Kevin F. McCready (January 30, 1957 – December 5, 2004) was a

clinical psychologist Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

. He was the founder and director of the San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center and the non-profit Recovery for Emotionally Abused Children (R.E.A.Ch.). Born on January 30, 1957, McCready was from Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated with a bachelor's degree from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

, a Masters from

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...

, and a Doctorate from

California School of Professional Psychology The California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) was founded in 1969 by the California Psychological Association. It is part of the for-profit Alliant International University where each campus's Clinical Psychology Psy.D. and Ph.D. prog ...

in Fresno, California. He served as president of the San Joaquin Psychotherapy Association and California Association of Psychology Providers and was on the executive board for the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers and International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP). He served on the faculty of both the

Alliant International University Alliant International University, often called Alliant, is a private for-profit university with its main campus in San Diego and other campuses in California. It offers programs in six California campuses – in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Ang ...

and American Commonwealth University. As a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist, he developed the

integrative milieu model The integrative milieu model, developed by Kevin F. McCready, is an alternative treatment regime to the medical model of psychiatry for treating people suffering from psychological distress. A central part of the anti-psychiatry movement, being a ...

of psychotherapy. Of Irish descent, he was a devout practicing member of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, was married to Karin McCready and had two children. He died on December 5, 2004, from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

. The ICSPP created the Kevin McCready Memorial Research Grant in his honor.

San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center

McCready opened San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center in Fresno, California in 1990, developing a day treatment program based on his integrative milieu model. The center had a unique treatment philosophy, combining elements of psychodynamic theory,

humanistic Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

philosophy, and an anti-psychiatric approach. McCready was opposed to use of the medical model in psychology and was an outspoken critic of the use of diagnosis, electroshock, and psychiatric drugs in psychotherapy treatment. Clients came from all over the world to receive non-medicated psychotherapy and to

titrate Titration (also known as titrimetry and volumetric analysis) is a common laboratory method of quantitative chemical analysis to determine the concentration of an identified analyte (a substance to be analyzed). A reagent, termed the ''titrant'' ...

off of psychiatric drugs. McCready wanted to open other sites offering the same services with the same philosophy all over the world. He started by opening San Francisco Bay Psychotherapy Center in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 2004. He planned to open sites in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

soon after. However, following his death in December 2004, the doors closed due to financial difficulty in both San Francisco and in Fresno. Under Dr. McCready and Dr. Popper's supervision and program design, Associated Psychological Health Services was opened north of Chicago in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, under the clinical direction of Dr. Toby Tyler Watson, a past student intern at the San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center. The Sequoia Psychotherapy Center, Inc. was opened in Fresno, California, in March 2005, by Dr. Mark D. Popper (Dr. Kevin McCready's Assistant Clinical Director from 1991-2004), K. Brent Olsen, and Pepe Santana. Sequoia Psychotherapy Center was incorporated in order to continue the work of the San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center soon after it closed. It is a community-based psychotherapy services center offering traditional outpatient psychotherapy, psychological testing, and a day treatment program based on McCready's Milieu model.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCready, Kevin F. 1957 births 2004 deaths Anti-psychiatry American people of Irish descent Jungian psychologists 20th-century American psychologists American psychotherapists People from Fresno, California People from Boston George Washington University alumni Integrative psychotherapy Alliant International University alumni California School of Professional Psychology alumni