On April 8, 2025, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Gordon Turtle and CPA Alberta to talk about my transition from accounting into financial therapy. Gordon and I were colleagues at CPA Alberta for a few years, but if you can believe it, we actually first met when I was in high school and I was working at the Alberta Legislature as a page. Talk about small world.
Recording a podcast was definitely a stretch for me — well outside my comfort zone — and it probably shows. But awkward moments aside, I’m really glad I said yes. After years of juggling full-time work and graduate school, it gave me the space to pause, reflect, and put into words why I started down this path in the first place.
People often ask what led me from accounting into psychology, and the truth is that the skills needed to be a good psychologist aren’t that far removed from the skills I relied on as a CPA. Both require curiosity, critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and the ability to sit with people in moments of uncertainty.
Talking with CPA Alberta reminded me just how much these two worlds overlap. For me, this transition isn’t about walking away from accounting — it’s about bringing all of it with me. The technical knowledge, the systems thinking, the practical problem-solving. Now, paired with a therapeutic lens, it allows me to help people understand what’s really happening underneath their financial stress or behaviours.
After all, at its core, financial therapy is about the emotional processes behind our money decisions. I’m excited about where this work is going, and grateful that my background gives me a way to bridge these two fields and make conversations about money feel a little less overwhelming. And a big thank you to CPA Alberta for inviting me to share my story and the excitement behind this new chapter!