We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Destiny Van Rooy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Destiny , appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

Since high school, I have been involved in the legal field. I have an older cousin who serves as an attorney and Pro Tem judge. She is legally blind, so during summer breaks, I would drive her to court appearances, act as a filing clerk, and even assist her on the bench by filling out forms during court hearings. This experience sparked my interest in law, so I decided to pursue a career as an attorney. I attended college and obtained my Associate’s Degree in Paralegal Studies, followed by national certification as a Paralegal through the National Association of Legal Assistants and Paralegals.

However, after a few years of working as a paralegal, I realized that I didn’t want to become an attorney. In fact, a few years later, I discovered that being a paralegal wasn’t the right fit for me either. I had worked in various fields of law, including Family Law, Federal Law, and Criminal Law, all of which were demanding with long hours. I was unhappy and unhealthy, experiencing insomnia and other health issues. I was at a loss about my true passion, especially coming from a low-income family with a history of drugs, gangs, and incarceration. None of my siblings had even graduated high school, let alone college, and I had been supporting myself since I was 17. I felt pressure to maintain a successful career and was reluctant to let it go.

One day at work, I had a conversation with a co-worker in which I explained my unhappiness and uncertainty about my future outside of the legal field. At 32 years old, law was all I knew. She told me, “Whatever you can spend your entire day doing without getting tired of it because it energizes you, that’s your passion.” It was an epiphany – skincare! From a young age, I had been making my own skincare products in my kitchen for fun. I had always been fascinated by the connection between skin and mental health, as my own health issues taught me that what happens inside can manifest on your skin.

Now, at the age of 39, I have spent the last 7 years establishing myself in the skincare world. I started with a natural skincare line that I retailed on a small scale, then obtained my esthetician license. I began working at a local spa and eventually opened my own practice in 2023, where I can use and retail my very own line of products. It has been a long journey filled with hard work, sacrifices, and long hours, and the road ahead is still challenging. I have much to learn as I work towards a bigger vision for DOLA in the future, but I have never been happier and more fulfilled.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was born and raised in Arizona, deeply connected to the southwestern culture. However, I now reside in the Pacific Northwest, and I absolutely love it here. While I may not be a desert-dweller anymore, I still hold a profound appreciation for the desert’s beauty and the person it helped me become.

At the age of 17, I developed a relentless periocular rash that would not go away. It was misdiagnosed as a staph infection, MRSA, and even a severe sinus infection. I had MRIs done and saw multiple doctors, and eventually spent years of my life on steroids and antibiotics.

At about 20 years old, I saw a naturopathic doctor who was the first to tell me it was a nervous system issue brought on by stress, manifesting itself on my skin, through my nerve endings. She told me that unless and until I remove myself from my toxic environment, the issue would never stop. This was my first realization of how connected our skin is with our mental health.

When I finally left my toxic environment and moved from Arizona to Oregon, the frequency of my eye issue immediately reduced, hardly returning at all. However, when I moved to Oregon, I developed a set of new skin issues – rosacea and dyshidrotic eczema – thanks to new stressors I developed in my life. Over the years, I’ve discovered that maintaining my physical and mental well-being effectively keeps my skin disorders’ symptoms at bay, resulting in healthy and happy skin with minimal issues.

Experiencing firsthand that skin health is rooted in mental wellness, DOLA believes that skincare should include nurturing both the external and internal aspects of our well-being. DOLA’s mission is to redefine skincare as a transformative practice that combines esthetics with meditative elements, providing holistic treatments that enhance physical and mental health, while educating and empowering clients to prioritize self-care.

Beyond mere surface-level skincare, DOLA facial treatments incorporate mindfulness, breathwork, crystal affirmations, neck and shoulder massage, lymphatic drainage work, and pressure point massage to enhance both physical and mental wellness.

Further, DOLA provides a relaxing and safe space that some clients have said feels “like a sanctuary.” With a focus on education, DOLA works to empower clients to prioritize skincare and inner peace as essential components of their self-care routine.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Not a lesson, per se, but I had to unlearn the bad habit of negative self-talk and doubt I filled myself with most of my life.

Coming from a poor family, I grew up with the mentality that you just “take what you can get.” Don’t expect anything and be grateful that you even get something. I worked hard and got a career in the legal profession in my early twenties. But I often felt like I didn’t deserve to be there – like I got lucky – so I just kept my head down and did what I was told. And even when I was unhappy, when my job was literally affecting my health, I stuck it out because I didn’t think I could do anything else, or that I deserved any better.

It wasn’t until my early 30s that I started to do a lot of work on myself by reading personal growth books and meditating. I finally realized that my life and my future is more within my control than I ever gave myself credit for. I started setting small goals for myself and developed a mantra that I still use every day to help me stay positive, stay on track, and really just believe that I can have the life I want. If 9 years ago you told me that today I’d be done with the legal profession and I’d have my own successful business as a holistic esthetician, I would have never believed you!

My favorite quote that I think about almost every day is by Dr. Joe Dispenza: “Does your environment create your thinking, or does your thinking create your environment?”

Realizing that life is what you make it has been so empowering for me. I’m no longer afraid to take risks, in fact I welcome them, and I no longer doubt my worth and my abilities. I feel unstoppable.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Stay true to yourself and your values. Be authentic, be passionate, and people will want to come back. That kind of energy is contagious.

Also, be genuinely interested in your clients and care about what they have going on their lives. If they mention a life event or something important going on, remember to reach out and congratulate them or just check in. That goes a long way. People will want to work with you and they’ll want to send their loved ones to you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://livedola.com/
• Instagram: @dola_skincareandesthetics
• Facebook: I had to close down due to hacking.