Today we’d like to introduce you to Celia Roberts Hughes.
Hi Celia, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee as the middle child of three. My dad left when I was very young, and so my formative years were in the home of a single mother. For as long as I can remember, I felt the weight of the pressure that my mom was under as the only parent and the sole provider. While I can look back as an adult and see that my mom was making wise decisions with a long-term financial plan in mind, as a child I was deeply affected by how often my mom had to say no to a request because of money. I could feel the pressure she was under in my body. I felt the stress, anxiety, and worry that I knew she must have felt. This experience sparked something deep inside me, and I knew that I would never live a life of financial insecurity. I knew I would protect myself from what she experienced.
I worked my way through college and grad school with a drive and work ethic that was as damaging as it was beneficial. I earned an MBA with an emphasis in finance, and my whole life was eventually wrapped up in money – mine, theirs, whomevers. I worked myself to the bone. I met every goal I ever set, ahead of schedule. I achieved and achieved and achieved myself right into burnout and exhaustion. I realize now that exhaustion felt like safety to me. I saw my mom be exhausted as she worked second jobs to make sure all our needs were met, and I embodied that for myself even though there was no need. I was playing out a generational pattern.
As many of you have experienced, becoming a mother changed my life. Work induced exhaustion was no longer available to me. I had a person to guide into a life of her own, and I didn’t want her to feel the pressure that I put on myself. I wanted her to have an example of a balanced, healthy life, of ease and joy and freedom. I began to ache for something different for my career. Something that felt more meaningful. Something that brought light and life to the world. Numbers had been my safe place, but that safety no longer served me.
During my career I worked with many different people – entrepreneurs, creatives, finance professionals, investors, small business owners, middle managers, teachers, wealthy, poor, you name it – and I began to see a pattern emerge. Clients would be excited and focused on a financial plan, but with time, would struggle to keep on task and would begin to make decisions that worked against their goals. I could see that the problem wasn’t the number of resources or the size of the budget. The problem was internal, emotional. Just like me, everyone has a personal story about money that affects the way they run their businesses and live their lives.
While walking one morning (which is where I do my very best processing), I was thinking about this pattern and how the financial plan itself isn’t the solution. I was thinking about how we as a society are failing in how we view money. We don’t educate our children about it. We don’t learn healthy money habits before being sent to college which we pay for with loans, and then we are preyed upon by credit card companies. We teach our boys that their measure of worth is being a sole-provider, and we teach our girls that they shouldn’t worry about being financially independent. And on top of all that, we’re not allowed to talk about it! How is a person supposed to identify and heal the financial wounds and trauma when there’s no safe space to be open and honest?
This moment was an awakening for me. I realized that my work was to help people to find financial healing so that they can live a life free of financial fear, shame, and stress. My work is to talk about not just money, but about how it makes us feel – to create a space for those who are hurting, afraid, or just tired of repeating the same bad habits to find healing. In my head, I invented financial therapy.
It was a lovely surprise to learn that I’m not the first person to see this need, though financial therapists are few and far between. I went back to grad school to study financial psychology and was among the first to achieve the financial therapist certification through the Financial Therapy Association. I am currently a dissertation-phase doctoral student in the Depth Psychology with an emphasis in Integrative Therapy and Healing Practices at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and my doctoral research is the enneagram and money. In addition to my private practice, I lead workshops, teach, write, and speak.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a twisty, turny road! Pioneering an emerging industry is exciting, scary, frustrating, exhausting, fun, and wild…all in a day. I am endless curious and find myself being pulled in many different directions. I imagine all the parents reading this are nodding along.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a financial therapist with a private practice, and I also lead workshops, teach, write, and speak. I’ve been featured on podcasts such as Depresh Mode, Exposure Therapy, and Difficult Women and in articles for CNBC, Huffington Post, Nerd Wallet, Entrepreneur, Happify, Market Watch, and Scripps News. My work is unique – I bridge the gap between finance and mental health.
There are not a lot of practioners who do the unique work that I do. I specialize in working with individuals who have stressful, anxious, unsatisfying relationships with money, and with couples who are stuck in conflict, distrust, and disagreement around money. I am able to work with both the actual numbers and also the feelings and emotions that seem to stay the same regardless of our financial reality. Numbers are rarely the real problem.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
We need more people who can work with emotions around money! If you’re curious, follow me on IG or email list and check out the Financial Therapy Association.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.celiarobertshughes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_celiarobertshughes
