Deborah uses her background as a therapist as the foundation for her work as a financial counselor at the San Antonio Financial Empowerment Center (FEC). Deborah decided to become a financial counselor because she wanted to help move people toward tangible success. “As a therapist, you don’t get to see the outcomes all the time,” Deborah explained. “As a FEC counselor, I’m able to track people and to get them to feel really good about something that’s really tangible in their lives,” Deborah added.

Her favorite part of the job is getting to sit down and know the clients. “When we do our first one-on-one counseling session,” Deborah said, “we’re able to take the time and look at the actual client’s situation, learn about who they are, learn about their family, and use all of that to learn about how we can best set up their budget and more.”

Deborah knows that financial counseling is not always comfortable for clients at first. “Nobody wants to come in and spill the beans about their financial hardships,” Deborah said, “A lot of people come in and they feel a lot of shame.” Deborah works hard to make her clients feel at ease,

“I always tell people, ‘It’s a hard thing to even decide to come to financial counseling, coming here was a huge first step in the right direction.’”