Book Review: Wounds of Wealth by Emily June Wilcox

Written By: Katie Ubelhor

As an Accredited Financial Counselor® (AFC®) who owns my own practice, I consider “Wounds to Wealth” by Emily June Wilcox a powerful resource for other AFCs who desire to differentiate their financial counseling practice by using this mind-body approach to financial wellness. Wilcox offers a holistic healing approach that extends beyond traditional financial strategies, clearly identifying common money wound patterns, teaching the reader to shift mindsets and release stored trauma to stop reactive patterns and behaviors with money. As AFCs, we can leverage her knowledge to deepen our impact by addressing not just the tactical basics like setting up a budget – but also the emotional barriers our clients face with money, supporting long-lasting change if implemented. 

Wilcox posits that true financial abundance and freedom cannot be achieved solely through conventional financial strategies; instead, we should prioritize identifying and healing deep-rooted emotional and psychological blockages referred to as “money wounds”. Money wounds are (often subconscious) beliefs about money, formed through past experiences, that influence how we exist in relation to money. They can manifest into the present as: 

1. Limiting behaviors: If a client’s belief is that they aren’t worthy of wealth they may overdeliver at work, believing they must ‘earn their keep’. These clients often struggle to receive money, feeling unworthy. 
2. Fears: If a client believes they can’t be trusted with money they may avoid taking financial action for fear of making the wrong decision. This is often due to a lack of confidence in managing money responsibly. 
3. Self-sabotage: If a client believes that having a lot of money is bad or wrong then they may self-sabotage by holding back in their career by avoiding asking for higher income.   

The evidence of existing money wounds can be subtle, something we as AFCs may best be able to decipher with intentional and empathetic questioning. As much of this work is subconscious, money wounds often exist without our client’s conscious awareness. Equipping ourselves with knowledge of how to diagnose money wounds and treat said wounds with exercises and insights found in the book provides AFCs the advantage of diagnosing the root cause of our client’s money challenges. This enables us to get to the heart of our clients’ struggles and, if addressed thoughtfully and intentionally, we can influence long-lasting change in their financial future. 

This book can be considered a reusable toolset for ongoing financial healing and growth – a roadmap for helping clients understand and transform their relationship with money through a holistic approach that tackles both transactional money behaviors and internal narratives. 

The Money Wounds 

Wilcox categorizes money wounds into six types, each reflecting a deep emotional pattern and manifesting behavior connected to money. She partners each money wound with customized healing exercises, as summarized below: 

Evil Money Wound 

• Emotional pattern: Rooted in guilt, fear of judgment, or moral conflict about money, often feeling that being rich or wealthy is wrong or corrupts one’s values. 
• Manifesting behavior: Clients might hold back from fully embracing wealth, fear social rejection, or sabotage financial growth, fearing it conflicts with their morals or relationships. 
• Healing exercise(s): Exercises include rewriting money stories to align with values, visualizing money as a tool for positive impact, and using breathwork or embodied movement to release guilt and shame attached to wealth. 

Hard Money Wound 

• Emotional pattern: Belief that making money requires relentless struggle, sacrifice, and hard work, often tied to exhaustion and hustle culture. 
• Manifesting behavior: Overworking, burnout, resisting easier or joyful ways of income, and struggling with the idea that wealth can come with ease. 
• Healing exercise(s): Collect evidence of times money came easily, practice receiving without guilt, and engage in somatic or physical practices like yoga to release the body tension tied to the struggle mindset. Shift mindset from effort = income to impact = income. 

Money Trust Wound 

• Emotional pattern: Lack of confidence and trust in oneself to make sound financial decisions and manage money well. 
• Manifesting behavior: Avoidance of budgeting or financial planning, impulse spending, financial denial, or neglecting money management responsibilities. 
• Healing exercise(s): Encourage tracking spending mindfully, setting and maintaining simple financial boundaries, and practicing mindfulness to observe impulses without judgment, building a safe and trusted relationship with money. 

Safe Money Wound 

• Emotional pattern: Fear and anxiety around scarcity and safety, feeling one is not safe unless there is a large financial cushion. 
• Manifesting behavior: Hoarding money, extreme scarcity mindset, resistance to spending even when financially secure, and anxiety-triggering over money loss. 
• Healing exercise(s): Practice generosity and conscious spending as acts of self-care, journal about feeling safe without financial abundance, and visualize safety and security independent of money to open flow to abundance. 

Disappearing Money Wound 

• Emotional pattern: Anxiety and fear that money is always leaving, being unstable, or disappearing quickly, leading to cycles of fear-driven spending and financial instability. 
• Manifesting behavior: Living paycheck to paycheck, accruing debt, impulsive spending to soothe fear, and repeated financial setbacks. 
• Healing exercise(s): Track money flow patterns to increase awareness, replace scarcity reactions with trust and patience, establish emergency savings or buffers, and build rituals that foster financial resilience. 

Money Shame Wound 

• Emotional pattern: Associated with feelings of humiliation or guilt tied to money mistakes or scarcity. 
• Manifesting behavior: Clients struggle with secrecy or hiding financial struggles from others. 
• Healing exercise(s): Journaling prompts about childhood messages relating to money and worth; self-compassion meditations to build inner kindness to transform identity blocks and open channels to receive money easily. 

As AFCs, integrating knowledge of these six money wounds and their associated characteristics into client assessments can assist us in quickly clarifying underlying emotional dynamics that are interfering with our client’s financial goals. We are equipped with tools for tailored interventions, including healing exercises. When all of this is partnered with practical financial strategies, our clients will not only feel seen and understood, but they’ll be set up to create lasting wealth that reflects their values and true potential. 

Katie Ubelhor, AFC® is an Accredited Financial Counselor and the founder of  Financial Alchemy Coaching, LLC in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is passionate about empowering her clients through financial literacy, helping them understand how their behaviors with money influence their current financial situation. Katie guides individuals in re-writing the narrative of their financial journey and designing a personalized plan that supports the life they truly desire.