We were lucky to catch up with DOUGLAS JONES recently and have shared our conversation below.

DOUGLAS, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the best boss, mentor, or leader you’ve ever worked with.

The best boss I ever had truly cared about me as a person first. When I worked with him, at that time in my life I was experiencing some intense personal stressors and I became suicidal. Nobody knew but me. I was doing my best not to let it affect anything at work and thought I was hiding it well. One day, he asked me to go into his office and he straight up asked me if I had thoughts of hurting myself. I lied and told him no as I was embarrassed and scared. But, he did not take no for an answer. He knew I would initially deny it. He kept asking and said to me, “Don’t you dare lie to me. Have you had thoughts of hurting yourself?” He was direct, but I could feel his sincere concern for me. After a few minutes of denial, I finally broke and admitted to him that I had been. I briefly discussed what I was going through. He immediately told me how much he cared and would support me. He found me a psychiatrist to go to and then told me if I ever had counseling when I was supposed to be at work, that he would cover for me. He reassured me that it would remain confidential between me and him and my doctor. I had never in my life had someone who looked at me as he did and cared so much in a compassionate and non-judgmental way. It changed my life. He cared about me first.

DOUGLAS, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a medical doctor specializing in the immune system and food allergies/sensitivities, in particular. One of my strengths is my compassion for others and I wanted to use my passion for science to help and serve others. I have gravitated to helping people who have largely felt unheard or perhaps not felt like they have had hope. I try to provide a science based hope and a plan. Born out of my own health and personal issues, I have devised a holistic approach to helping people optimize their immune systems. This program is called ImmunoFitness and focuses on optimizing our social relationships or fitness, our mental fitness, emotional fitness, physical fitness, and our spiritual fitness. As we bring these aspects into harmony through a realistic and systematic approach, we can optimize our immune fitness.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I grew up in a high-demand religious cult where perfectionism was dominant. We were conditioned from the time we were born. It was also more important that the outside appearance of living up to the checklist standards was more important than actually doing the deep self-work and addressing the root cause of problems. There was so much judgment and pressure in this setting that I adapted by developing some really unhealthy patterns of how I handled certain situations. It became harmful to me and those close to me. I had to break free from this influence–my whole culture and life–and basically start a new life on a personal level. I had these patterns in me, though, that I didn’t even know about. But, after repeated mistakes, I realized I needed professional help. I went through therapy and did years of intense work on myself. There have been many ups and downs, but I am finally feeling free.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

I think having compassion and consistency is most helpful in succeeding in my field. First, I think we must exercise compassion and consistency with ourselves. It is not about binge effort, it is small steps made consistently over time and exercising compassion for ourselves and others all along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.immunofitness.com
• Instagram: @Drdouglasjones
• Facebook: @Drdouglasjones
• Linkedin: Douglas H Jones MD
• Twitter: @Drdouglasjones

Image Credits
Mallory Lynn Photography