Financial and Behavioral Health for Helping Professionals

This open access book brings together decades of research and practice on the intersections among financial and behavioral health concerns. By framing financial health as comprised of financial precarity, financial efficacy, and financial well-being, this new addition to the field of behavioral health helps readers understand and address the surge of interest in financial health and wellness from a holistic, psychosocial perspective. The text explores not only how financial difficulties impose hardship on individuals, couples, and families, but also how these concerns shape our feelings, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors and thereby our health. Case examples throughout illustrate the concepts and provide a basis for engaging, assessing, and intervening.

Beyond providing an overview of the financial domain of behavioral health from multiple theoretical frameworks, the chapters explore:

Trauma, financial anxiety, and financial stressors affecting mental health Barriers to physical health care, financial toxicity, and medical debt Behavioral disorders including problem gambling and spending addiction Social relationship concerns involving financial enabling, infidelity, violence, and abuse A framework to guide professionals from basic financial awareness to client interventions Diagnostic and billing considerations to integrate financial concerns into clinical practice An enhanced SMART Goals approach specifically designed for financial behavior change

Financial and Behavioral Health for Helping Professionals, through its exploration of money’s role in intra- and interpersonal well-being, is an essential resource for professionals in social work, public health, counseling and therapy, health care, and financial planning, counseling, and coaching, and provides an enhanced perspective for research and policy. The book also would benefit professors and graduate students of these disciplines.

Jeffrey Anvari-Clark, PhD, MA, LMSW, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of North Dakota. He established and is the primary coordinator of the Financial Interdependence Project. He holds an MA in Social Justice in Intercultural Relations from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and an MSW and PhD from the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. His research focuses on financial social work, the financial domain of behavioral health, and financial interdependence. His work has appeared in various media outlets including NPR, CNN, CBS Radio, The Conversation, and Fast Company, in addition to academic journals, such as: Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, Journal of Teaching in Social Work, Encyclopedia, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and Journal of Family and Economic Issues. He teaches continuing education and professional development seminars, in addition to undergraduate (BSSW) and graduate (MSW) courses on life span development, research, generalist practice, digital information literacy and AI, and financial social work. He has conducted financial education, advising, coaching, tax preparation, and eviction prevention case management, in addition to training-of-trainers and community development.