Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems: The Rise of Wealth Therapy

The rise of wealth therapy. 

- Caroline Winter

Four years ago, Manhattan therapist Clay Cockrell met a patient with an unusual problem. The 21-year-old college senior said he’d recently received traumatic news. “He seemed scared,” Cockrell recalls. “Like, really scared. He wasn’t sure he could trust me, so for the first few sessions we just talked generally about his life.”

The patient had attended public schools, worked summer jobs as a lifeguard and camp counselor, and drove an old Toyota. During the previous year, he’d struggled to decide what career to pursue after college.

Then, on his 21st birthday, his father, a businessman, called him into his office and dropped a bombshell. According to Cockrell, “the father told his son, ‘I’ve been keeping something from you: We’re actually quite wealthy.’ ” The family, it turned out, owned a multinational corporation.

Learning you’re heir to a fortune would be a pretty good day for most people. But rather than celebrate his newfound wealth, the patient grew angry and confused. “He wasn’t mentally prepared—no one would be,” Cockrell says. “He didn’t know who to trust and didn’t want his friends to think he was suddenly different, so he didn’t tell anyone.” Four years later, the patient is still working through his identity crisis while training to take a managerial position at his father’s company. “He impulsively bought a really fancy car, but he doesn’t want people to see it,” Cockrell says. “So he’s keeping it in a garage.” (Cockrell changed some details to protect the patient’s identity.)