Family Services
Facilitating Family MeetingsThroughout the family life cycle, moments arise which call for clear discussions of the family’s life and money. Succession planning in family enterprises or choices of family philanthropy require high-quality communication within families. Whether in annual meetings, family retreats, or more informal discussions, Suzanne bolsters families’ abilities to communicate at their highest level – and to maximize their connections in the process.
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Psychotherapy Services
Wealth's often underestimated challenges can sometimes lead to problems that specially informed psychotherapy can help. Bringing 35 years of experience as a psychotherapist, Suzanne Slater provides individual and family therapy to put clients back in charge of the influence of wealth in their lives.
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Group Presentations
In addition to facilitating family meetings, client “thank you” events, experiential workshops, or sponsored group activities, Suzanne designs group experiences and offers high net worth families an opportunity to share special and unusual conversations.
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Sample Psychotherapy Focuses
Overspending
Too often, family wealth is exhausted in three generations: earned by the first, passed on to the second, and spent entirely by the third generation of heirs. Too far removed from the legacy of the income generator, and raised in wealth throughout their lives, children of significant wealth can develop patterns of excessive spending. Often signaling a serious lack of direction, their search for fulfillment can become misdirected into uncontrolled, material purchases. Family members can recognize the danger signs. Suzanne Slater provides psychotherapy when a family member is ready to explore the problem.
Substance Abuse
Problems with substance abuse are hardly unique to wealthy families. Many of the factors creating these problems are the same for people regardless of their economic class – a biological predisposition, a family environment that fosters drinking or drug use, a social climate that encourages “partying” and a reluctance to recognize when a person has developed a problem.
In addition, there may be some factors that actually are influenced by wealth and help a person hide or deny their situation. Through Gifted Generations, Suzanne Slater meets with effected individuals and also with concerned family members to mobilize effective and helpful responses to these problems.
In addition, there may be some factors that actually are influenced by wealth and help a person hide or deny their situation. Through Gifted Generations, Suzanne Slater meets with effected individuals and also with concerned family members to mobilize effective and helpful responses to these problems.
Family Conflict in Financial and Estate Planning
“Fault lines” in family relationships can sit below the surface for quite some time. Infused with difficult emotions, these cracks in the foundation can open when high-net-worth families make financial choices including directions for spending, family wealth transfers, or business succession plans. At times that require particular family unity, families can instead find unspoken problems emerging. Suzanne Slater can guide families through these turbulent times, not simply facilitating family decision making, but helping families to solve their underlying difficulties and to strengthen their family bonds.
Problems of Low Self-Esteem, Anxiety or Depression
It’s hard to make your mark in an exceptionally successful family. Heirs can feel pressure to prove themselves worthy of the financial abundance entrusted to them and can experience guilt or self-doubt along the way. For wealth creators themselves, the challenges are a bit different. Newly affluent, they can have trouble believing in their newfound success as they navigate a new and foreign financial circumstance.* These and other issues can create problems with self-esteem, anxiety, or depression.
* Grubman, J. Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations. (2013).
* Grubman, J. Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations. (2013).
Developing Motivation and Perseverance
Financial necessity requires people to stick with jobs they cannot quit – to endure stress they cannot escape. They learn to persevere not because they want to but because they have little choice. Affluence can lessen the pressure on people to develop this inner resolve. Bypassing certain avoidable challenges can become a pattern and this can lead to unnecessary losses when “staying the course” might have yielded rewarding outcomes or a greater sense of personal accomplishment. Suzanne Slater’s skilled professional guidance can help an individual develop the perseverance to stick with chosen commitments and maintain a focus on meeting their own life goals.
Problems Trusting Others
Wealthy people have something that other people want. This reality can infiltrate personal and business relationships and make it hard to know who to trust. People with wealth need to know the difference between envy and genuine caring – to avoid being naïve and overly trusting, yet still be willing to hold real friends close. Suzanne Slater offers psychotherapy to develop the skills needed for handling these confusing and painful situations.