In case you haven’t sorted it out by now, we’re in a whole new year (personally I’m still not totally getting that it’s 2025 yet.)
Somehow it’s just the second week of the year and it already feels like several months have passed. This seems to happen whenever there’s a horrible disaster happening, like what’s happening with the fires in California.
Despite the slow passage of time, it’s that phase of the year when most of us are setting goals, getting settled in our seats, and starting to work towards reaching those goals.
For most of us, at this time of the year we’re often feeling a sense of hope about what life could feel like with a much less stressful money situation.
That hope we feel is often plenty of a driving force to remind us to keep doing a little bit of work on our money relationship each week, no matter how small.
Obviously, I’m biased, but the best way I know of to do that work is the methodology I teach in the Art of Money program, which is now open for registrationfor the new, live, 3-month teaching format.
Gentle head’s up, though:
The first class happens in 3 days on Thursday, January 16th.
So here’s the deal: If you’re ready to create a more heart-grounded, values-in-action, and sleeping-like-a-peaceful-baby relationship with money in 2025…this program could be just the thing for you.
If you’re new here and don’t know what The Art of Money is, here’s the deal:
The Bite-sized Cake
If this program was a cake, here’s the one-bite explanation of the experience:
The Art of Money is a 3-month, live, online financial therapy program designed to help you transform your relationship with money.
We’ve been running this program for 12 years now (I taught this financial therapy work in other formats for another 12 years before we ran Art of Money for the first time), and in that time 5,472 people have been through the journey.
The Art of Money is the culmination of the decade I spent training in body-centered psychotherapy and over two decades of teaching my financial therapy methodology.
This is all just to say that the methods in this program are tried and tested…and they work if you commit and put in the work to change your money life. (That’s not always easy, but it’s always worth the effort.)
This life-changing journey is a deeply personal exploration, but it’s one rooted in support, walking alongside the new friends you’ll meet in the community.
“Last year was one of the deepest personal growth years of my life (so far), thanks to the Art of Money program.” ~Leah Bray Nichols
The Big Problem
The way I see it, there is one very large problem with the way that society at large deals with money, which is the way that almost all of us learn to deal with it. I can explain it in 5 simple steps:
Fact: 90% of our money decisions are based on emotions (based on results of a study done by Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahnmen.)
Money brings up a lot of challenging emotions.
Not knowing how to deal with those emotions can stop you from changing the things that feel broken in the financial area of your life.
Literally no one teaches us how to deal with these money triggered emotions.
Not knowing how to work with challenging money emotions makes a lot of us stick our heads in the sand, hoping that our money problems will just go away. But, taking that “ostrich approach” makes it hard to get to the place you want to be with money.
This, my friend, is the thing that stops most people from making significant changes in all the other areas of their money reality, from the mental and emotional side to the practical nuts and bolts side.
The emotional side of our relationship with money isn’t, of course, the only thing I focus on in the program, but because it’s what stops most people from making progress in all the other areas of their money lives, it’s where we begin.
I call this first phase of the work “money healing.”
Once we do the important internal work here, we move on to the other two main phases of the journey: Money Practices, and Money Maps, both of which deal with all of the practical nuts and bolts of managing our money, but you handle the nuts and bolts with the skills you learn in the Money Healing phase.
“I was neck-deep in the divorce process of a 25-year marriage when I came across Bari Tessler’s Art of Money program. There were massive financial and life changes happening for me at that time and signing up for the Art of Money seemed like a supportive move to make for myself. I am so grateful I took the plunge. My money life was changed forever. Now I experience peace instead of fear, flourishing instead of scarcity, and confidence instead of insecurity. My level of financial competence has soared with my engagement in the program. The step-by-step process that unfolds in the Art of Money is nurturing and supportive for anywhere you are in your money work. The community of participants is kind, thoughtful, and supportive in the sharing and celebrating of progress, experiences, and knowledge. The curriculum is comprehensive, beautifully designed, and has a huge library of interviews with guest teachers, extensive resources, and materials on finances. Do this for your wonderful self – you deserve a thriving, kind, and compassionate financial life.” ~PattieBelle Hastings
The Big Solution
If so much of what stops us from experiencing a stress free, healthy, grown up, relationship with money has to do with our unexamined emotions around money, the most obvious path to a healthier money relationship is this:
Financial therapy.
But here’s the rub: even though financial therapy has been around since 2001, when I first came up with the concept in a tiny little cabin in the redwoods of California, it can be hard to find a financial therapist to work with.
And if you do find one, private sessions with a therapist can get expensive after just a couple of sessions.
This is exactly why I created The Art of Money. I wanted to make this work available to as many people as possible.
The Art of Money is a collection of practices you can do on your own, like a daily yoga practice.
It’s a way of living in relationship with money. A path of self-growth. A trail you can hike alone or with a partner. Something you can do daily in short blocks of time, no therapist required.
And a daily, weekly, monthly money practice full of these things? Can change everything about everything with your experience around money and all it touches.
It has every tool, every tip, every tactic, every ounce of my support, and every little helpful thing I’ve developed over the last 24 years of teaching this work.
In this journey, you’ll get:
12 weeks of live teaching and group financial therapy guidance to bring more compassion, awareness, and confidence to your relationship with money.
Weekly co-working community support groups hosted by our alumni guides.
Lifetime access to the supplemental learning materials in each of the 12 modules that you can go through at your own pace to deepen your healing journey.
Each module includes teachings, guest teachers, journaling prompts and workbooks in audio + written formats.
A structured framework to ground your journey. I’ll walk you through our three phases: Money Healing, Money Practices, and Money Maps A cohort of incredible guest teachers.
Body-based exercises to help ground you and infuse your money journey with deeper self-knowing, mindfulness, and intention.
Access to my entire archive library of interviews.
And remember that the majority of this program is taught live by me, which makes the whole experience a lot more engaging, interactive, deep, and well, more alive.
“As a man with a traditional finance background, I was extremely skeptical of this seemingly feminine and feelings-oriented course because I felt like I knew exactly what needed to be done for our financial health. But through the course, Bari won me over, and my perspective has completely changed. If you are a married couple with young children like we are, and you are wondering if you should do this, I would strongly suggest it. I have been the money person in our relationship, and I always wanted my wife to care as much about saving money as I do. But I couldn’t get her to see my side of things. So it wasn’t a surprise to me that she proposed we enroll in this course. My instant reaction was that we should save our money and not sign up. I tried to convince her that I could teach her everything she needs to know about budgeting, money, investing, etc. It turns out Bari was a better teacher for her than I am. She needed a really kind, gentle approach and a community of support to engage in money talk. Bari taught us techniques for being kind to ourselves and each other around a topic that brings up so much tension and stress. During the course, we paid off all debt completely and are both focused on building our savings. My wife does it without me nagging her now. Her inner money manager has been awakened. Our finances are better than ever before, and we are both involved now. I’m grateful to you, Bari, for helping us connect on this issue so deeply.” ~ Rene Cordova
And remember, the first class of the program is in 3 days, on Thursday, January 16th.
So, think about it for a moment…what could happen in your money relationship, and in the rest of your life, if you spent time bringing smarts, mindfulness, and courageous compassion into the financial realm?
If you find a “yes” in your heart for starting your journey to a healthier, easier relationship with money, I can’t wait to see you in the classes. 🙂
Sending my dearest wishes,
P.S. Thoughts on The Art of Money from a past member:
“Bari Tessler’s Art of Money program appeared in my life at a time when I really needed it the most. For most of my life, money had been an issue with much emotional load – whether it was fear, stress, anger, frustration, elation, or hope – yet for some reason, no one had ever connected the dots for me, pointing out that to get my financial life in order, taking care of those emotions and stories and how they showed up in my financial transactions and my approach to my finances was a necessary and extremely effective way of getting on top of my finances. Enter Bari and her gentle, knowledgeable, and creatively intuitive approach and teaching. It is safe to say, following through with the program was not only one of the best investments I could make regarding my finances, it also influenced so many other areas of my life. It turned strained family relationships from toxic to surprisingly supportive, it helped calm and lower my stress levels, supported my own professional development and how I show up for those I am working with, and many of the tools I first learned in The Art of Money I have taken into my private life, and they facilitate communication and help with relationships and friendships. Because clarity, healing, somatic awareness, and a focused, well-paced, body-centered approach to emotions and sensitivities are useful in every area of life. Combined with the wealth of practical knowledge, experts to reach out to, and the invaluable support of a community of peers, this is really a place to come home to and resource myself for navigating this money/life journey in the best way possible. I highly recommend it!” ~Sibylle Meder
The Art of Money and the hope that pulls us to a new money reality. was last modified: January 13th, 2025 by Bari Tessler
