We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Christy Soto-Johnson, NMD a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Dr. Christy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the best boss, mentor, or leader you’ve ever worked with.
I’ve been working consistently since I was 13 (and I’m over 40), and at times I’ve even held up to 3 jobs at once. As you can imagine, I’ve had a lot of bosses and supervisors! Although some were amazing for very unique reasons, all of the most impactful bosses I’ve ever had have these 6 amazing traits in common. I hope they help all of you when looking for a positive work environment and a good leader to work with.
1. They listen and seek feedback – Have you ever had a boss that just plows ahead on a project, never checking in if things are working, they don’t look at why they’re not working and never ask for your opinion or input? Maybe when you try to talk to them about it they either brush you off or seem like they’re listening but you can tell after that it just didn’t get through? This is the opposite of that. I don’t just meant that they give you space to share your experience with your job issues, but they actually want to understand why those issues are important, how changing them will impact you and your project/team, and explore ideas on how to make things better. In other words, they care. If they don’t get it, they ask questions and they do so without judgement or making your feel uncomfortable because they are trustworthy and genuine.
2. They give you opportunities for growth and development both personally and professionally – There were many times I’d not tried a particular task before, was unfamiliar with certain software, or had never been in charge of something either alone or leading a group. Still, my bosses took me aside, pointed out the other skills and experiences I had that were needed or useful for those new things, and they encouraged me to step into this new role or duty. Sometimes it was given to me as a choice like, “hey, how do you feel about overseeing XYZ”, and other times it was more direction, like, “I want you to do XYZ”, but no matter what, they were perceptive and real about the fact that I might be nervous or uncertain about doing something new, that I may not have confidence to think I could do it well (or at all), without being condescending or coddling. They reminded me that if I really needed help, they would be there or connect me with the best person for support. Sometimes it was as simple as looking me in the eye and them saying, “you’ll be fine. I know it.”
3. They’re friendly without being your actual friend – Let’s face it, some bosses are hard-nosed, rude jerks, and some want to be so super nice and to become friends so badly that they forget that they’re your boss. It may be hard to take them seriously in that case. It’s about that balance, that sweet spot. But why not be your actual friend? I’m not talking about when you’re friends first and then you end up working together. I mean a total stranger trying to make like they’re your BFF since forever ago and failing to be assertive enough to get the fire lit under the team. A great boss is one who is kind, compassionate, respectful and friendly but doesn’t lose sight that they are the leader of the team, that the team’s performance and achievements (or lack thereof) are ultimately a reflection of their direction of the team. They can find that balance between having a fun work environment where people like coming to work, while still maintaining a good ethical, focused and productive team that gets things done well and at a good pace.
4. Hard work, positive outcomes and authorship are recognized – In other words, they don’t take all the credit for your work, your ideas, and when things go right. Instead, they give thanks and recognition to the team or individuals who the ideas, work, time and energy went into the final product or outcome. And if things go badly, they don’t put all the blame on you or the team, they own their role in it as well.
5. They tell you the truth with compassion and professionalism – Most people can be very nervous at the employee review. I know I was many times before. At meetings, it can sometimes be intimidating or nerve racking to propose new ideas or opinions. Maybe in your head you might think “that was a stupid idea. why did I suggest that?” or mid-project you’re looking at how it’s going and your thinking “this is a cluster f***, what can I do to fix it? It’s not fixable.” A great boss can tell you that things are going well or not going well in a way that is both direct (not tip-toing around it or using a million words trying to get to the heart of it) and sensitive (‘let’s explore ways to shift the outcome’ and not just ‘well that was a massive screw-up’). They bring you into the conversation on how to face and maneuver through things instead of talking to you about you, so you can learn and have input on your own growth and direction.
6. Good balance between micro-managing and macro-managing – Like #’s 3 and 5, this is about balance. Some bosses are breathing down your neck, watching every action you take, and others, well let’s just say it’s almost like the boss is a figment of your imagination. The best bosses I’ve ever had really excelled here at knowing when to be close (but not suffocating) when I was new to the job or starting a task new to me. Then once I settled in, they kept a respectable distance with good communication, comfortably-timed check-ins, meetings, etc. If I needed anything before we were due to check-in, I knew that I could easily reach them, they would respond within a decent timeframe and their instructions would be clear. If they were not going to be available, good communication of this would be set in place so I wasn’t left in the lurch.
There are a lot of other things that can make for an amazing boss, but these in my experience, have been some of the top ones that all of my favorite bosses have in common.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
We love teaching people about how what we do here at Guiding Elements Medical Center (GEMC) can impact their well-being in every way possible. Nowadays people are becoming more familiar with naturopathic medicine which is based in preventative healthcare through natural means like food, supplements, and lifestyle changes.
Yes, we do bring naturopathic medicine into the healing arena when needed. However, many times people are less familiar with our focus in the areas of bioenergetic medicine, mind-body medicine, spiritual medicine and quantum biology. Or, they never thought about those areas in the context of medicine and health the way that our clinic bridges them all together.
Over the years, we found that there were several areas directly impacting a person’s health that were either not being addressed in any medical field, or were not taken seriously by conventional doctors. We had patients who, one after another, would tell us things like, “finally somebody who gets it”, “nobody ever believed me before”, “they said I was crazy for thinking/feeling/believing this”, or “thank you for actually listening. The other doctors just brushed me off so I stopped telling anyone anything and have been trying to figure this out on my own”. We could tell they not only appreciated our knowledge and education but also our compassion and understanding of them as an individual with a unique story.
We noticed that there are massive disconnects in medicine and gaps in wholeness of the person. This is a major reason why we created a new medical model to deliver our care and philosophy; it broadens the lens through which we explore our patient’s concerns. It’s called “The 7 Components of the Whole Person”. Our goal is to understand how each component that makes up a person is impacting or influencing their health, overall capacity to function, or barriers to getting results. It even helps us understand their path and purpose in life!
The 7 Components (or “areas”) are:
1. Ancestral (generational traumas, DNA/epigenetics, etc.)
2. Physical (your body, hormones, medications, supplements, foods, etc.)
3. Emotions (fear, joy, sadness etc.)
4. Mind (thoughts, patterns, behaviors etc.)
5. The Pain Body (where trauma and pains are held)
6. Spirit (spiritual essence, soul, etc.)
7. Bioenergetic Field (meridians, aura, prana, toroidal field, etc.)
One of the beauties of utilizing this type of model is that rather than treating symptoms or diagnosis and conditions, we treat all aspects of a person and we are able to go more in-depth than typical models. Therefore, people are able to see positive changes and growth across their whole life, far beyond the initial symptoms that caused them to come to see us. This also means that often times we don’t use the traditional medical labels most people are used to, which people find refreshing. Yes, we do help people struggling with anxiety, depression, mold toxicity, fertility support, chronic pain, and so on. And yes, we do use supplements on occasion, advise on healthy lifestyle shifts, run labs, imaging and can even refill prescriptions, like a standard naturopath. However, our goal is to restore and revitalize all 7 components to allow people’s bodies to undo triggers, patterns and root causes that are keeping illnesses, autoimmunity, pain and other issues locked in the body, not going away.
We also care about the lives of the people we treat, and can address relationships issues, struggles with addictions, loss of loved ones and other life issues. Our treatment methods go much deeper because once you address all 7-components, habits and hang-ups connected to them also come out to be released.
As naturopathic doctors, we were trained to “treat the root cause”, but our medical training only looked at the root causes of the mind and physical components, and briefly touched on aspects of the bioenergetic field. Natural solutions were also limited to those areas, leaving big holes that we were determined to fill. All practitioners at GEMC have had extensive outside training and mentoring in the other 5 areas in our model. We combine what we have learned overall with our intuitive, God-given gifts that support our work, allowing us to identify issues in the other 5 lesser-known areas and provide solutions for them as well.
We fully acknowledge that not any one practitioner can do everything or is the best match for everyone. We value collaboration with other practitioners throughout the valley, and take time to get to know them, trying their services in order to add them to our network of vetted and trusted referrals. Everyone deserves the best care they can find and having connections to great practitioners helps us ensure that all of our patients have the best care team possible. We believe that you, as the patient, deserve and are worth the effort and consideration! We truly care that you get the quality help you need to return you to vibrant health and a life worth living.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
As a kid growing up I was taught to “work hard”. Work hard at all aspects of your life and you’ll be rewarded for your hard work, it will pay off. As a young adult, it shifted to “work harder, not smarter”. Efficiency allowed me to do more, experience more, get ahead, but I still didn’t use that extra time I now had to relax or take care of myself. Instead I filled it with more things to do, more responsibilities inside and outside of the home. Eventually, life happened hard and I seemingly had no choice but to be working hard all the time to help my family in many ways, for many years. Then, as I stepped deeper into adulthood and was on my own, I was trying to figure out my life direction and how to make the calling I was so certain God was giving me come to fruition. Being a highly detail-oriented person and a perfectionist in nature, I ended up getting stuck there for a long time and it became a cycle of hard work, spinning wheels but going nowhere.
It was exhausting and I was starting to have all kinds of problems! I had such severe neck and shoulder pain that I could not turn my head in any direction and couldn’t drive anymore. I hadn’t had a period for almost 4 months but wasn’t pregnant, I had constant migraines with flashing lights in my vision and was in so much pain that I couldn’t sleep more than an hour or two in a day. I was cold down to my bones. At this time I was also in college and working 3 jobs, plus physically helping my family when possible, and mentally-emotionally supporting them as well.
Then one day, my body said to me, “No more. You have to start saying no to everyone or I’m going to finish falling apart.” I knew that would not end well. My body was screaming at me to change how I lived my life, how I treated my body, and start letting go of carrying everyone’s burdens. I was living in San Francisco at the time, and in efforts to listen to my body and find solutions that worked, I discovered the trails to the path I am now on.
Since the university clinic’s solution was to just take more ibuprofen, I did some research and found a Traditional Chinese Medicine school community clinic and started attending. I started weaning my family, especially my parents, off of depending on me. I changed my diet and started walking at the beach and Golden Gate Park. I also got back into prayer and reading scripture. The biggest thing I was guided in prayer to unlearn was the false belief that “putting myself first, above family and work, is selfish. They all depend on me so putting myself at the top of the list is letting them down”. No no, no. Once I realized that this thinking or programing was a lie, everything shifted. I learned that putting my self-care first allowed me to have the stable mental, emotional and physical health to be able to help anyone that needs it, when it’s needed. And it helped me to discern between when they actually needed help or not, and what type of help they needed regardless of what type of help they were asking for. It also gave me the strength to be able to say, “no, I’m not available to work on that today”, so I could take care of myself and stay healthy.
In a very short amount of time, by learning to slow down, relax, sitting in nature and with God, and making my self-care priority, my body started working again. My pain was gone and I could sleep! My hormones balanced back out too. I even regained enough energy and strength to be able to get into the gym, lifting weights and running. I ended up losing 30 pounds and was at a healthy weight for the first time in almost a decade!
Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you work harder or smarter. It ALWAYS matters if you are taking care of yourself.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
I’ve thought about this question often over the years, especially during tough times in medical school and residency. If I didn’t become a naturopathic doctor, I think I eventually would have left my previous profession of public health research to pursue becoming a gardener and herbalist specializing in creating medicinal and edible garden landscapes. I am doing this for myself at home but often wish I had more time to devote to making it 10 times larger and more diverse!
Now the question is, if I could go back would I choose to be a naturopathic doctor again? I think if I knew what I know now, I would have skipped becoming a public health researcher and used that time instead to get my herbalism and horticulture degrees, then gone to naturopathic medical school. I’d do the medicinal and edible garden landscapes on a larger scale as part of my work and personal life, but would also focus on making my own line of medicines and infuse my intuitive gifts into the medicine and any consultations I’d do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.GuidingElementsMC.com
- Instagram: @guidingelementsmc
- Facebook: @guidingelementsmc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-christy-soto-johnson-nmd
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@guidingelementsmedicalcent7906
