Caring for the Community

After the tragic mass shooting in 2018 at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., local resident Rebecca Gorchoff dedicated her professional counseling and psychotherapy skills to serve her community.

“We're about two miles from the school and while I had opened the practice recently, Douglas is my alma mater and where I grew up,” said Gorchoff, founder of RKG Therapy, LLC. “Our practice immediately shifted to serving a majority of adolescents and providing trauma-based therapy, helping students and parents cope after everything.”

Gorchoff said she was in an ideal position to help because she had recently scaled her business to include a website, and full-time employees with support from Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU).

When it was time to launch her business, Gorchoff admits she needed guidance. “There was no part of my undergraduate or graduate studies that showed me the structure of a business,” she said. “So, I didn’t know where to begin, it was initially scary to think about, and it makes me truly appreciative of everything that the Florida SBDC at FAU has done for me.”

In 2012, Gorchoff earned her graduate degree in mental health counseling and a certificate in marriage and family therapy at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.

Prior to returning home to South Florida in 2016, Gorchoff worked for other mental health offices, but wanted to branch out on her own.

When she met the Florida SBDC at FAU business consultant Jazmine Loiselle that year, taking her business to the next level with a guide by her side felt right, she said.

Loiselle, who specializes in strategic marketing and the online challenges of marketing brands and creating engaging digital content, guided Gorchoff on how to make a website, market her brand and lay out the extent of the services she offers, which includes therapy for anxiety, disorders, behavioral concerns and more.

“From the beginning, the Florida SBDC at FAU has been my safety net emotionally and logistically. Jazmine has been supportive and an amazing guide that has helped me overcome any fears of not knowing what to do and that it was okay because there were resources and a group of people available to show me the way,” Gorchoff said. “She was my lifeline through and through.”

Even when the global pandemic struck, Gorchoff said she had Jazmine’s support navigate applying for disaster loans to sustain herself and her team of employees.

“We switched to Telehealth before the pandemic forced everyone to close their business and before insurance companies provided proper billing guidance because of the shutdown, so having someone like Jazmine be there to help file loan applications gave me the confidence to continue working and to know that I can support the team that I have,” she said.

As her business continues to thrive and she continues to support the Parkland community, Gorchoff is excited to learn more about marketing and advertising through Loiselle, she said. She also has plans to grow her offices but, she said, “I want to grow conscientiously, always keeping in mind our goal to provide affordable and accessible mental health services to our community.”