Mother Owned Business Spotlight: Rachel Pokorney Therapy

Balancing motherhood and running your own business takes tenacity, energy and effort. When you’re a mental health professional, those traits are turned up to 11. This is why we’re thrilled to shine a spotlight on Rachel Pokorney, a DFW-based mental health therapist, entrepreneur and mother.

Rachel balances the daily demands of her professional clients, running a private therapy practice, and managing her home and family. Her story is one of fulfillment- enriching the lives of her kids, her clients and herself. 

At Mother, we understand that behind every successful business is a story of immense dedication, hidden administrative hurdles, and deep personal resilience. Mothers raise our families and our communities, but they also raise our potential. They are the heartbeat of DFW- our culture, our commerce, and our teachers.

The Mother Owned Business Interview Series

Our Mother Owned Business Spotlight series is an interview project built to lift up the women who nurture and build our local Dallas-Fort Worth community, both personally and professionally. We know how challenging running a business can be, especially when managing the unseen labor your clients never get to see.

In this installment, our Marketing Manager Matthew Silkwood sits down with Rachel Pokorney, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who operates a thriving private therapy practice with licenses in four states. In a beautiful twist of local connection, Rachel met our CEO Dustin’s wife Becca because their children attend the same neighborhood daycare!

Below is Matthew and Rachel's full conversation on building an ethical practice, surviving the early chaos of business ownership, and redefining success as a parent.

Read our last interview with Jessa Adler of Jessa Adler Art!

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Meet Rachel Roos Pokorney, LCSW

Matthew Silkwood: I have a few friends from growing up that went into just all the training and licensing that went into therapy. So, I know a little bit about all the work that you need to do to get licensed. It's fun for us to be able to showcase all of the work, effort, and energy that goes into it.

Rachel Pokorney: I've just never done something like this before, so I'm excited to see what it's like. As a therapist, you don't often talk about yourself, right? So it's a different headspace to get into a little bit.

Matthew Silkwood: I've heard that all therapists have a therapist. Is that a thing?

Rachel Pokorney: They tell you in grad school that it's best practice to be working on yourself as you're trying to be a vessel to help other people heal and change. It's not a requirement by any means. But I think at certain points in your life, you have to be able to get support to be your best self so that that way you're able to then help somebody else in that capacity.

Matthew Silkwood: Definitely. Life is a group sport. It's not an individual sport. What were you doing and how were you feeling before you started your business?

Rachel Pokorney: I knew I wanted to go into private practice from the moment I started school. It was just a matter of me getting the tools and the skills to get there and do it in an ethical, competent way. I had just had my first child and I was like, I know at some point I want to start my business, but I don't know exactly when I'm gonna feel ready to do that. 

After three months of being home, I said, “I love my kids so much, but I need to work for my own mental health.” What I needed was to go back to work. I was feeling ready to go for this dream of opening up my own practice.

The Path to Private Practice

Matthew Silkwood: What was the journey going from degree to postgrad to now owning your own practice?

Rachel Pokorney: Therapist is a job title, and then there's many different educational routes that you can take to get there. You can be licensed as an LMHC, a psychologist, an LPC, or in my case, an LCSW, a licensed clinical social worker.

You graduate and you get something called an LMSW, a licensed master of social work. You do whatever work that you're doing with a certain population, earning your hours and your supervisory hours where somebody's coaching you and helping you figure out what the right thing to do is and what the right treatment approach is. Then you earn your LCSW based on accumulating that time.

I funneled my experience closer and closer towards that eventual goal. I got so much really neat, meaty experience with a bunch of really different, interesting populations throughout my career. I started out at what's called an ADHC (Adult Day Healthcare Center). 

It was created as a model for treating patients with comorbidities of HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, and mental health challenges. When I was there, it was about addressing mental health concerns as it related to those three things.

After that, I moved to a family type of clinic in the North Bronx. Essentially, it was both families in the community that walked in and wanted treatment for themselves and people referred from CPS. And from there went to a South Bronx mental health clinic focusing on really otherwise underserved populations. Then I moved towards more group private practice type experiences.

Balancing DFW Motherhood and Business

Matthew Silkwood: It was about seven years ago that you started your practice. Is that about right?

Rachel Pokorney: I actually started just before COVID hit, and I was living in New York at the time. It actually turned out really well for me though business-wise, because I started telehealth as opposed to in-person practice. I could have that meshing of “professional life” with “mom life”, so that I could be around for my oldest son at the time .

I originally planned to start working on the weekends and then slowly build up and switch to during the week when he was going off to daycare. But then COVID hit and it actually worked out really nicely because I was working on the weekends, my husband was working from home during the week, and so we would just switch. 

It turned out to be a very COVID-proof business model because everybody automatically started doing telehealth, especially in the therapy world.

Rachel's Definition of Personal and Professional Success

Matthew Silkwood: Business ownership is largely about the belief that you can achieve it, rather than access to exclusive secrets. How do you handle entrepreneurial overwhelm, or what advice do you give to someone feeling stretched?

Rachel Pokorney: I utilize the airplane “oxygen mask” analogy: prioritizing your own well-being is necessary before helping others. Self-care can be micro-moments, such as taking a specific route to an appointment that passes a garden. It should be tailored to your specific needs. 

Entrepreneurs feeling stretched should consider asking themselves if they have healthy boundaries,if past experiences are influencing their current approach to challenges, and what tools or skills they can use to more effectively manage what’s getting in the way of feeling more balanced.

Professionally, I feel immense pride in being able to do work I genuinely love while also earning a living. I never dread my workday and look forward to every session, piece of paperwork, email, and text message related to my practice. 

Personally, success as a parent involves raising good humans who feel comfortable asking for help. I emphasize teaching my children that making mistakes is an opportunity for learning, and that they remain worthy of love regardless of those errors.

DFW Moms Create Great Businesses

At Mother, we believe that the stories of female entrepreneurs and mothers in business deserve a prominent platform. Rachel's journey proves that building a professional practice doesn't require sacrificing the heart of a family. It requires intentional boundary setting, a reliable support network, and the courage to pursue a personal dream.

When women support women, local business models become resilient, and the entire neighborhood thrives. We stand in admiration of Rachel and the countless mothers across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex who lead their businesses with precision and raise the next generation with profound love.

If you know a DFW business driven by a remarkable mother, tell us about her! She might appear as the next subject of our interview series!