https://jennifer-dunkle.com/blog daily 0.75 2022-07-13 https://jennifer-dunkle.com/home daily 1.0 2026-04-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/a0f63cce-8641-439d-88d8-9627b251711f/Big+Momma+2019.jpg Home - Welcome to New Awareness Couples and Financial Therapy! Now offering appointments exclusively via Zoom (a secure video conferencing system), from the convenience of your home or office. Being licensed in Colorado, I am able to see clients from throughout the state. Due to licensing requirements, for psychotherapy I can only see Colorado residents. For financial therapy, I work with clients from throughout the United States and abroad. https://jennifer-dunkle.com/about daily 0.75 2022-07-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/fa5daa01-3f58-467b-a01d-a20fea373b94/_DSC3856.jpg About https://jennifer-dunkle.com/recommended-reading daily 0.75 2022-07-13 https://jennifer-dunkle.com/couples-counseling daily 0.75 2022-07-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/f1cfb572-5850-4972-9213-ddc94f12154d/Unhappy+couple.jpg Therapy for Couples and Families - Couples Therapy Helping couples throughout Colorado https://jennifer-dunkle.com/financial-therapy daily 0.75 2023-11-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Financial Therapy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Financial Therapy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Financial Therapy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/db1696dd-0313-4a10-8dfc-bf3f3407a49a/Stressed+man.jpg Financial Therapy - Financial Therapy For clients from throughout the United States and abroad. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/a4a4b677-e23c-4beb-b367-f28ed43706b4/Piggybank.jpg Financial Therapy - Financial therapy can help individuals, couples and families: Examine your inner-most feelings, beliefs, hopes, and fears about money. Handle the emotional issues that can interfere with effective financial decision-making. Identify money behaviors that are getting in the way of your goals. Clarify and re-evaluate your values and priorities. Develop a healthier, more realistic relationship with money, and a plan for managing it. Reduce money-related stress and conflict, and improve family relationships. Work through sudden money transitions, such as receiving an inheritance, going through a divorce, or losing a job. For specific investment advice and retirement planning, clients are referred to a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) or a Personal Financial Specialist. https://jennifer-dunkle.com/contact-me daily 0.75 2022-05-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/a9ea4c8b-5677-4468-a688-7095284a1941/jennifer-dunkle-home-9619.jpg Contact Me - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://jennifer-dunkle.com/introducing-financial-therapy daily 0.75 2022-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/260e2882-8522-4d29-92fb-88e50978425e/financial+counseling+zoom+background.png Introducing Financial Therapy - What is Financial Therapy? 30 Dec 2013 To quote Carl Richards from The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things With Money, "Our conversations about money often leave us feeling confused, misunderstood, and even angry. Why is that? One reason is that we use money as a stand-in for deeper issues we don't want to discuss..... It's easier to talk around these issues than to face and acknowledge our feelings. Like religion and politics (which are also hard to talk about), money brings up uncomfortable feelings." Financial therapy is an exciting new specialty area of the counseling profession. While behavioral finance and "the psychology of money" have increasingly become the focus of academic research in the past thirty years, only more recently have counseling professionals across the country started to focus on financial therapy with clients. The Financial Therapy Association was formed in 2008, and started having annual conferences in 2010. Currently the association has over 300 members. Promoting financial health is the main goal of financial therapy. When money is a source of stress and worry, that stress influences many aspects of life, including relationships between members of a couple, as well as with children, other family members, and friends. Money stress also affects careers and one's health. Most of our adult beliefs about money are based on our earlier life experiences. These core money issues can affect our adult relationships. In order to make lasting changes to budgeting, spending, savings, and investing plans, it is very helpful to learn more about our underlying beliefs and values in regard to money. What exactly does a financial therapist do? In many cases, financial therapists work in conjunction with other professionals, such as Certified Financial Planners. Per Atlanta psychologist and financial therapist Mary Gresham, PhD: "A financial therapist generally listens at a deeper level, identifies dynamic issues and assists with processing any blocks to implementing plans." Using solution-focused therapy concepts, financial therapists help individuals, couples, and families: Examine inner-most feelings, beliefs, hopes, and fears about money Handle the emotional issues that can interfere with effective financial decision-making Identify money behaviors that are getting in the way of goals Clarify and re-evaluate values and priorities Develop a healthier, more realistic relationship with money, and a plan for managing it Reduce money-related stress and conflict, and improve family relationships What specific situations might trigger people to seek out financial therapy? As therapists know, money issues are in many cases the main source of stress that couples have. They often have difficulties talking about money without fighting. Learning to discuss money and values is an important skill for couples to have. Working as a money team is important, as is aligning values and priorities with actual spending. Individuals might participate in financial therapy due to concerns about their relationship with money and how it is affecting their selfesteem, achieving goals, and relationships with family members. Examples of times when families may benefit from financial therapy include: when working through issues related to "emerging adult" children becoming more independent, going through the estate planning process, and when an inheritance has been received. For more information on financial therapy, please visit www.financialtherapyassociation.org. https://jennifer-dunkle.com/the-gottman-method-working-with-couples daily 0.75 2022-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/acc9bb76-b15d-4093-ad0a-14dd223e4d70/zoom+counceling+demo.png The Gottman Method: Working With Couples 15 Nov 2015 I love the challenge of working with couples. Every one is different. When my clients tell me that I have made a positive impact on their lives, it is very meaningful. By using Gottman Method Couples Therapy with my clients, I feel as though I have a whole team of experts “behind the scenes” helping me stay on track as I work with a couple. Here are some of the great things about the Gottman Method: It’s research-based. John Gottman and his team started doing research in 1979. Over the years, they studied thousands of couples in the “love lab” at the University of Washington. Couples were video-taped, which were carefully reviewed and coded, and physiological measurements were taken. Couples were studied longitudinally – for example, as newlyweds, and later when they had their first baby and were adjusting to parenthood. An example of useful information uncovered in research by the Gottman team is that 69% of the conflicts that couples have are actually “perpetual;” not solvable. (Meaning that only 31% of conflict is truly “solvable”). Couples would argue about an issue as newlyweds, and when they came back a number of years later, they were still arguing about the same things. The key with perpetual problems is to move from gridlock to dialogue. This involves helping each person understand the underlying dreams behind their partner’s position on an issue. There is a thorough assessment process. The Gottman Method includes a structured process for interviewing the couple together, and then each person separately. Each of them completes an assessment packet privately, in order to assess the relationship’s “areas of strength” as well as “areas of growth.” Before I started using the Gottman assessments, I would sometimes feel perplexed about what was really going on with a couple. With the Gottman assessment process, issues are identified much earlier in the course of therapy. Areas of strength and areas of growth are presented to the couple in terms of what Gottman calls “The Sound Relationship House;” which includes their friendship system, how they manage conflict, trust, commitment, and creating a shared meaning system. It’s based on what happy couples are doing that works. The research team tried to figure out: What were happy couples (the “masters”) doing that was different from how unhappy couples (the “disasters”) interacted? It turns out that happy couples – as measured by couples that stay together happily rather than staying together unhappily or divorcing - have a lot less of what Gottman calls the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” – criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. Criticism – the antidote is to use a gentle start-up instead. This means complaining about the partner’s behavior rather than criticizing their character. Defensiveness – instead, take responsibility for at least some part of the problem. Contempt – rather, build a culture of appreciation. Look for what one’s partner is doing right, instead of everything that they are doing wrong. Stonewalling – do physiological self-soothing, instead of shutting down and being non-responsive to one’s partner. Related to stonewalling, the Gottman team found that when heart rates go above 95 to 100 beats per minute, the adult brain is basically “offline” and taking a break of at least a 20-30 minutes is imperative. The more the Four Horsemen are present, the greater the likelihood of divorce. Even during conflict, the “masters” have about five positive interactions (repair attempts) for every one negative interaction. On the other hand, the “disasters” have only .8 positive interactions for every one negative interaction. There are structured “interventions” to use with couples. Rather than just discussing and trying to solve whatever happens to be the subject of conflict at the moment, couples are given tools so that they can better handle their conflict discussions both now and in the future. The Gottman therapist coaches the couple in talking directly with each other, rather than to the therapist. One of my favorite interventions is “Gentle Start-Up.” Gottman and his team found that how an issue is raised during the first three minutes of a conflict discussion predicts whether the interaction will stay on track or deteriorate. With “Gentle Start-Up,” the therapist coaches the couple to: Make statements that start with “I” instead of “You” to avoid blame. Describe what is happening, rather than evaluating or judging. Talk clearly about what they need in positive terms. Be polite. Give appreciations. John Gottman and his wife, therapist Julie Schwartz Gottman, are presenting Level 1 training in Salt Lake City on March 11th and 12th of 2016. For more information about this and other trainings, visit www.gottman.com. John Gottman recently updated one of his most popular books, The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Check out the 2015 edition! I have recently completed Level 3 of the Gottman training series. My next step in the training process is entering the certification track. Therefore, I am actively seeking more couples to work with! Another one of my specialties is financial therapy (financial stressors are often cited as the number one stressor for couples). https://jennifer-dunkle.com/trainings-for-professionals daily 0.75 2026-04-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/55e5dff3-0069-43a2-9c4d-b1ce38edd42d/Level-1_Banner-Image.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62730217a360670151f146c4/58eeb8b4-08c6-40bd-b86d-8ea8a52fddee/medium-shot-adults-studying-together.jpg