“Starting a business is hard. The goal of the monthly Private Practice group is to help ease all the steps.”
Miguel De La Mora, DNP, PMHNP-BC, is a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner who provides care for individuals across the lifespan.
Miguel helped relaunch the AAPPN Private Practice Group and is now leading the monthly meeting. He also is giving back to the next generation by starting a scholarship to support BSN nursing students.
After beginning his PMHNP career in community mental health, Miguel started a solo practice which quickly grew into a group practice that now has 4 providers in Bellevue, Kennewick, Vancouver, and Kirkland, WA.
When caring for patients, Miguel uses multifaceted treatment approaches, including medications, psychotherapy, sleep hygiene, adequate nutrition, sufficient exercise, social connection, mindfulness techniques, and other evidence-based interventions. The goal of treatment is not just symptom management but to treat the root cause affecting their lives to empower and enable them to thrive in every facet of their lives.
Tell us about your journey to become a PMHNP and Executive Coach with a practitioner group.
I grew up on a family farm in the Yakima Valley in Sunnyside, Washington, with all the farm animals you can think of, as well as tending to an orchard of cherry and apple fields. My initial mindset as a kid was to become a doctor. After high school, I moved to Tri-Cities, WA, where my pivot away from medicine happened with a seven-year finance career, and the last two years of those I spent in Los Angeles.
At 24 years old, I felt burnt out from my finance career and a little bored and lost, and one day my childhood goals of working in medicine came back, and I decided to finally pursue it. My best friend was living in Houston, and I found out that Houston had the biggest medical center in the world, so I thought I could get good training there. I looked into medical school and all the steps, and while researching, discovered the Nurse Practitioner option and decided it was a better fit.
I did pre-nursing classes, then started a BSN program at the University of Texas campus in Houston. I worked for one year at Ben Taub Hospital, which is the Trauma Level 1 hospital in Houston, then returned for the three-year Doctorate program that the University of Texas offered with the PMHNP track. I graduated in 2023 and decided after being in Houston for 10 years, it was time to come back home.
I started my PMHNP career in Community Mental Health with Samaritan Healthcare System in Central Washington, then decided to go into private practice. I started solo practice with my assistant and myself and quickly grew into a group practice that now has four providers and four staff members.
What inspired you to start “Philanthropist, Miguel De La Mora Mental Health Scholarship”?
My parents taught me the importance of giving back as a child. Giving back comes in many ways, including your time, your knowledge, or your financial support. The scholarship I started is a way for me to start down the philanthropy road.
You helped relaunch the AAPPN Private Practice Group and are now leading the monthly meeting. What motivates you to volunteer at AAPPN?
I was very excited to restart the AAPPN Private Practice group because I feel there is too much noise out there about what and how to do private practice. Starting a business is hard. The goal of the monthly Private Practice group is to help ease all the steps.
You are taking multiple professional roles. What gives you energy, and what do you do for your own self-care practice?
I do wear many hats on any given day. I think growing up on a farm and having to work all the time as a child helped me to be able to handle a good worthwhile ethic. I also feel that when you enjoy what you do, it does not feel like work.
For my self-care, I have decided that at the end of every quarter I take a whole week off, so the last week of March, June, September and December. I also try to get out in nature as much as I can.
Do you have any words to live by?
Work Hard, Play Hard, Stay Humble, and one day your time will be up, so in the meantime, be nice and give back more than you take.
Many thanks to Kay Tanaka and Miguel De La Mora for their help writing this article.