Barbara Schiffman, a pioneer in Life Coaching and Spiritual Mentoring, has dedicated her career to helping individuals uncover their innate gifts and align their inner resources with their outer lives. Through her unique practice, Life & Soul Synergy, Barbara empowers people to create a harmonious existence, one where ease, joy, and purpose flow naturally. With a philosophy rooted in celebrating individuality, Barbara’s customized coaching approach invites clients to rediscover their potential, embrace their talents, and weave their authentic selves into every aspect of life. Her mission is clear: to guide others in crafting their best lives every day. In this Mystic Mag‘s interview, Barbara shares her insights on balancing the demands of daily life with soulful expression, the transformative power of synergy, and how her methods inspire people to thrive with grace and enthusiasm.
You emphasize helping clients take “Leaps of Faith” in life. Can you share a story from your own journey where you took a leap that transformed your path?
In my 70-plus years, I’ve taken dozens of personal and professional Leaps of Faith. Each transformed me profoundly at the time and also generated ongoing ripples. Sometimes we’re pushed out of our comfort zone into a leap of faith; other times taking a leap by choice pulls us forward. I’ve experienced both.
Discovering how taking leaps strengthens us – which I write about as the “Six Stages of Taking Leaps of Faith” — has helped me face new challenges when they arise. Some of my leaps include: moving cross-country from my Chicago hometown in my early 20s to work on a Hollywood movie with my filmmaker boss (the resulting film won many awards); giving birth to my daughter at home in 1979 (before home birthing was trendy); walking on hot coals with Tony Robbins (the blister on my little toe proved it was really hot!); overcoming shyness and my fear of public speaking by starting a Toastmasters club for Los Angeles screenwriters in 2005; and in 2018 leaving my California friends and home of 40 years to “retire” near my daughter and twin grandsons in NW Montana (down the road from Glacier National Park).
One deeply transformative leap was completing a half-marathon walk in 2003. After my dad died of a stroke in late 2002, I joined an American Heart Association team in Los Angeles to train for a 13.1 mile marathon in Hawaii. I took this on as a memorial for him and also a radical way to shift my relationship with exercise and health. In only four months, I went from hating exercise to walking 13.1 miles along the Big Island’s Ironman Triathlon route on a hot Summer Solstice day. I was next-to-last to finish and totally exhausted after five hours of walking, but I was also thoroughly proud. I had actually done it — and not given up! The hardest part for me was raising $3,500 in donations for the AHA to cover my travel costs. I used all the life and career breakthrough tools I taught my clients in order to build my stamina for the long walk and ask my friends for money to support my quest. In the end, I raised over $5,000 and — when their fundraising fell short — donated my overage to two young women on the AHA team whose dads had also died from strokes. It felt great to “pay it forward” this way. When I face new challenges now, my memory of that life-shifting experience reminds me I can handle anything — and that friends will help along the way!
In your coaching, you speak about energizing both personal and professional relationships. How do you guide clients to maintain a healthy relationship with themselves and their soul while balancing external relationships?
We are all connected in countless ways, and I believe we grow the most through our relationships. I also know my relationship with my Self in this lifetime expresses my Soul, which is always evolving. No matter who’s in my personal or professional life, no one can manage my energy but me. So staying centered and also “feeding my Soul” helps me balance my external relationships.
To do this, I consciously take actions to feel good &/or boost my energy. When I’m thrown off-center, small problems or life setbacks can drain and exhaust me. To replenish my energy reserves while raising a teenager and working as a Hollywood script consultant and career coach in the 1990s, I began to experiment with using Nature’s 4-Elements as metaphoric Life Energy tools — Earth, Water, Air and Fire (which resonate with Body, Emotions, Mind and Spirit). This is not hard to do and incredibly powerful.
After this worked well for me, I designed a 4-Elements coaching program (“Life Energy Tune-Up”) to teach my clients new ways to boost their own energy. Then I wrote an ebook (“Living in Balance for Boomers”) that details how to take energizing actions to express each Life-Element, blending quantum physics and metaphysics in practical yet creative ways. When I’m emotionally drained, for example, doing something that’s physical, spiritual &/or mental rejuvenates my energy. I might cook a tasty meal or go for a walk, read an inspiring book or listen to a guided meditation. Engaging my non-emotional inner elements always makes me feel better and brings me “back to center.” Then I can deal with the people in my life without absorbing their energy (I’m very empathic) or being pulled even more off-balance. And if I share one of my 4-Elements experiences with them — like eating chocolate mint ice cream — it’s fun!
What type of services do you offer?
These days, I only work with a few clients at a time, on an as-needed or goal-oriented basis. Potential clients can check my availability via email or phone. First, I’ll interview them to make sure we’re a good fit. If so, we’ll co-design a gameplan to support the client’s goals and needs. This might use tools from my Life Energy Tune-Up program, Life&Soul Coaching, Akashic Records counseling, Guided Imagery or Hypnosis, &/or Energy-Tarot processes. Once my new clients’ goals or desires are clarified, I give them assignments to help move them forward — often by consciously taking a leap of faith! My job is to provide advice, accountability, resources, and suggest adjustments as they take steps toward their goal. Once that goal is reached, we either complete our work or they can set a new goal with me.
For groups, I can also design workshops or classes based on that group’s interests or needs. These can be delivered via Zoom or in person.
As an author, I share my Life&Soul coaching tools in books (available online at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords, and other book, library or subscription sites). Based on my coaching processes, my books blend experiential tools with Soul-level guidance and are designed to shift energy in profound ways. I also have chapters in numerous published anthologies that do the same.
My books include:
Living in Balance for Boomers (ebook only, on how to use Nature’s 4 Elements as life balance tools);
Ready Set Next!: Embrace Your Past to Empower Your Future (uses journaling and NLP visualization for completing the past and envisioning the future; great to do for new years, new jobs, new relationships; at birthdays or anniversaries; or just to release the past or start fresh at any time);
Your Akashic Muse: Collaborating with Your Soul & the Akashic Records for Writing & Other Creative Endeavors (my “creativity workshop in a book” includes fun exercises plus guided meditations to help readers access Soul-level Guidance for creative projects);
Your Akashic Records: A Coloring Journal for Exploring Your Life & Expressing Your Soul (my thoughts about the Akashic Records, plus journaling activities to help readers explore their lives from their own Soul’s point-of-view — with colorable illustrations!).
Get info on all my published works at: https://www.amazon.com/author/barbaraschiffman
Life & Soul Synergy Coaching suggests a unique blend of life coaching and spiritual mentoring. How do you harmonize practical goal-setting with spiritual exploration in your work with clients?
“Harmonize” is a great word for this! To me, the evolution of our collective Souls is expressed in every aspect of our individual human lives — physical, emotional, mental, spiritual — and through all of our relationships. Everything we do is spiritual as well as practical. I agree with French philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that “we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
We create harmony day by day through the actions we take and the choices we make which shape our lives and evolve our Souls. It also helps to call on our own Future Selves — via guided imagery, journaling or other transformational tools — to support us in fulfilling our Souls’ purposes and desires. And we may become aware of the “Synchronicities” that show up in our lives as we do, be &/or have what our Souls are seeking through our human “stories.”
Your approach encourages people to explore their gifts and talents. What techniques or practices do you use to help clients uncover these inner resources?
I’ve studied and practiced a variety of metaphysical and experiential coaching tools all my life. My favorites include Guided Imagery, Akashic Records counseling (especially Past Life healing), Energy-Tarot readings, and Life Breakthrough processes. Some clients resonate with one or two tools more than others. So I use whatever works best for my clients to guide them in accessing their own inner guidance and finding their own answers. In some cases I can also teach clients how to use specific tools for themselves. And if resources that are not in my personal “tool box” might be helpful for a client, I refer them to other coaches, healers or practitioners I know and trust who have experience with those methods. It often takes a mix of tools to shift our perspectives and “loosen up” stuck energy from this lifetime (&/or past lives!).
What role does the concept of ‘soul’ play in your work, and how do you guide clients in developing a more soulful approach to their daily lives?
I believe we’re expressing our Souls all the time, in every part of our lives! Becoming conscious of this has helped me “live from my Soul’s POV” and introduce this perspective to my clients. Our human personalities focus mostly on today’s problems or goals while our Souls see the big picture (from a “multiple lifetime perspective”) and always guide us forward along our current path. For me, it’s like living in stereo — being fully Human and expressing my Soul at the same time.
Through our ordinary lives, we’re writing our Souls’ stories. As the hero or heroine of our personal life story, the detours or obstacles we encounter actually help our Souls evolve. There are many options and possibilities for each of us, just like in a screenplay or novel. Maybe I like to think this way because I’m a writer and story coach, but I treat my current life as one chapter in the Book of My Soul. Through guiding my clients to partner with their Souls, we consciously evolve together!
For more info:
https://YourSoulSupport.com
https://LiteraSee.com
