Diversity Dialogue: Let's Talk about Money

Hosted by: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee. 

Co-Facilitated by Stacy Spencer and Emilio Anguiano

Virtual Event

“Money matters are treated by civilized people in the same way as sexual matters with the same inconsistency, prudishness, and hypocrisy.” S. Freud (1913)

Event Information:

Conversations about money in the context of therapy (group setting, individual, family, couples, etc) usually elicit a  variety of emotions related to fear, excitement, safety, anxiety or shame, among others. We look forward to spending this time reflecting on how our beliefs and values around money impact our practice from the type of practice we work in, fee setting, how we present ourselves professionally and how we work with clients. Some questions that frequently come to our minds are: What is the value of my work? How much should I charge per session? What is a fair income for myself? Am I willing to work with health insurance or agencies that are mediators? When is it appropriate to raise my fees? How do I talk about money with my clients? or What is the perfect sliding scale fee approach?.  We’ll approach these questions with the awareness that socio economic class is intrinsically connected with money and also is part of the social determinants for health.  This is also a topic that is generally avoided in groups.  It would be an honor for us to engage in this conversation with the participants and reflect about these important topics: only through an open channel of communication is it possible to uncover some of the enigmas around taboo concepts.  

PRESENTERS: 

Stacy Spencer, LCSW-S has been a Practice Administrator at Integral Care in Austin, Texas since 2016.   Stacy oversees a team of individuals providing campus-based mental health services in three school districts and two charter schools. Services include: on-campus psychotherapy, crisis response, teacher trainings, psychiatric services, peer support for parents and students, and suicide prevention. Stacy also oversees a pilot program, Safe Landing, that provides clinical and case management support to youth in foster care and their families.  Prior to working at Integral Care, Stacy worked at Five Acres in the Residential Treatment and Permanency Programs in Los Angeles County for 10 years. Stacy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and holds a Master's Degree in Social Work from Columbia University.

Emilio Anguiano, LCDC, CGP, is a Medical Doctor in Mexico, and in the US he is a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC), Imago Relationship Therapist (IRT), and Certified Group Psychotherapist (CGP). Some of his areas of expertise are domestic/family violence, anger management, and substance use issues. He runs process groups and psycho-educational groups, with a modern analytic lens predominantly.