Today we’d like to introduce you to Dori Lancaster.
Hi Dori, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles and began my work in the field of health and wellness when I was nineteen years old. I entered a massage therapy training course, was the youngest in my class, and had never ever received a massage. I enjoyed touch and suppose something bigger than myself guided me to that program. I started working immediately after I became certified in chiropractic settings and with private clients.
While working in holistic settings among chiropractors, acupuncturists, and other alternative healers (between Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County) I became much more interested in holistic health myself (for myself and to be of service to others). I played with the idea of going to naturopathic medical school after seeing an ND for my own issues. I realized that at the crux of your diagnosis with an ND, there was a large emphasis on diet, so instead, I found a nutrition education certification program and moved up to Santa Cruz, CA to attend Bauman College in 2008. Nutrition fascinated me, and I wanted to learn more about how to achieve a healthy diet and lifestyle.
After nutrition school, I ended up going to live abroad and while I did so, I taught raw chocolate-making classes in Montezuma, Costa Rica! I was managing a raw, vegan cafe, and the owner taught me all she knew and left me in charge of that offering. I loved educating people on the benefits of raw chocolate and when I returned to the states, I started offering more food demos and educational experiences. It felt so gratifying to empower others with applicable knowledge!
After coming back to Los Angeles from Costa Rica, I shortly left again and moved to South Beach, Miami where I had two jobs; I worked for a non-profit called Playing the Game of Life, where we offered services to underprivileged school-aged communities. The program included cooking, fitness, and music, so I would go to various preschools and elementary schools and cook with and educate the children. I also ran diet and lifestyle empowerment programs at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center and taught kids cooking classes.
Flash forward to 2019 when a dear friend of mine started a retreat business called Sacred Woman Retreats (now called Sacred Woman Collective) and asked me to chef her first retreat in Palm Springs, CA. It was a success and I’ve been her “resident chef” ever since.
I work with other hosts cooking for their events and one spot, in particular, keeps me very busy, which is Cactus Moon (an Airbnb that facilitates yoga retreats). I am Cactus Moon’s Chef Ambassador.
I frequent the high desert area as well as more local places like Topanga but also travel farther on occasion to chef retreats in places outside of California.
I like to call myself a bit of a wellness “Jill of all Trades”. I keep busy cheffing wellness retreats, working on massage clients, offering online cooking classes, doing one-on-one empowered wellness coaching, and educating people on how to transition to plant-based eating in a deliciously sustainable and fun way.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
For the most part, it has been a smooth road. After I acquired my nutrition educator certification in 2008, I started a blog called Healing Thru Food, and that morphed into one-on-one coaching. It seemed like not long after, everyone was starting to become a health coach. When the market gets super saturated, you really have to work to find your niche and a reason why someone would hire you over someone else. I kept adding certifications to my “toolbox” so I could offer as much as possible and support clients in the areas specific to their unique needs. I became fully vegan in 2010, so I find that to be one of my areas of expertise and really focused on that being an area I could support people–primarily through a plant-based pregnancy since I went through that experience. It’s way more common now, of course, but at the time, it was not as easy to find support.
We’ve been impressed with your work, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I have been in the health and wellness realm since 1997. I have decades of experience and specialize in various offerings related to helping people live their healthiest and most vibrant lifestyles.
From cooking nourishing, plant-based meals for private clients, wellness retreats, or corporate events, to therapeutic and intuitive bodywork sessions, to working one-on-one with clients to help them tap into their inner strength and become more empowered.
I am most proud that I have taken all the education I have acquired over the last two decades and created unique and specialized programs and offerings that pull from any or all of my tools. I meet people where they need the most support. Empowered Wellness is about inspiring clients to be their own healers and helping them feel held, seen, and heard so they can harness their innate power and wisdom and shine their light bright.
I absolutely love being of service and helping to make my clients feel supported on their wellness journey. This is my passion and gives my life joy and purpose.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I was recently on retreat (as a guest, not as the chef, ha!), and our host, Dene Logan (a yoga teacher and psychotherapist) said these words that really hit me: “if nothing is promised, everything is sacred.” This to me means choosing happiness every day. We get to choose–how powerful is that!? Now, I am not talking about “toxic positivity” and brushing off any negative feelings, but I am talking more about tapping into the inner happiness that makes you feel peaceful and at ease in the midst of chaos. Life can get messy, but we can choose our state of mind. The things that make me the happiest are my connections with my friends (my tribe means everything to me, and they know it), my 6-year-old daughter, cooking a new recipe, making people laugh, taking my favorite HIIT class, watching the ocean or hiking the hills in Griffith Park.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dorilancaster.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dori_empowered_wellness/
- Other: (818) 809-8045
