For twenty years, I built a successful and lucrative career as a Financial Recovery Counselor, and would come home many days literally buzzing from the breakthroughs my clients experienced as they turned their financial lives around. Now I get the same high as I train others to carry on this important work around the country.

While many professionals find their careers stalling, business is booming for many of my Financial Recovery Counselors who help individuals, couples and business owners forge new relationships with their money. Now more than ever, there is a need for counselors who can take a holistic approach to helping their clients get to the root of their money problems, and take control of their lives so that they can get where they want to be.

There are three main reasons why opportunity in this profession is exploding:

Rapidly Changing Economy: Significant changes in the economy have left many people – even those with what would seem like plenty of savings and investments – realizing the way they’ve been handling their money doesn’t work anymore. Many are reevaluating their spending priorities and wondering how they will ever reach their goals. Some feel stuck or afraid to make changes. And many find themselves fighting with their spouses or business partners over money.

Fills a Crucial Gap: Financial Recovery Counseling offers a holistic approach to helping individuals and couples analyze their current behavior, and create and implement a plan for reaching their financial goals. It fills a gap between services such as credit counseling, which is focused primarily on a debt repayment program, and financial planning, which is focused primarily on investment, insurance and related services. Most therapists, accountants or financial planners simply aren’t equipped with the training or skills to offer this holistic approach.

Little Competition: While “financial therapy” or “money coaching,” have become popular buzzwords, there are few programs that provide comprehensive training in this type of counseling. In fact, the Financial Recovery Institute offers the only training program of its kind in the country. Along with offering graduates the skills and tools they need to help their clients confront and transform their practical relationship with money, the program also equips trainees with all of the requisite business tools and strategies needed to set up and develop their own successful Financial Recovery counseling practices. After several months in the training, qualified trainees are able to start working with clients, allowing them to “earn while they learn.”

Some Financial Recovery Counselors use the training they receive through the FRI to expand their current practices as financial planners, CPAs, coaches, therapists, marriage and family counselors, social workers, etc. Others choose this program in order to train for a completely new, more satisfying career.

One of my first trainees, Mikelann Valterra, MA, founder of The Women’s Earning Institute, says:

“More people need to be doing this important work. To say that training with Karen is the best investment I’ve ever made is an understatement. The skills and self-confidence I gained from training with Karen allowed me to open my own financial counseling practice and create a thriving business. I’ve been successfully self-employed, making great money, for over 12 years now! And, I’ve been able to help many people.

Author's Bio: 

Karen McCall is the founder and owner of the Financial Recovery Institute. Since 1988, McCall has counseled individuals, couples, and businesses through a holistic, transformational approach that results in a stable and secure financial foundation. The Karen McCall MoneyMinder® system enables people to discover underlying attitudes about money—often the cause of self-defeating money behaviors such as overspending, chronic debt, under-earning, and low or no savings—while providing the tools, strategies, and support to achieve financial well-being.

Karen McCall is recognized nationally and across many disciplines as a consultant, trainer, and speaker on effective money management and its role in overall financial and emotional stability. She has been featured in such publications as Money Magazine, Entrepreneur, and USA Weekend. She was featured on the PBS series The Financial Advisors, and was the host of the radio talk show Mental Wealth. Her published works include It’s Your Money: Achieving Financial Well-being (Chronicle Books); MoneyMinder: Financial Recovery Workbook (Financial Recovery Press); and as a contributor to I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self (Jason Aronson Press), a book for mental health professionals. Karen McCall is in demand as a presenter at conferences across the country.