Exclusive Interview With Multi-Qualified Coach On Navigating Digital Business – Barry Florin

Barry Florin is a coach/therapist specialising in helping people struggling with anxiety. Anxiety is the number one mental health issue that people seek help for. Before becoming qualified as a therapist in the UK, he was a senior international executive with 20th Century Fox. Due to his extensive international experience, he is well-suited to helping people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds.

Barry Florin

Hi Barry! Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a native New Yorker raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a neighbourhood that, in my youth, was heavily populated by Freudian psychotherapists.

My parents were divorced when I was seven. My father was in the motion picture business, and my stepfather was a psychiatrist. This somewhat explains my dual career path. My original goal was to be a psychotherapist; however, in those days, one had to be a medical doctor before becoming a therapist and being sufficiently self-aware that I did not possess the requisite skills to enter medical school, I opted to follow my father’s career. I wound up going into the motion picture industry.

I spent the lion’s share of my corporate career working for major motion picture companies: Warner Brothers, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox. I have held various positions working domestically in New York City, Minneapolis, St Louis, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Internationally I have lived and worked in the entertainment industry in Mumbai, Manila, Bangkok, San Juan, Nairobi and for many years in London.

Over the years, as the various psychotherapeutic modalities changed, I obtained my qualification as a psychotherapist without the onerous requirements of attending medical school. In my sixties, as I neared retirement as a Managing Director with 20th Century Fox, I qualified as a therapist in the UK.

Why do you call yourself The Anxiety Coach?

Anxiety is the number one mental health issue that people seek help for. It can stop a person from being able to lead the kind of life they truly want to have.

There is still somewhat of a social stigma for people seeking therapy, particularly men. But coaching is acceptable; therefore, by calling myself a coach, I am opening my services to people whose anxiety might otherwise keep them from seeking professional help.

What are the anxiety issues people face today?

There are a variety of anxiety issues that many people live with. Some are frankly more serious than others, but even a case of mild anxiety can negatively affect a person’s life.

• Social anxiety can keep a person from attending social activities and engagements, limiting their ability to meet someone with whom they can further develop their career or start a romantic relationship.

• Fear of public speaking or simply not participating in team meetings at work can limit a person's promotion opportunities. It can also limit one’s income if one fears asking the boss for a deserved salary increase.

Some of the more severe anxiety conditions are:

• OCD having one’s life controlled by troubling obsessive thoughts and/or constant compulsions to carry out repetitive actions.

• PTSD lets a past trauma constantly replay in your mind limiting your ability to get on with your life.

• Panic Attacks occur when your fight or flight function takes control of your physical body, forcing you to believe that you are having a heart attack and will die.

• Phobias can appear as a fear of flying, fear of leaving the house, or fear of getting stuck in an elevator, limiting the ability to work in high-rise corporate headquarters.

What is the difference between Coaching and Psychotherapy?

I would say that it is in the therapeutic approach.

Imagine if a new person was hired to coach a professional tennis player. They would not start by looking back at the players' lost matches. They would evaluate the player’s performance on the court to try and see how the player was performing and determine what they were doing or not doing that was getting in the way of their winning games.

When I take on a new client, we will start from where the client is. Of course, it will be necessary to look at the past and see what might have been a factor in causing the client's anxiety, particularly in the case of PTSD. However, there is no delete button in the brain. My job is to help my client develop the skills needed to move forward from where they are in the present moment and not sit around ruminating and rehashing their anxiety in their sessions with me.

In coaching, there will be times when I may have to give a client some advice or critically point out something I believe they are doing or not doing that is getting in the way of their progress. This is easier done from a coaching perspective than a psychotherapeutic one.

Based on your extensive business background, are you also considered an executive coach?

I guess the answer is yes. I am a Master Coach with the Behavioural Coaching Institute, A Marshall Goldsmith Certified Coach, and a Korn Ferry Coach. As a matter of personal development, I have made it a point to keep up with the changes in our fast-changing digital business environment. I have acquired business qualifications from Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, the LSE, and MIT. As a result of my additional studies, I am comfortable with and can easily relate to senior executives’ problems in high-tech businesses.

However, experience has shown that regardless of their position in society, human beings will never be exempt from the emotional burdens of life we all encounter on our journeys.

Is there anything that you feel might differentiate you from the other people offering your services?

Yes, because I have lived most of my life as an expatriate, I am very comfortable working with clients from various international and multicultural backgrounds. My clients have come from Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, South Africa, Uganda, Jordan, Qatar, the United States and Canada. I also have worked pro-bono extensively with clients from Ukraine and am in contact weekly with people in Lviv and Kyiv.

Visit my website for more info!

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