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118: Navigating Money as a Highly Sensitive Person with Lori Cangilla

Navigating Money as a Highly Sensitive Person with Lori Cangilla Episode Cover Image

“I’ve never been able to sustain cheating myself on sleep or cheating myself on quiet time for any length of time. You know, I’m going to burn out. And I think most HSPs are like that. We burn out fast when we’re trying to cut corners. So it’s really about building some profound acceptance about what our needs are. And working all of the other things in around that.”

~Lori Cangilla

Meet Lori Cangilla

Lori is a Pennsylvania Licensed Psychologist and the creator of the Singularly Sensitive approach. She specializes in working with bright, creative, highly sensitive people, including highly sensitive therapists. Her mission is to help people embrace their sensitivity and build lives of meaning, purpose, and contentment. Lori is the author of Wander and Delve, a guided journal based on her Singularly Sensitive approach. Lori is also a graduate of Money Skills for Therapists. 

In this Episode...

Have you ever felt torn between a deep desire to make a positive impact and the reality of your financial needs? If so, you’re not alone. Linzy talks with guest Lori Cangilla, who shares about how being highly sensitive can impact your relationship with money. Lori is a psychologist who specializes in working with highly sensitive individuals. Linzy and Lori discuss how sensitivity can both challenge and enhance our financial lives, and how to create a balance that allows us to thrive.

Lori and Linzy dig into how highly sensitive people can balance their drive for justice and creativity with financial sustainability. Whether you identify as highly sensitive or not, there’s so much to learn from Lori about leveraging sensitivity as a strength rather than a setback. And for those who do identify as highly sensitive, this episode is full of strategies to help you align your energy, values, and finances.

Connect with Lori Cangilla

You can learn more HERE about the Singularly Sensitive Approach: a Framework for Bright, Creative, Highly Sensitive Souls to Live Their Dreams.

You can follow Lori for more resource for HSP on Instagram, and on Facebook.

Want to work with Linzy?

Check out the FREE masterclass, The 4 Step Framework to Getting Your Business Finances Totally in Order, where you’ll learn the framework that has helped hundreds of therapists go from money confusion and shame to calm and confidence, as well as the three biggest financial mistakes that therapists make. At the end, you’ll be invited to join Money Skills for Therapists and get Linzy’s support in getting your finances finally working for you.

Click HERE 
to find a masterclass time that works for you!

Episode Transcript

Lori: I’ve never been able to sustain cheating myself on sleep or cheating myself on quiet time for any length of time. I’m going to burn out. And I think most HSPs are like that. We burn out fast when we’re trying to cut corners. So it’s really about building some profound acceptance about what our needs are. And working all of the other things around that. 

 Linzy: Welcome to the Money Skills for Therapists podcast, where we answer this question: how can therapists and health practitioners go from money, shame, and confusion to feeling calm and confident about their finances and get money working for them in both their private practice and their lives? I’m your host, Linzy Bonham, therapist turned money coach, and creator of the course Money Skills for Therapists.

Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today’s guest is Lori Cangilla. Lori is a psychologist. She specializes in working with highly sensitive people, specifically people who are bright, highly creative, and highly sensitive, including highly sensitive therapists. She’s also a graduate of Money Skills for Therapists.

 I record these intros after as you might’ve gathered. It’s been such a treat for Me to talk with Lori today. I was just saying to her, that I was in a grumpy mood before our recording and just talking to her has brought my mood up many, many notches. Today Lori and I dig into how being highly sensitive impacts your relationship with money, how highly sensitive people can create sustainability, you know, balancing that sensitivity with also our drive that we have to, you know, be just and do good things in the world.

That can be a real conflict that I’ve certainly experienced myself where you have basically more ideas and aspirations than you have energy. How do you balance those things? How do you make that work financially? And also we talk about what highly sensitive people have to teach non-highly sensitive people about money. So even if you don’t identify as highly sensitive, there’s lots here today about the gifts of being highly sensitive, which can also be the dark side, the shadow side of being highly sensitive, and the value of being able to be with and connect with values and meaning as we are navigating our relationships with money. Here’s my conversation with Lori Cangilla. 

Linzy: So Lori, welcome to the podcast.

Lori: Thanks so much for having me, Linzy. 

Linzy: I’m very excited to have you. We worked together in Money Skills… I have no sense of time. How long ago now did we work together?  

Lori: I think it was about three years ago. 

Linzy: Three years. Okay. Okay. It’s been a minute. It’s been a minute. And so, tell folks who are listening to a little bit about what you do and what you’ve been building since we worked together. I think this is pretty much the work you’ve done since you finished the course.

Lori: So I am a psychologist in private practice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I’ve been working virtually since the pandemic. When we started, I was still in the process of really building my specialty and working with highly sensitive people. But I’ve built that out a lot and reframed how I’m working with people.

I have done several things that are outside the clinical room. So I wrote a book. I am doing a lot of freelance writing, and I love having that separate identity as an author, too. So my practice has shifted a lot in the last couple of years since we stopped working together, but it’s because of the freedom that I gained from your program. 

Linzy: Yeah, and this is something that I notice is, there’s many, many students I can think of who I’ve worked with over the years who, when they’re done, they go off and do something else fun. And I’m curious, your perception of like, what about the work that you did in Money Skills has made this possible?

Because I have my analysis, but you’re living it. So how do these things connect? 

Lori: It was about having a lot more intentionality with how I was spending, how I was earning money, too, not just how I was spending, but, the whole process of running a business became something that was much more intentional. And because I was looking at the numbers more frequently, and because I was thinking about, you know, Do I need to buy another course that’s going to sit on my computer and I’m never going to do it and I’m out 300 or whatever,

I was able to start to be a lot more thoughtful about what I want my spending to look like. What kinds of clients do I want to work with? What hours do I want to work? And make those adjustments and not have that fear of scarcity and lack and what if I do this and I don’t make enough, or what if this ends up not being the right direction? I had a lot more confidence to be able to say, I will know. I will catch it on time, you know before it’s a catastrophe in my business. And then I can shift gears, and nothing has to be permanent.

Linzy: Yes. 

Lori: right? Nothing that we’re committing to has to be the last word on what we do with our business. And that was part of the confidence that I got from the program. 

Linzy: And I feel like that too. I think that when you have the groundedness in your numbers you’re able to trust yourself because what I’m hearing is you trust yourself. You trust that you’re going to catch something. If something’s not working, you’re going to know. You’re not going to find out when it’s too late.

When you have that groundedness, then I think also we can be friends with impermanence. To be like, I’m going to try something, and I’m going to see what happens. And maybe it’s going to be great, and maybe it’s not going to be what I want. But, you know when we’re grounded then we can reach and bend.

I think of it, you know… That tree metaphor that I come back to again and again. I have this huge tree tattoo on my leg, which usually is hidden, but just this morning, one of my son’s teachers commented on it. That imagery for me is so powerful. It’s just when your roots are solid, when you have a foundation when you have that confidence and groundedness, you can reach and bend and expand, and you’re solid. You can trust yourself to try things. 

Lori: Yeah. I think what was helpful about the program, too, was that I saw that I was never really in any kind of bad financial position. You know, I was sort of hitting the success markers, whatever those are, for my business, but it was about the difference between being rooted like a tree versus being planted, building that where the foundation is there, and it’s erected, but it’s rigid and it doesn’t change with time.

I think I’ve moved out of that mode of my business as this monolith that has to stay a certain way and into a much more organic, expressive kind of space, which feels good to me.

Linzy: That’s beautiful. So let’s talk about the work that you are doing now. Because you are now focusing on working with highly sensitive people. So let’s talk a little bit about the book, a little bit about your approach, and then I want to chat with you about HSPs and money.

Lori: Yeah. So I’m a highly sensitive person. There are a lot of therapists who are. I think we are sort of set up as highly sensitive therapists to tune into what people need, what people are feeling, and maybe what they’re unable to express. And that’s always been something that I’ve been good at recognizing in other people and teasing out as, I made friends as a kid or, in my first career as a teacher, I was very good at, you know, finding the kid who wanted to come and talk to me in office hours and tell me their life story.

But as a therapist specializing in highly sensitive people, I’ve gotten to dive deep into that idea of how deeply highly sensitive people process things and what helps us get out of our heads and out of our emotions, out of our bodies, and start to take action because that’s ultimately what I want to see from people. I don’t care if it takes people a while to get to that readiness to take action, but I want to help them get to that stage because highly sensitive people always have brilliant ideas, really like pro-social, lovely things that they want to do that are very much oriented towards helping other people and helping the world.

And so that’s the work that I want to support as a therapist. And it’s been really fun to build that out. I work with a lot of creatives. So I have writers and musicians and designers and these brilliant, creative people on my caseload, as well as a lot of therapists, and people who are active in social movements and change organizations and things, and need that support to keep going when the world around them feels like it’s burning down.

Linzy: Yes, yes. So, let’s zoom in then on money and highly sensitive people. Because this is really like where you’ve kind of carved out your work. This is your zone. And I consider myself an HSP light. Which I think I’ve probably chatted with you about before. So I have some of the traits, but I don’t think I have 

all of the traits. So I’m curious, from your perspective and experience, how does being an HSP impact how somebody relates to money? How does this show up in our relationship with money?

Lori: I think a relationship with money… What I’ve learned over the years is it’s just like any other relationship. And so whatever places that a highly sensitive person struggles in other relationships, they’re going to struggle in their relationship with money. So for me, it was really about showing up with an ability to be vulnerable, an ability to show all of my stuff, like come in with my money stories with, with feelings of shame, with difficult things, and be in that process in an open, honest way. And I think for other highly sensitive people, it might be around getting too close to their money. So kind of getting lost in the details and unable to take a step back and say, “Okay. Well, this is what I could do or this is how I can manage those feelings that come.”

Linzy: Yeah, because there’s a phrase that I’ve started using more and more for the last few years in Money Skills for Therapists, which is getting lost in the weeds, right? Where we get lost in the details. It’s this stage that can come up with folks because part of what I teach is for you to understand your numbers and be able to actually know what they say.

But then some folks get stuck there, right? You can get stuck in it’s overwhelming, right? It can be overwhelming and as you’re saying this, this is Making me think about what you were talking about earlier about how HSPs, there’s almost so much going on that you can just be paralyzed, stuck.I don’t know what the language is that you find best describes that experience.

Lori: I mean, I think the language depends on the person. Some people do experience it as a paralysis or a stuckness. For other people, I think it is that lived-in experience of being lost in the weeds. You’re just not able to figure out what is it that I need to prioritize. And for me, I remember that stage of going through the numbers and especially with spending tracking, being completely stuck for weeks around what system I pick and wanting this perfectionism of wanting to, to know that I’m making the best choice and I’m going to know how to use it exactly.

And not being able to say, well, why? Well, you know, I think that’s where a lot of highly sensitive people kind of stumble is: why are we doing this? I’m not tracking my numbers to be able to say at any, you know, at noon on a random Thursday, this is what my bank balance is. That’s not

important, but it’s easy to get stuck in that because .. brain scans have shown that our brains are just more active all the time. 

Lori: So we’re having more brain activity. We’re taking in more of this stuff. We’re carrying it with us outside of, whatever our planned money time is. Our brains are just working, working, working.

And so we need a way to sort of settle our systems and be able to say, okay, wait, stop. I’ve got to get out of this lost in the weed space and figure out what my next move is. You know, do I need support? Do I need help? Do I need to just stop and think about something else for a while? 

Linzy:  Yeah, because it’s interesting what you mentioned earlier, what is the purpose of the thing. A grounding element can certainly be the right thing.

Another word that I’ve started using more and more, which very much vibes with who I am as a person, is meaning. What is the meaning of this? What does this mean to you? And meaning though is sometimes a spot where I think HSPs can spin off, right? And also get like lost… especially when I was younger, and I was not as regulated as a person, I sometimes would feel crushed by the concept of meaning.

What does something mean? As you’re talking about the world is burning down, I very much lived that for many, many, many years of my life. You’re kind of a bit raw, right? A bit impermeable as a sensitive person. And so the meaning piece. I’m curious from your perspective as an HSP then… Cause we’re all different. Everybody’s got their blend of things going on, but. How do folks turn that into movement, right? How does an HSP keep going when they’re in that space from your perspective working with HSPs? 

Lori: So The way I think about it is that when HSPs are thinking about what the meaning or purpose is in their lives. How do we connect that back to a person’s values? When people get clarity on their values, then it’s really easy to figure out from there, what actions do I want to take.

You know, what’s that purpose lived out look like? So I do a lot of work… and I did this before I specialized with HSPs, too. This is just sort of how I see the world too, is, is helping people to clarify those values and get nitty gritty because there are always times when those values conflict, right?

So where I see this coming out with money is sort of that conflict between I want to have a certain standard of living, and at the same time, I want to be able to do good in the world. Maybe I want to be able to provide certain kinds of services at a reduced cost, or maybe I want to work with populations that need pro bono services.

So how do we explore the ways that not only do we have those values, which most HSPs already know what their values are, but what do we do when they conflict? Or do they seem to

conflict? How do we build out from there? And that’s oftentimes a way for people to get unstuck by thinking about how to put those things in a different arrangement.

Linzy: Yes. yes. Yeah, and there’s that, that movement piece. What do these things look like? When do these two things come into conflict? Yeah. How do you choose? What do you do? How do you balance? Because as you’re talking about this as well, something else that I’m thinking about is HSPs, we tend to be very attuned to what’s wrong with the world, the needs of others, injustice, and systemic issues.

But also we tend to be people who can’t necessarily do as much in the world energetically, right? I have friends who feel like their days are twice as many, twice as long as my days in terms of what they’re able to do and accomplish. And when my son goes to bed at 8:15, I’m out that’s the end for me.

So. Yeah. I’m curious, too, how can you see HSPs getting their, own needs met in sustainable ways? Because often we have just kind of less energy in the bank in the first place, but we’re also trying to accomplish all these different things at the same time.

Lori: I think that’s such a great point. And I know for me, that’s always a struggle, too. My desired list of things to do is always longer than my energy and my ability to just sort of be in the emotion of some of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it’s really about getting very precise and intentional about how you’re spending your time.

And I think that can happen for people when, when we can get settled, when we can be doing those baseline things, I’ve never been able to sustain cheating myself on sleep or cheating myself on quiet time for any length of time. You know, I’m going to burn out.

And I think most HSPs are like that. We burn out fast when we’re trying to cut corners. So it’s really about building some profound acceptance about what our needs are. And working all of the other things around that. But it’s also about kind of taking advantage of the way that we are good at looking at the details.

So we can say, I look at this part of my life and maybe I need to bring in some automation. Maybe I can’t do all of this myself. Or maybe I need a support person. Maybe it’s time to hire someone. I have to tell you the best decision I made a couple of years ago was looking at my finances and going, I can hire someone to manage my social media.

It’s not something I enjoy doing. It’s something that I don’t do effectively or efficiently. Canva can suck up too many hours of my time. So it’s much better for me to allot some of my finances to having someone who does that work for me. And then I free up that time to do the other things that I want to do and that do feel more meaningful to me. 

Linzy: Yeah, that acceptance piece. There’s so much wisdom in that because I think, we can spend decades of our lives trying to work against our nature and try to pretend that we are, you know, capable of things that we’re not or that we’re someone that we’re not. And I love that as a frame for a starting place is first accept who you are, right, and accept what is possible.

And then what I’m hearing is HSPs especially are great at, you know, solving the problem of how to then work within that frame. I see so many therapists, highly sensitive or not, set up private practices but also live for themselves that are not sustainable, right? It’s something that maybe they could do for three months, maybe for six months, but there’s no way that this is your five-year plan or your 10-year plan, right?

And I think that sometimes we can almost take for granted how precious that emotional energy that we have is. Because when it’s gone, when you experience burnout, it’s terrible, right? The cost is so, so high. But yeah, sometimes I do think as therapists, we tend to fly a little bit too close to the sun, maybe take for granted our superpowers and not think about the potential cost of not being honest about our actual capacity.

Lori: That resonates so much with me because I think. It’s so easy to fly too close to the sun. You know, the do as I say, not as I do kind of mentality, we would tell our clients, this is not a great move. But yet we go, Oh, no, I can do this. I can push past this. So yeah, I think it’s really about just acceptance, but it also is this honesty with ourselves. I think that’s become easier for me as I’ve gotten older, and further into my career, where I don’t feel like I get anything out of lying to myself about how much I can do. 

Linzy: It’s If X number of clients is the max I can do in a week in my life, then that’s the number, and I need to work with it.

Lori: And I’m not going to continue to be like, no, I can take 35 people this week,  I did in community mental health when I first started. No! That’s why I lasted nine months in that job. 

Linzy: Yeah, seriously, I would not have lasted nine months. I do have, I find in myself this very strong, it’s, it’s a part that’s a bit catastrophic, I’m sure. But like, if I think about doing 35 sessions a week, there’s a part of me truly, Lori, that believes I would die. I’m like, no, I would die.

I would die at the end of the week. I would lie on the floor and it would be the end of my human life. Because I can’t even imagine the emotional cost of that. So I’m amazed you did nine months of that, frankly.

Lori: Desperation. I think, and I was too young to know that I could quit. I did. Cause I thought the flip side of it was I would come home every, you know, at the end of the week, I would think I was going to die and I’d get up on Monday and I’d, and I was in graduate school at the time. So I was doing both. So as much as I thought it was going to die every weekend, I also thought if I quit, it’s the end of my career. No one will hire me. Every professional in this little town that I’m living in is going to think I’m a terrible person because I couldn’t hack it there, and it’s going to be the end of my career. So it was this, pressure from both sides, this internal pressure of knowing I can’t do this, knowing this isn’t sustainable for me. And this presumed pressure, or in some cases, real pressure from people in the community to just keep doing, doing, doing.

Linzy: Yeah, it is funny how we tend to get treated as factory workers, as therapists, as though this is kind of some sort of industrial setup where we’re just plugging ourselves into a machine. It does not honor or align with what it takes to be a therapist and what it takes to be a good therapist at all.

And yet, yeah, some systems will ask you to give yourself away, right? And to act like you have endless energy. So, you know, compassion for young Lori going through that. Cause that sounds like a very rough way to start your therapy career.

Lori: It was. And I feel fortunate that it only took me nine months to figure that out and that it didn’t burn me out entirely. I don’t take credit for that. I just, I think it was a combination of circumstances and I had some good people around me who supported the decision for me to get out of that work.

But I think, you know, it’s alarming to me when I see not only that sort of mentality continue in community mental health, but then all the tech companies that are buying out practices and building out these systems that just seem obscenely cruel to the therapists who are in 

Linzy: Yes.

Lori: Like I have deep, deep compassion and kind of the spirit of I want to liberate you and get you out of these horrible places.

Linzy: Yes.

Lori: I want to see them fail because I don’t think they’re providing good services to clients because how could they? How could therapists be doing their best work in those situations? And, it’s unfair to therapists. We don’t deserve to be turned through a mill like that.

Linzy: And this is why, too… this is a little side tangent, then we’ll get back to HSPs, but I think this is, too, why we need Therapists who are skilled in business and who do want to create great groups where folks are well taken care of and get mentorship and are given a caseload that makes sense.

We need those folks doing this work, right? Because I think that in the therapy space, group practice owners can get a bad name. Some of them have earned a bad name, no question. But I will say when I run money skills for group practice owners, I specifically attract the folks who are too nice to your staff because you want everybody to be happy and you’re making zero dollars.

Let’s come work together and find the balance point, but I want folks who start there because if folks aren’t starting from that compassionate spot… Yeah, you, you can become an exploiter yourself and these tech companies, they don’t care about therapists. They don’t know what it takes to be a therapist.

They’ve never been a therapist for a minute in their life, right? And so it’s like, we need folks in our space who have the skills to be offsetting this trend that’s happening because otherwise a bunch of great young therapists or even not young therapists are going to be eaten alive by these systems that do not understand what we do and do not value what we do. So it is a concerning trend for sure.

Lori: Absolutely. I’m so excited that you have the group practice program because I think you’re right. We do need these other models of what mental health delivery can look like and it needs to be a resource that therapists who need a job can look to. Not everybody wants to run a solo practice. 

Linzy: They don’t.

Lori: I didn’t for years either, but when your options are really limited, then it is a prescription for good people to get out of the field. You know, and that, that’s the part that breaks my heart is when I hear about therapists leaving because they’ve been working in these truly unsustainable systems.

It’s not their failing or shortcomings. It’s the systems that aren’t sustainable. And I think what you’re talking about is probably tapping into some of the highly sensitive people who might be fabulous group practice owners and leaders, but probably are avoiding it because that sounds overwhelming. You know, because now not only do I have to manage my experience of being in a private practice, but I’m managing it for other people who I feel a loyalty to.

So being able to do things to empower people like that, to be in positions of leadership, and to create these work environments is so important. It’s part of what I like about working with highly sensitive people. They need to be in leadership positions. 

Linzy: Absolutely. Yeah. Because they naturally have that compassion. They’re not going to accidentally exploit the heck out of somebody.

Lori: Right? Or if they do accidentally exploit it, they are, you know, humble enough to say, Oh my gosh, I was accidentally exploiting you and let’s fix this.

Linzy: Yes. So true. So true. So true. So from your perspective, what do HSPs have to teach non-HSPs when it comes to money management?

Lori: Think it’s really important for HSPs to be able to share that way that they are deep processors, right? That’s sort of the defining characteristic of, of what it means to be an HSP on a brain level is that there’s that deep active processing, but on a lived level, it’s that way that HSPs are asking the hard questions.

They’re willing to step back and say, there was something I didn’t know, or I don’t know the answer right now. And, I’m going to stay with this process until I figure it out. That’s something that I think is beautiful. And when I compare it to the way that I’ve seen some non-HSPs make business decisions or money decisions, I think, oh, there’s, there’s a piece missing for those folks.

Yes, they take action quickly. And yes, they, you know, they can be decisive in some ways. And there’s a part of me that admires that. But I think that willingness to be in the weeds for a while… hmm, It’s so important, and I think it is a good lesson that HSPs can share with, with non-HSPs, at least people who aren’t inclined to make decisions that way. 

Linzy: I’m thinking of other words too that go with that for me, which is presence, just being able to be with… curiosity, right? Thinking about these pieces we’re talking about values and purpose and meaning. What is this for, what are you doing? What is the ultimate purpose? And I will say in my relationship, I’m married to somebody who is not highly sensitive, which probably is a good thing. But he’s like an action-taker. There’s no contemplation. It’s just action. So he’s really good at making things happen. But I have noticed, in our 10 years of being together, that If I want something to be discussed, I have to hold it back until I’m ready for it to potentially happen.

So I will process, sit with something, look at numbers if it’s something financial, or sit with and contemplate internally until I bring it up. Because if I bring it up, it’s probably going to happen, or not happen, and that decision will be made. I’m kind of laughing at myself thinking about that. The difference between folks who do more of that deep processing, being with curiosity until you settle on something versus folks who are fast action takers, is a very different way of making decisions, and being in the world.

Lori: I think what you’re talking about speaks to me because I think it’s, it’s that way that we need different kinds of people in our lives. I need my fellow HSPs where I can talk about something for six months and bat about all the little details, and they’re able to be in it with me. And then,

I’m glad at times that I have my husband who is much more, let’s just make a decision. Okay. We’ve looked at things. If we’ve looked at the numbers, let’s go forward here. And he doesn’t agonize and there’s definitely a place for that, you know, and I need people like him in my life to say, go for it. You know, get off your feet and get going. You’re like, do this thing. But not too soon. Not before I’ve come to my decision.

Linzy: Of course, of course, yes, yes, because yeah, because this being with the piece that you’re talking about, and, and that, that’s the language I’ve just put on it. You use different language, but, yeah, that ability to kind of be in it, and that is a skill. And it’s a skill that sometimes I do see folks have 

to build while they’re doing their money work, like in Money Skills for Therapists or in Money Skills for Group Practice Owners, that ability to come back and be with something that is not clear and that brings up maybe icky feelings that you haven’t figured out, like having to almost be with that not knowing, I think is an HSP gift, but I’m also hearing can be an HSP trap.

But I think it’s essential for money because if you’re not tapped into the values, the purpose, the meaning. What is this all for? You could end up living a life and living your money out in the way that’s been prescribed to you that does not serve who you are at all. And you get to the end of your life and that’s it. You did it. You don’t get to go back and do it over later.

Lori: Yeah. I think that’s such a good point, Linzy. It’s the way that all of these qualities that we’re talking about with HSPs can be a strength and can be riddled with a shadow side that can take

over. And I think what I loved about your program, the reason I chose money skills as opposed to something else was because I think there was that space to be present, be with these things as they were unfolding.

It wasn’t a pressure of, you must get to a certain point by a certain date. That was why I knew I could be in your program and I could muck around for however long it took. And a lot of the growth did come after the program. My program officially wrapped up for me, but the foundation was there. The roots were there, to use that language from earlier.

Linzy: Yeah. And, you know, the program, it used to be a six-week program when I first started it, if you can believe that. I know.

Lori: No, I had six months and…

Linzy: I was going to say now it’s six months, and sometimes folks do, like if there may be faster processors or, you know, they’ve already got some pieces in place,

sometimes folks do move through it faster, but what I’ve also seen happen is people say at the end of their time, I didn’t understand why this program was six months because at first, I was like, I’m moving through it quickly. But then there’s so much that comes up when you’re living it, and if you can keep that presence and be with, and being like, hey, I set up my system this way, but something’s not working, but if you still are online and learning, and you’re not just like, well, I guess that’s how it is, you’re still in that building out phase, then you get to make all these tweaks, or you do a level of work and then something else comes up and you do a deeper level of work, you know, and then you do a deeper level of work. There’s just so much there because it’s a relationship that we live out over and over and over again.

That’s what that six-month container is for. And as you say, there’s much more growing to do even after that six months, but it’s that you’ve got to just keep being with it. And keep, almost keep being curious and fresh about it. Not thinking that, well, I did it. Money’s finished. I’ve locked in my business. This is what it’s going to look like until I’m 75 years old. 

Lori: A Horror thought.

Linzy: I know. Isn’t it? I’m glad to hear that you felt like you did get that space to do the work that you needed to do in the course.

Lori: Yeah, I think it’s Vital

Linzy: yes, I agree. I can always tell when somebody is not going to be a fit for the program if they’re like, I don’t need all of this. Then it’s, well, you might not need all of this. And also this is what makes it special is that we do have this container to get into the stuff of it. Maybe you’ll think about the stuff about your mom and money for two months. And then you’ll spend another month and a half learning YNAB. And then you’ll decide you don’t want to do YNAB. And then you’ll go over to the spreadsheet, and then you’ll raise your fee. There’s so much to do. And so having a container that honors. Some of that work, because it’s not even all of that work, I think is essential at this point, in the way that we do the work.

So, Lori, it is such a treat to be with you again. It’s so nice to see you. For folks who are listening, who want to get further into your world, can you tell them where to find you?

Lori: Yeah. So my website is singularly sensitive.com and it has information about how I work with HSPs, what the singularly sensitive approach is, and has a link to my book. I also have on there a chance for people to sign up for a free five-day journaling stretch. I do a ton of journaling with people because I think with highly sensitive people, it’s helpful to go in that way and have some time to reflect on paper or, or screen or canvas or music, however they want to reflect. But that idea of getting that container for going deeper and being in things for as long as you need to be. So that’s all on my website.

Linzy: Great. Okay. So singularlysensitive. com. We’ll put the link for that in the show notes. Thank you so much, Lori, for coming on the podcast today.

Lori: Thank you so much. It’s been so great to reconnect and kind of get to share how things have gone since we last formally worked together.

Linzy: Thank you. Thank you, Lori. I so genuinely enjoyed this conversation with Lori today. And one of the things that I like about it is I’ve worked with so many wonderful, wonderful therapists in Money Skills for Therapists. And often, you know, it’s like I get to see them at the end of that period we’ve worked together, which now is six months,

I get to see them with their skills, kind of almost like a backpack loaded up with skills. And they’re heading off. And when we do closure posts in our online community and people post, what they’ve taken away from the course, often I can’t help but use the word excited when I send them off.

I am so excited because I know that they have this backpack full of skills and they have this new way of being with money that is going to serve them so well in the coming years, but I don’t always get to hear how that went. So it’s such a gift to be with Lori and to see and experience how much she has grown around money and what that’s made possible for her in terms of, as she talked about, her business and being able to be more intentional, not just in how she is managing and spending money, but how she makes money and how she’s using her energy.

And yeah, in the three years since we’ve worked together, she has grown so much into this other area of writing her book, creating her singularly sensitive approach, and zooming into this niche in her practice. It’s just so exciting to see how the skills that she built three years ago have unfolded this whole other area in her business and just, you know, settled her so much more into her gifts and herself.

It was such a treat to talk with Lori today. If you are curious about working with me, and also loading up your metaphorical backpack with some money skills, and heading off on your way, you can check out my Masterclass, The Four Step Framework to Get Your Business Finances Totally in Order. This is a masterclass that’s going to lay out how I work with therapists in Money Skills for Therapists, and my approach.

It’s going to give you a sense of who I am and how I work to see if I am the right person to help you develop these skills and build that confidence so that you can also be intentional and clear in your business. And maybe even start a whole new branch in your business and do whole new things with that clarity, confidence and intention.

So you can check out that masterclass. I’ll put the link in the show notes, the four-step framework to get your business finances totally in order. That’s how you can learn about my approach. And also that is how you can get an exclusive invite to Money Skills for Therapists. You can follow me on Instagram at Money Nuts and Bolts, and if you’re enjoying the podcast, do tell your friends.

If you have a friend from grad school who you know is starting a private practice, send them an email, and let them know about the podcast. They can start listening to the podcast and absorbing the stuff even well before they step into practice. That always makes me so excited when I hear somebody thinking about and working on these things, even if it’s just internally starting to have conversations with themselves around money before they start practice at the beginning of practice because that allows them to lay this foundation that will serve them for years and years to come.

Those roots that are going to allow them to reach and bend and be creative in their business. So if you have somebody like that in your life, let them know about the Money Skills for Therapists podcast. I would appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining me today. 

Picture of Hi, I'm Linzy

Hi, I'm Linzy

I’m a therapist in private practice, and a the creator of Money Skills for Therapists. I help therapists and health practitioners in private practice feel calm and in control of their finances.

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