Tis The Season: Managing Financial Stress + Pressure

Financial stress can creep into your life quietly, shaping your mood, your energy, and even your sense of self without you realizing it’s happening. During the holidays—when spending expectations rise and emotional pressures run high—it’s especially easy to overlook the toll money worries take on your mental health. Before you can address what you’re feeling, it helps to understand how financial strain actually shows up in your day-to-day life. So what are the symptoms of financial stress, and how do you know when it’s affecting more than just your wallet?

“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.” – Bob Hope

What Are The Symptoms of Financial Stress?

We don’t always see the effects of our own mental state. We can be experiencing emotional anguish every day and be ignorant to the fact of our suffering. If we’re experiencing financially motivated mental health issues, how can we recognize it? 

• Money Anxiety. Financial stress often shows up as a constant hum of worry—ruminating about bills, replaying worst-case scenarios, or feeling on edge every time you check your bank account. You may notice physical symptoms too, like a racing heart, irritability, or trouble concentrating.

• Depression. Chronic financial strain can slowly erode your sense of hope and motivation. You might feel exhausted, ashamed, or disconnected from the things that once brought you joy. Even simple tasks—budgeting, opening mail, planning ahead—can start to feel impossibly heavy when you’re depressed over money troubles.
• Avoidance. When money feels overwhelming, avoidance becomes a survival strategy. You might put off looking at your accounts, delay paying bills, ignore financial obligations, or avoid conversations about money altogether. While avoidance can offer temporary relief, it often deepens the stress over time.

Recognizing these signs is the first step toward getting support. Financial stress isn’t a personal failure—it’s a real emotional burden, and you deserve tools and care to help you through it. That’s where having the right therapist makes all the difference.

In-Network Therapy For Financial Anxiety

Facing the holiday season with financial anxiety can feel like stepping into a chapter you didn’t choose—one filled with pressure, overwhelm, and uncertainty. But acknowledging your stress is the first step toward reclaiming clarity and stability. Every moment you spend understanding your financial triggers opens the door to relief, resilience, and the possibility of moving through the holidays with more peace, purpose, and balance. Financial anxiety often builds quietly, carrying an emotional charge that leaves your mind and body on constant alert. Naming it is how your nervous system begins to finally relax.

But the financial expectations of the holidays can make calm feel out of reach. That’s why at Integrative Counsel, we make transparency, grounding, and support a core part of your care.

When you reach out to us, you won’t be facing the weight of these decisions alone. We’re upfront about costs, flexible with options, and committed to meeting you exactly where you are. Our team will guide you through each step—from exploring your insurance coverage and understanding your budget to helping you find a therapist who aligns with your emotional needs. We aim to make navigating holiday stress feel supported so you can focus on your wellbeing, not your worry.

Managing Financial Stress With Aetna Insurance. If you’re hoping to access therapy during the holidays using Aetna insurance, we’ll help you move forward with clarity and confidence. Emotional support shouldn’t become another financial burden—by using your benefits fully, you can focus on your mental health while we help minimize stress around cost and coverage.

Managing Money Anxiety With Cigna Insurance. Searching for a Cigna-covered therapist during the busiest season of the year can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re juggling financial strain, family expectations, or seasonal depression. At Integrative Counsel, our therapists are trained in trauma-informed care that helps you process stress safely and rebuild emotional steadiness. We’ll handle the logistical details so you can focus on finding relief and regaining a sense of control.

Finding Holiday Depression Relief With Optum Insurance. Whether your coverage is through Optum Oscar, Optum Oxford, or United Optum, we’ll help match you with a therapist who fits both your emotional needs and your insurance plan. Each step in this process is a chance to return to yourself—to rediscover calm, to let support in, and to see that emotional balance is possible even during a season that often feels financially overwhelming.

How Does A Therapist Handle Holiday Stress? 

So you’ve recognized that you’re experiencing financial stress this holiday season. If you went to an expert therapist, how would they treat your symptoms? What kinds of therapy can help you deal with financial stress this holiday season? 

• Narrative Therapy Can Help You Tell A New Story. Narrative therapy invites you to step back from the stressful holiday narratives you’ve inherited—stories about what you “should” spend, how generous you’re expected to be, or what a “successful” holiday looks like. By separating yourself from those external pressures, you can create a new internal script that honors your values, your boundaries, and your financial reality.

• Somatic Therapy Works Through The Stress In Your Body. Financial anxiety doesn’t just live in your mind—it shows up as tightness in your chest, a clenched jaw, or a constant feeling of bracing. Somatic therapy helps you track these sensations and release the tension that money worries produce. This mind–body work can help regulate your nervous system so you feel less overwhelmed when financial decisions or holiday obligations arise.

• EMDR For Financial Trauma. If you have trauma centered around money—such as poverty, financial instability, financial abuse, or even unhealthy family attitudes around spending—EMDR can help you reprocess those painful memories. By uncoupling the emotional charge from your past experiences, EMDR gives you the space to approach money with clarity instead of fear. Over time, you can replace old patterns with a grounded sense of agency, creating a healthier relationship with finances during the holiday season and beyond.

How Therapists Find Anxiety Relief In December 2025

“This Year of the Snake, centered around death, rebirth, and transformation, has been a doozy for many. This final season invites us to shed outdated beliefs that consumerism is tied to our sense of self. Our value is inherently tied to our intrinsic drive to offer and receive love, to our authenticity, to our connection with others. But that is hard to internalize when bombarded with commercials stating (show your love with this diamond ring or new car with a bow on top), when just trying to watch a football game. It’s not easy to escape the consumerism matrix that has been perfectly designed to tie our sense of self-worth to things we own, the way we dress, and the gifts we can buy others. 

The problem is, whenever we tie our self-worth or expressions of love to the resources we have to spend, the trips we can take, or the things we own, we set ourselves up to be victimized by ever-changing circumstances.  For most of us, our concept of financial security is ever evolving. Our definition of what security represents shifts as we age, as our earning potential rises or falls, and as the economy cycles. Where we stand in our financial health could be quite different from that of our friends, social circle, or extended family at any given time, making comparisons on social media the thief of joy for anyone with less at the moment. 

Try to prioritize sustainability over immediate gratification, spending urges, or compulsions to get the kids just one more gift. When looking back, kids often remember quality time spent together over expensive presents. Acts of service, heartfelt handcrafted gifts, or homemade treats can provide immense care to family and friends.  Leaning into a “presence over presents” mindset this holiday season can provide space to form deeper connections, reduce guilt, and offer grace in challenging financial times. 

Let go of how you think it’s supposed to be and how you picture the holidays in your mind, and start embracing new family traditions that value authentic connection over presents.” Lauren Mishkin, LMHC

 If you feel stuck, overwhelmed and burnt out,  working with a therapist can help. Based on your needs, our intake specialist will help you get matched up with a right-fit therapist. Click here to schedule a consultation.

Sunny Ebsary is an educator, multi-modal artist, and writer specializing in the intersection of myth and mental health. Sunny’s writing walks the line between poetic and logical, giving readers a chance to interface with the mind and imagination. Sunny’s been putting pen to paper since he was a child, writing everything from albums, novels, and plays, to essays, interactive games, and of course, many articles! While studying both psychology and writing, he realized his real passion in life was helping others unlock their creative spark. Whether he’s leading a D&D game, directing a production, or diving deep into the brain, you can be sure Sunny will be ushering you toward finding meaning in your life.