control, or status rather than utility.

Emotional Attachment: The person may feel strong emotional comfort from holding onto money.

Possible Psychological Roots

  • Fear of scarcity: Worry that resources will run out.
  • Control needs: Money becomes a means of feeling in control over life circumstances.
  • Past trauma: Childhood poverty or financial instability can lead to hoarding behaviors in adulthood.
  • Obsessive-compulsive tendencies: Sometimes financial hoarding is a manifestation of OCD-like behaviors.

Impacts

  • Strained relationships: Family or partners may feel frustrated or neglected.
  • Mental health issues: Anxiety, stress, or depression can worsen due to the hoarding behavior.
  • Opportunity cost: Avoiding spending or investing can limit personal growth and life experiences.

Interventions

  • Psychotherapy: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can address underlying fears and beliefs about money.
  • Financial counseling: Structured planning can help reduce anxiety while still maintaining security.
  • Gradual exposure: Practicing small, controlled spending or sharing to reduce fear over time.
  • Mindfulness and self-awareness: Recognizing emotional triggers for hoarding behaviors.

Shervan K Shahhian

Understanding Pathological Gambling:

Pathological Gambling:

Pathological Gambling (also called Gambling Disorder) is a recognized behavioral addiction characterized by persistent and recurrent gambling behavior that disrupts personal, social, and occupational functioning. Unlike casual or social gambling, it involves an inability to control the urge to gamble, even in the face of significant negative consequences.

Key Features:

Loss of Control: Difficulty stopping or cutting down gambling, even when wanting to.

Preoccupation: Constantly thinking about gambling, planning the next game, or ways to get money to gamble.

Tolerance: Needing to gamble with increasing amounts of money to achieve the desired excitement.

Withdrawal: Feeling restless, irritable, or anxious when trying to stop or reduce gambling.

Chasing Losses: Continuing to gamble to recover money lost previously.

Lying/Deception: Hiding the extent of gambling from family or others.

Risking Relationships or Opportunities: Jeopardizing significant relationships, career, or education due to gambling.

Reliance on Others for Money: Borrowing or stealing to finance gambling.

Consequences:

  • Financial problems (debt, bankruptcy)
  • Legal issues
  • Strained family and social relationships
  • Emotional distress: depression, anxiety, shame
  • Co-occurring disorders: substance abuse, mood disorders

Diagnostic Criteria (DSM-5):

  • Gambling behavior is persistent and recurrent.
  • It leads to clinically significant distress or impairment.
  • Symptoms must be present for at least 12 months.

Treatment Approaches:

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Focuses on changing thoughts and behaviors around gambling.

Motivational Interviewing (MI): Enhances motivation to change gambling habits.

12-Step Programs: E.g., Gamblers Anonymous.

Medication: Sometimes SSRIs, opioid antagonists, or mood stabilizers for co-occurring conditions.

Financial Counseling and Support: Managing debts and preventing access to gambling funds.

Shervan K Shahhian

Gambling Disorder, what is it:

Gambling disorder:

Gambling disorder (previously called pathological gambling) is recognized in the DSM-5 as a behavioral addiction. It involves persistent and recurrent problematic gambling behavior that leads to significant distress or impairment. 

Here’s a detailed overview from a clinical psychology perspective:

Key Features

Persistent gambling behavior despite negative consequences (financial, social, occupational, or legal).

Loss of control: Repeated unsuccessful efforts to reduce or stop gambling.

Preoccupation: Constantly thinking about gambling, planning future bets, or thinking of ways to get money for gambling.

Tolerance: Needing to gamble with increasing amounts of money to achieve the desired excitement.

Withdrawal-like symptoms: Restlessness or irritability when attempting to cut down or stop gambling.

Chasing losses: Trying to recover lost money by gambling more, often worsening the problem.

Deception: Lying to family members, friends, or therapists about gambling behaviors.

Risking significant relationships or opportunities: Gambling interferes with work, relationships, or educational/career prospects.

Relying on others for financial rescue: Seeking loans or financial help to relieve desperate financial situations caused by gambling.

Diagnostic Criteria (DSM-5)

  • Diagnosis is typically made when 4 or more of the above behaviors occur over a 12-month period.
  • Severity can be classified as:
  • Mild: 4–5 criteria
  • Moderate: 6–7 criteria
  • Severe: 8–9 criteria

Psychological and Behavioral Factors

  • Cognitive distortions: Beliefs like “I’m due for a win” or “I can control the outcome.”
  • Emotional triggers: Stress, boredom, loneliness, or depression may intensify gambling urges.
  • Comorbidities: Often co-occurs with substance use disorders, mood disorders, or impulse-control disorders.

Treatment Approaches

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Targets cognitive distortions and helps develop healthier coping strategies.

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

  • Enhances motivation to change gambling behavior.

Self-help programs

  • Gamblers Anonymous or other peer support groups.

Pharmacotherapy

  • CONSULT A PSYCHIATRIST

Family therapy

  • Helps repair relationships and develop a supportive environment.

Red Flags

  • Increasing secrecy about finances.
  • Borrowing money to gamble.
  • Mood swings or irritability when not gambling.
  • Frequent thoughts about gambling.

Shervan K Shahhian

Surrogate Partner Therapy, what is it:

(Please Consult a licensed Therapist, Psychologist and a Psychiatrist Regarding this Very Serious Type of Therapy)

Surrogate Partner Therapy:

Surrogate Partner Therapy (SPT) is a form of therapy that involves a triadic relationship between a client, a licensed therapist, and a trained surrogate partner. It is designed to help clients overcome sexual dysfunctions, intimacy challenges, touch-related anxiety, or trauma-related sexual issues in a structured, therapeutic context.

How It Works
Assessment with a Therapist

The client first meets with a licensed mental health or sex therapist to discuss their concerns and determine if SPT is appropriate.
Issues addressed may include anxiety about intimacy, erectile dysfunction, vaginismus, lack of sexual experience, or touch aversion.


Introduction of a Surrogate Partner

If deemed suitable, the therapist collaborates with a certified surrogate partner (often trained through organizations like IPSA — International Professional Surrogates Association).
The surrogate partner works directly with the client, but always in coordination with the therapist.


Structured Sessions

Sessions may include communication exercises, relaxation techniques, guided touch exercises, sensate focus, body image work, and sometimes sexual activity — depending on therapeutic goals.
Progress is regularly reviewed by the therapist, maintaining ethical oversight.


Gradual Integration

The ultimate goal is for the client to develop comfort, confidence, and skills, and then transition these skills into their personal life or relationships.
Who Can Benefit?
People with sexual dysfunctions (e.g., erectile issues, anorgasmia, vaginismus)
Individuals with trauma-related sexual difficulties
Clients with severe social or sexual anxiety
Those with little or no sexual experience who want to learn in a therapeutic environment


Ethical & Legal Considerations
SPT is legal in many places but is sometimes controversial because it may involve sexual contact.
It is not prostitution — it’s a therapeutic modality conducted with professional standards, contracts, and therapist oversight.
Confidentiality, informed consent, and clear boundaries are essential.
Shervan K Shahhian

Understanding Transformational Experiences:

Transformational Experiences:

Transformational experiences are profound events or processes that lead to a significant shift in how a person perceives themselves, others, or the world. They often involve deep personal change, growth, or awakening and can affect values, beliefs, identity, and behavior.

Key Features of Transformational Experiences

  • Deep Impact: They alter core perspectives rather than surface-level habits.
  • Emotional Intensity: Often accompanied by strong feelings such as awe, fear, joy, or love.
  • Lasting Change: Effects persist over time, influencing decisions and life direction.
  • Sense of Meaning: Participants often describe them as life-defining or spiritually significant.

Common Types

Psychological / Therapeutic — breakthroughs in therapy, healing trauma, major self-insight.

Spiritual / Mystical — experiences of unity, transcendence, or contact with something greater than oneself.

Life Crises — surviving illness, loss, or near-death experiences that reframe priorities.

Peak Experiences — moments of flow, creativity, or transcendence described by Abraham Maslow.

Cultural / Social — immersion in other cultures, activism, or transformative group processes.

Psychedelic / Altered States — profound shifts induced by substances or practices like meditation.

Common Catalysts

  • Intense emotional events (love, loss, trauma, success)
  • Extended introspection or mindfulness practices
  • Encounters with radically new ideas or environments
  • Extreme physical or psychological challenges

Examples in Practice

  • A person realizing their life purpose after a near-death experience.
  • A client in therapy overcoming deep-seated shame, leading to a new self-concept.
  • A spiritual retreat leading to a sense of oneness with all life.

Shervan K Shahhian

Understanding Dissociative Difficulties:

Dissociative Difficulties:

Dissociative difficulties refer to problems in maintaining a consistent sense of self, consciousness, memory, emotions, or perception of reality. They occur when a person experiences disruptions in how they process or integrate their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. These difficulties can range from mild and transient to severe and chronic.

Common Features of Dissociative Difficulties

  • Depersonalization: Feeling detached from one’s own body, thoughts, or emotions (e.g., “I feel like I’m watching myself from outside”).
  • Derealization: Feeling that the external world is unreal or dreamlike.
  • Amnesia: Gaps in memory, often for stressful or traumatic events.
  • Identity confusion: Uncertainty about who one is, feeling “fragmented” or having conflicting self-states.
  • Identity alteration: Experiencing distinct shifts in behavior, preferences, or sense of self (can occur in Dissociative Identity Disorder).

Possible Causes

  • Trauma: Especially early childhood trauma, abuse, or neglect.
  • Chronic stress: Ongoing emotional or physical stress can lead to dissociative coping mechanisms.
  • PTSD and Complex PTSD: Dissociation is a common symptom.
  • Certain mental health conditions: Borderline Personality Disorder, severe anxiety, or depression can include dissociative symptoms.

Impact on Daily Life

  • Difficulty remembering conversations or events.
  • Feeling emotionally numb or disconnected from life.
  • Struggling to stay present in relationships, work, or school.
  • Episodes of losing time or feeling unreal.

Approaches to Support & Treatment

  • Grounding techniques: Mindfulness, sensory awareness, and orienting exercises to bring attention back to the present.
  • Psychotherapy:
    • Trauma-focused therapy (e.g., EMDR, Somatic Experiencing).
    • Parts work (e.g., Internal Family Systems).
    • Cognitive-behavioral approaches to manage triggers.
  • Stabilization before trauma processing: Learning emotional regulation and safety skills.
  • Medication: Sometimes used for co-occurring depression, anxiety, or PTSD symptoms.
2) practical techniques for managing dissociative episodes?

Here are practical techniques often used to manage dissociative episodes and stay grounded in the present:

1. Grounding Through the Senses

These help reorient awareness to the here and now:

  • 5-4-3-2-1 Technique: Name 5 things you see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste.
  • Temperature Shift: Hold an ice cube, splash cool water on your face, or drink a cold beverage.
  • Texture Awareness: Touch something with distinct texture (rough fabric, smooth stone) and describe it aloud.

2. Movement-Based Grounding

Engages the body to reconnect with the present moment:

  • Stomping or marching in place: Feel your feet making contact with the ground.
  • Stretching or yoga poses: Focus on the sensation of muscles lengthening.
  • “Name what you’re doing” technique: As you move, narrate it (e.g., “I am walking to the window, I am opening the curtains”).

3. Cognitive Grounding

Brings the mind back from detachment or confusion:

  • Orientation Statement: Say aloud: “I am safe. I am in [location]. The date is [today’s date].”
  • Mental Exercises: Count backward from 100 by sevens, recite a poem, or list categories (e.g., “types of fruit”).
  • Reminder Cards: Carry a card with calming facts about the present (“I am [name], I am 35 years old, I live in [city], I am safe now”).

4. Emotional & Self-Soothing Strategies

Addresses underlying overwhelm that triggers dissociation:

  • Breath regulation: Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 6–8 counts.
  • Self-talk: Gentle, affirming phrases like “This feeling will pass” or “I can handle this moment.”
  • Safe-space visualization: Imagine a calm, safe place and focus on sensory details of being there.

5. Longer-Term Prevention & Coping Skills

  • Identify triggers: Keep a journal of when dissociation occurs to recognize patterns.
  • Develop a “grounding kit”: Include items like a scented lotion, textured object, photo of a safe place, or a favorite song playlist.
  • Therapeutic support: Work with a trauma-informed therapist to process underlying causes and build resilience.
  • Daily regulation: Adequate sleep, balanced nutrition, and regular movement reduce vulnerability to dissociation.

Shervan K Shahhian

Understanding Superstitions and Magical Thinking:

Superstitions and Magical Thinking:

Superstitions and Magical Thinking refer to beliefs or behaviors that involve assuming a cause-and-effect relationship between actions, symbols, or rituals and outcomes, despite lacking scientific or logical evidence.

1. Superstitions

Superstitions are culturally or personally held beliefs that specific actions, objects, or rituals can bring good luck, ward off bad luck, or influence outcomes.

Examples:

  • Carrying a lucky charm (e.g., rabbit’s foot, four-leaf clover).
  • Avoiding walking under ladders.
  • Believing breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck.

Psychological Functions:

  • Control in uncertainty: Provides a sense of agency in unpredictable situations (sports, exams, illness).
  • Cultural identity: Reinforces group traditions and shared meaning.
  • Anxiety reduction: Rituals can soothe fears in high-stress environments.

2. Magical Thinking

Magical thinking is the belief that thoughts, words, or actions can directly cause events to happen in the physical world, without a clear causal link.

Examples:

  • Believing that thinking about an accident will make it happen.
  • Performing a ritual to ensure success (e.g., tapping a surface three times for good luck).
  • Associating unrelated events as having hidden connections (e.g., wearing a specific shirt makes a team win).

Developmental & Clinical Contexts:

  • Childhood: Common in early cognitive development (Piaget’s preoperational stage, ages 2–7).
  • Religion & Spirituality: Rituals and prayers can have elements of magical thinking.
  • Mental Health: Excessive or rigid magical thinking can be seen in OCD, psychosis, or certain anxiety disorders.

Differences Between the Two

  • Superstitions are often externalized, learned from culture, and repeated behaviors.
  • Magical thinking is more internalized, often personal beliefs about one’s own mental influence over reality.

Psychological Perspectives

  • Cognitive-behavioral: Views them as cognitive distortions or coping mechanisms.
  • Anthropological: Sees them as adaptive cultural practices that historically reduced uncertainty.
  • Neuroscientific: Links to pattern recognition and the brain’s tendency to find connections, even when none exist.

Therapeutic techniques to address Excessive Magical Thinking:

Here are evidence-based therapeutic techniques commonly used to address excessive magical thinking (especially when it leads to distress, dysfunction, or is part of conditions like OCD, anxiety, or psychosis):

1. Psychoeducation

  • Goal: Help clients understand what magical thinking is and how it operates.
  • Method:
  • Explain the difference between correlation and causation.
  • Normalize occasional magical thinking while highlighting when it becomes problematic.
  • Use examples relevant to the client’s experience (e.g., “Wearing a certain shirt doesn’t actually influence a sports game’s outcome”).

2. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Cognitive Restructuring:
  • Identify irrational beliefs (“If I don’t knock on wood, something bad will happen”).
  • Challenge them with evidence (“What proof do you have that not knocking on wood caused harm before?”).
  • Replace with rational alternatives (“Accidents happen regardless of this ritual”).
  • Behavioral Experiments:
  • Test beliefs in a controlled way (“Let’s see what happens if you skip the ritual once”).
  • Gather real-life evidence to weaken the perceived link between thought/action and outcome.

3. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) (for OCD-like magical thinking)

  • Process:
  • Gradual exposure to feared situations (e.g., not performing a ritual).
  • Preventing the compensatory behavior (not “undoing” the supposed bad luck).
  • Over time, anxiety decreases, and the client learns feared outcomes do not occur.

4. Metacognitive Therapy (MCT)

  • Focus: Changing beliefs about thinking itself (“If I think it, it will happen”).
  • Techniques:
  • Detached mindfulness — viewing thoughts as mental events, not threats.
  • Challenging “thought-action fusion” (the belief that thinking something makes it more likely).

5. Mindfulness-Based Interventions

  • Purpose: Reduce over-identification with thoughts.
  • Practice:
  • Labeling thoughts as “just thoughts” (e.g., “I’m having the thought that…”).
  • Present-moment awareness to reduce compulsive rituals driven by imagined futures.

6. Reality Testing & Socratic Questioning

  • Examples:
  • “Has this ritual ever guaranteed safety before?”
  • “What happened the last time you didn’t do it?”
  • Encourages rational evaluation rather than blind belief.

7. Addressing Underlying Emotional Needs

  • Insight: Magical thinking often arises to manage anxiety, uncertainty, or lack of control.
  • Approach:
  • Teach emotional regulation skills (breathing, grounding techniques).
  • Strengthen tolerance for uncertainty (“I can handle not knowing”).

8. Pharmacological Support

  • CONSULT A PSYCHIATRIST

Shervan K Shahhian

Understanding Over-Saving Disorder:

Over-Saving Disorder:

Over-Saving Disorder (also called Compulsive Saving or Hoarding of Money) is not an official diagnosis in the DSM-5, but it is recognized in psychology and financial therapy as a maladaptive money behavior. It involves an excessive and irrational tendency to save money far beyond what is necessary for security or future needs, often leading to emotional, relational, or functional problems.

Key Features

Excessive Fear of Spending — Persistent anxiety about running out of money, even when finances are secure.

Over-Accumulation — Saving far beyond realistic future needs; reluctance to invest, donate, or spend on self-care.

Emotional Drivers — Underlying fear, guilt, or trauma related to scarcity (often rooted in childhood deprivation or financial instability).

Functional Impairment — Neglecting health, relationships, or life satisfaction because of refusal to spend.

Control and Safety — Money becomes a symbol of control, security, or self-worth.

Possible Psychological Roots

  • Trauma or Scarcity Background: Growing up in poverty, economic instability, or with financially anxious caregivers.
  • Anxiety Disorders: Generalized anxiety, obsessive-compulsive traits (money as a “safety ritual”).
  • Control Issues: Using money to feel safe in an unpredictable world.
  • Identity & Self-Worth: Belief that having (and not spending) money defines one’s value.

Consequences

  • Strained relationships (partners feeling deprived or controlled).
  • Missed opportunities (investments, experiences, medical care).
  • Chronic anxiety and inability to enjoy financial stability.

Treatment Approaches

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Challenging catastrophic thinking about spending.

Financial Therapy: Combining psychological insight with financial planning.

Gradual Exposure: Practicing small, meaningful spending to build tolerance. Addressing Trauma: Processing early experiences of scarcity or neglect.

Values-Based Spending: Learning to align money use with personal values and life goals.

Clinical Strategies for working with clients who Over-Save:

Here are clinical strategies for working with clients who exhibit Over-Saving Disorder (compulsive saving behaviors):

1. Assessment and Understanding the Behavior

  • Explore Money History: Ask about childhood experiences with money, scarcity, or parental attitudes.
  • Identify Core Beliefs: Uncover thoughts such as “If I spend, I’ll lose everything” or “I’m only safe if I have enough.”
  • Assess Impairment: Determine how saving impacts relationships, health, and quality of life.
  • Distinguish From Hoarding: Clarify that this is about saving/withholding money, not physical clutter.

2. Build Awareness and Psychoeducation

  • Normalize Anxiety but Challenge Extremes: Explain how financial caution is healthy, but rigidity can be harmful.
  • Psychoeducation on Money Psychology: Teach how over-saving often stems from fear rather than rational planning.
  • Highlight Opportunity Costs: Help them see what they’re missing out on (relationships, experiences, health).

3. Cognitive and Emotional Interventions

  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT):
  • Challenge catastrophic predictions (“If I spend $100, I’ll end up homeless”).
  • Replace with balanced thoughts (“I have savings, and spending on health is an investment.”).
  • Schema Therapy: Address deep-rooted schemas (scarcity, control, mistrust).
  • Emotion-Focused Work: Validate fear, then explore the emotional meaning of money (security, love, identity).

4. Behavioral Strategies

  • Values-Based Budgeting: Create a budget that includes a mandatory “joy” or “well-being” spending category.
  • Gradual Exposure: Start with small, safe expenditures to reduce anxiety.
  • Behavioral Experiments: Track emotional responses before and after spending to challenge irrational fears.
  • Set Boundaries for Saving: Establish a cap for savings beyond which money must be allocated elsewhere.

5. Relational & Systemic Work

  • Couples/Family Therapy: If over-saving creates conflict, facilitate communication and compromise.
  • Integrate Financial Professionals: Collaborate with financial planners to reassure client of objective security.

6. Address Underlying Trauma and Anxiety

  • Trauma-Informed Care: Explore whether early deprivation or financial instability still drives fear.
  • Mindfulness & Somatic Regulation: Teach skills to tolerate anxiety associated with spending.

7. Long-Term Goals

  • Shift from fear-based saving to purposeful financial planning.
  • Foster a healthy money identity: “I am secure and can enjoy my resources responsibly.”
  • Encourage legacy thinking: Spending as a way to create meaning (experiences, generosity, relationships).

Shervan K Shahhian