Charting The Evolution Of Financial Therapy: 25 Years Of Bibliometric Journey

Financial therapy has emerged as an interdisciplinary response to the intersection of financial stress, mental health, and economic behavior. Financial problems are not only determined by material barriers but also by factors such as anxiety, cognitive biases, impulsivity, maladaptive patterns, or financial trauma, which can find answers in financial therapy. While the field aims to mitigate maladaptive patterns – such as liquidity anxiety and impulse spending – through clinical intervention, its scientific structure remains fragmented. This study analyzes the conceptual evolution and network architecture of financial therapy research from 2000 to 2025, using a dataset extracted from the Web of Science and Biblioshiny software to perform a comprehensive bibliometric analysis. The results indicate that the field is anchored primarily in clinical psychology rather than economics, evidenced by a dense central cluster focusing on depression, anxiety, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Co- occurrence networks reveal a distinct sub-cluster defined by financial incentives and contingency management, which serves as the conceptual bridge connecting psychotherapeutic interventions to behavioral economics. The paper provides a quantitative benchmark for researchers, confirming that financial therapy is maturing into a distinct clinical discipline that integrates behavioral incentives with relational and trauma psychological care.