Reclaiming Financial Agency: An Interview with financial therapist Haylie Castillo

Highly Sensitive Money with Diana Gisel Yañez

Reclaiming Financial Agency: An Interview with financial therapist Haylie Castillo

In this episode of Highly Sensitive Money, I interview financial therapist Haylie Castillo. We discuss the significance of financial backgrounds shaped by social justice, systemic oppression, and personal upbringing. Haylie shares her journey of growing up in a conservative, patriarchal environment, navigating and deconstructing trauma, and eventually merging her interests in finance and therapy to create a unique career path. The conversation explores Haylie's work in financial therapy, her commitments to anti-oppressive practices, and her reflections on building community and ritual around money. Haylie also highlights the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, personal healing, and the radical concept of liberating money as a neutral resource for achieving joy, rest, and creativity.

About our Guest:

Haylie Castillo is a financial therapist whose passion is to see people find freedom and agency through healing their relationship with money. As both a Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associate and a Certified Financial Therapist - ITM, Haylie works from a trauma-informed, anti-oppression lens to create a shame-free space for her clients to work through their emotions around money. Haylie has a gift for helping people envision a new reality for themselves and the world. One in which they have a sense of peace, joy, and ease around money.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:51 Haylie's Financial Background and Upbringing
08:13 Deconstructing High-Control Environments
11:58 Journey to Financial Therapy
24:51 Liberating Money from Oppression
32:08 Exploring High Sensitivity
32:40 Discovering Financial Therapy
33:05 Understanding Highly Sensitive People (HSP)
36:02 Integrating Social Justice in Financial Therapy
36:25 Systemic and Trauma-Informed Therapy
38:15 Anti-Oppression and Financial Therapy
40:37 Community and Ritual in Financial Healing
45:04 Breaking Money Taboos
47:48 Redefining Success and Disrupting Defaults
50:10 Support Systems and Professional Networks
54:17 Personal Refuges and Celebrations
56:30 Intentions for the Future

Resources:

Haylie’s website
Haylie’s Instagram
Haylie’s Facebook
Haylie’s LinkedIn
The Trauma of Money
Lindsay Bryan-Podvin
allthecolors.net for the Money Archetypes Quiz