What Financial Trauma Looks Like (and How to Know if You’ve Experienced It)

Financial trauma doesn’t always look like bankruptcy or eviction.

Sometimes it’s much quieter than that.

It’s the knot in your stomach when the phone rings because you’re scared it’s a bill collector. It’s the panic when your card gets declined at checkout. . . even if it’s just a glitch. It’s sitting in your car in the Target parking lot, crying, because you spent money you promised yourself you wouldn’t.

Trauma isn’t just the “big” events we tend to think of. It’s not always losing your home, filing bankruptcy, or repossession. Sometimes it’s death by a thousand cuts. The little repeated wounds that taught your body: money equals danger.

For some of us, it looked like watching the lights get cut off, eviction notices taped to the front door, or listening to our parent's whisper-fighting about bills when they thought we were asleep.

For others, it wasn’t loud at all. Maybe it was the constant hush-hush, the secrets, the “don’t ask questions” when money came up.

• Nobody explained.

• Nobody reassured.

• You just learned to figure it out alone.

That’s trauma too.

Here’s how it might be showing up in your life now:

✨ Avoiding your bank account like it’s toxic. 

✨ Overspending when you’re stressed, then drowning in shame after. 

✨ Freezing every time you need to make a money decision. 

✨ Feeling guilty for every single purchase that’s just for you. 

✨ Feeling unsafe with money, even when your income is stable.

Sound familiar? That’s because financial trauma lives in your body. It bypasses logic. You can know the numbers, run the budget, even be “doing fine” on paper. . . but your nervous system is still on high alert.

And here’s the hope: trauma can be healed.

It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens gently. Quietly. Slowly.

Start by naming it. Tell yourself the truth: “This isn’t just bad money habits. This is trauma.” Because once you name it, you stop blaming yourself and you start working with it.

That might look like therapy. Coaching. Journaling. Breathwork. Boundaries. Even something as simple as placing a hand over your chest before you open your bank app and saying, “I’m safe. I can look at this.”

You are not weak for being triggered by money.

You are human.

And humans can heal.

If any of this felt a little too familiar, I just want you to know you’re not broken and

you’re definitely not alone. Financial trauma is real, and it doesn’t mean you’re

“bad with money.” It means you’ve been carrying weight that was never meant

to be yours. If you ever want a safe space to talk it through and start

healing your money story, reach out below. I’d love to sit with you in it.

Let's Chat!