TALKS
Oliver Schnusenberg, PhD | Self-Sabotage Decoder
Financial advice assumes that once people understand how to become financially secure, they’ll move toward stability. But what if stability doesn’t actually feel safe? Dr. Oliver Schnusenberg argues that some of the financial behaviors we label as poor discipline or self-sabotage may be something else: a nervous system responding to uncertainty in ways that once made sense.
After decades teaching finance and later studying psychology, neuroscience, and financial therapy, Schnusenberg began looking differently at the choices intelligent, capable people make with money. His work explores what we carry into our financial lives — not just beliefs about money, but learned responses to uncertainty, security, and control. Understanding those patterns can change what it takes to make financial stability not just possible, but feel safe enough to embrace.
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Oliver Schnusenberg has spent more than thirty years teaching finance at the university level, watching intelligent, capable people make the same self-defeating financial decisions. He holds a PhD in Finance, an MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health from King's College London, and is completing a dual master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of Florida. He is also a Certified Financial Planner professional, a Certified Financial Therapist professional, and a Behavioral Financial Advisor. Oliver is the Earle C. Traynham Professor of Finance at the University of North Florida's Coggin College of Business and founder of Equilibria Evolution, a life coaching and financial therapy practice centered on the nervous system's role in money behavior. His work sits at the intersection of finance, psychology, and the mind-body relationship behind financial behavior.
