Money and Meaning, + URL: New Ways to Have Conversations About Money with Your Clients--A Guide for Therapists, Coaches, and Other Professionals [Paperback]

Judith Stern Peck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0470083425 | ISBN-13: 978-0470083420 | Edition: 1

The first book of its kind to introduce a model to help you create conversations about money with your clients, Money and Meaning provides a framework and tools to provide a safe environment in which to have conversations and resolve conflicts. Written by a respected expert in business, financial, and relational issues, Money and Meaning is filled with useful case studies and helps you open the door to thoughtful conversations that explore and resolve money’s multiple meanings.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Stern Peck tackles an important and often overlooked in the issue in the clinical relationship—money. [The book stresses] the importance of exploring our own beliefs about money…and then leveraging this to assist clients through the same process….an excellent resource for students and professionals alike." (Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, 2008)

Review

"Judy Peck's insightful book gives families and their advisors a clear, pragmatic framework for discussing the complex, challenging topic of money, values and family dynamics."
—Melissa A. Berman, President & CEO, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc.

"Judith Stern Peck has broken the last taboo for families and their therapists. With a strong relational and family life cycle focus, she lifts money from mere pragmatics to a deeper exploration of the meaning and values beneath every financial decision in our lives. Creativity, sound judgment and compassion for people’s dilemmas infuse a work sure to be a resource for trainees and experienced therapists alike."
—Evan Imber-Black, Ph.D., Director, Center for Families and Health, Ackerman Institute for the Family; Editor, Family Process

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470083425
• ISBN-13: 978-0470083420
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #980,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars My professional opinion, December 13, 2007

By 

Catherine Franz (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Money and Meaning, + URL: New Ways to Have Conversations About Money with Your Clients--A Guide for Therapists, Coaches, and Other Professionals (Paperback)

This is a guide for therapists, coaches and other professionals who work with clients that need to unblock money communication issues in order to increase effectiveness in the receiver's life.

Peck has a way to use cards and a process for using them to help clients align their values with money and then to use a second set of cards that will allow client's to see where their last decision-making process about money is disconnected with their values alignment.

This process then allows the client to begin an open conversation about money with you. It also shows them how they can begin talking about money with other significant people in their life - spouse, other family members, even their accountant or financial planner.

The language the author uses isn't at grade 8 level like newspapers or most books. It is written on a college or higher level which makes some parts of the book difficult for this reader to get the gist of unless read two or three times. I found the case studies much too wordy. A common issue found when if it were written tighter, the book would no longer be long enough for a book or they would need some additional filler material.

I did like learning about how to use the cards. I would have preferred a simpler outline summary in each chapter that said, Step 1, 2, etc. The case studies do show some practical applications that run a wide gambit of how to use it.

When I re-read each chapter, highlighted the "how-to apply" steps I could see a clearer picture.

Have patience with this book. Don't think it will be a quick read. On the other side the methodology is very sound and great information to have if this could help your clients. It is another model to use.

I haven't worked with it yet with clients. I will however be doing so after I re-write the information so it's in a simpler format for me to go through the process.

Good bibliography in the back that lists some additional materials that I thought would be interesting to explore.

Catherine Franz
www.CatherineFranz.com

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Easy Tool to allow people to discuss their values and money decisions, July 25, 2008

By 

Mary Jo P. Knight (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Money and Meaning, + URL: New Ways to Have Conversations About Money with Your Clients--A Guide for Therapists, Coaches, and Other Professionals (Paperback)

Because I had been shown how to use the cards that Judith Stern Peck describes in Money and Meaning, I was quickly able to adapt them to situations in my financial planning practise and understand how they are easily used and adapted to different situations.
By separating into two piles -the cards that are meaningful and those that are not meaningful to you - then selecting from the meaningful ones, the 4 that stand out most, one can begin to identify and have a language to talk about their most important values. By repeating this exercise as it relates to making a financial decision, one can begin to look at the differences in how financial decisions may be in alignment or very different from one's core values. This is a non-threatening way for people to begin to reflect and then have meaningful conversation about it.
The book gave me some wonderful ideas about how to apply this technology to my client situations. The case studies made me think about my own values and how they may be impacting clients and potential clients. The case studies include single people, couples and parents in various situations.
Having had a head start with the cards, which are in the back of the book, I have used this with my partners, in a group retirement seminar and, of course, have been able to reflect on my own values and financial decisions.
I highly recommend the book to professionals who are working with clients and don't know how to approach financial conversation in an open way with them. This will give good examples to draw upon.
It is also a good tool for anyone who wants to just take a look at their own values, their process in making financial decisions, how the two differ, if they indeed do. The book presents a way to gain insight and have conversation among family members, parents, children, business associates or life partners.
A worthwhile read and very worthwhile exercise!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Financial life planning dream tool, March 17, 2011

By 

troy - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Money and Meaning, + URL: New Ways to Have Conversations About Money with Your Clients--A Guide for Therapists, Coaches, and Other Professionals (Paperback)

If you are a financial advisor who would like to be able to facilitate meaningful conversations around money issues with clients this is the best tool I have ever used (30 years in business). A research based family therapy foundation; a tangible device that people touch; a simple clarification process that anyone can understand. I would recommend this as the best book along with the cards download to USE as opposed to study.