When you’re trying to figure out money problems, there’s a new type of professional you can consult: a financial therapist. While a financial planner might help you focus on how you spend your money, a financial therapist wants to look at why you spend your money.

While most people are familiar with major monetary issues such as compulsive shopping or pathological gambling, very few think of running up a credit card bill bigger than you can handle as an emotional issue. But over the past few years, the number of therapists focusing on money issues has multiplied. There’s money rehab, group therapy and one-on-one sessions meant to help people deal with a whole host of emotional issues associated with money.

Financial therapists have identified a few specific money disorders that seem far more minor than compulsive gambling but can just as easily slip out of control. Overspending and underspending are both in that category as is guilt associated with money and hoarding. But there are several disorders that are more complex, usually because they link both a monetary issue and a relationship problem. Financial infidelity — spending money and lying to one’s spouse about it — is one such disorder. So is financial enabling — giving large sums of money rather than encouraging someone to support themselves.

Worrying about money isn’t anything new — despite the major economic questions that need answering these days — but the financial therapy way of looking at things is newer. It’s new enough that a code of ethics is still being hammered out. According to the American Psychological Association’s professional code of ethics, therapists shouldn’t have business relationships with clients, and that includes financial planning. But some financial therapists approach their profession from more of a business planning mentality, making the ethics a little cloudy.

While it’s still rare to find a therapist who focuses only on financial issues, more and more professionals are beginning to emphasize financial therapy in their practices. Just because the term ‘financial therapy’ is new doesn’t mean that therapists aren’t used to asking questions about your pocket book. Just about every type of relationship counseling — especially for married couples — spends a little time on money; the check book, after all, is a leading trigger of divorce. If you feel like you could benefit from even a simple discussion about the motives behind your spending habits, it may be worth while to check with the local therapists in your area. Unfortunately, the easiest way seems to be either calling down the phone book’s listings for therapists or spending some time on Google.

Therapy isn’t the solution to every financial problem, of course, just as budgets aren’t the best financial planning tool for everyone. But with the economic issues making most people nervous these days, looking into a little financial therapy might be a good start to getting your financial house in order.

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