$re = '~@\[[^][]+\]\s*\(\K[^()]+~m';
$str = 'This is my text how do you like it @[John Doe (#6)](client:6) and do you have any thoughts @[Jane Doe (#7)](client:7)';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php