Kolmac: What’s In A Name?

If you’re new to Kolmac, welcome! If, however, you’re a frequent visitor to our website and blogs, you may have noticed that we look and sound a little different. No need to worry, you’re in the right place.

To better describe our treatment program, we have adjusted our name from “Kolmac Clinic” to “Kolmac Integrated Behavioral Health Centers.” Creating the name “Kolmac” was intended to communicate my belief that if degreed psychiatric professionals, such as myself (Kol), could collaborate with addiction counselors, such as Jim McMahon (Mac), patients would benefit (Kolmac). I had originally chosen the word “Clinic” to reflect our medical focus and connect us with the tradition of other high quality medical centers, such as the Mayo and Cleveland Clinics. Thus was born “Kolmac Clinic.”

When the Kolmac program was established in 1973, most people found us through their physicians, therapists, or employee assistance counselors at work; the World Wide Web did not exist. In 2016, on the other hand, the web is an immediate resource, and more people are directly searching for treatment. We believe that our name change to Kolmac Integrated Behavioral Health Centers will make it even easier for people in need of help to find us.

This change does not represent any shift in the orientation of our program. We remain committed to our two missions: 1) providing excellent quality addiction treatment for our patients, and 2) leaving the addiction treatment field better than we found it.

At our core, we remain Kolmac. At a time when the fields of mental health and addictions — after decades of division — are being reunited into the combined field of “behavioral health,” focusing on what we as treating professionals can learn from one another, and valuing our differences, is no less important than it was 43 years ago.