Meet Your Provider
Jake McKee, PMHNP-BC
Two decades in mental health, and a simple belief: good psychiatric care treats the whole person, not just the diagnosis.
I started in behavioral health in 2004 and have worked at nearly every level since, from bedside care through registered nursing and into advanced practice. Time spent elsewhere in medicine, including cardiology and the operating room, left me with a habit I carry into every visit: the mind and the body are one system, and good care never treats them as separate. Since 2022 I have also cared for veterans at the Boise VA Medical Center in substance use and PTSD programs.
What that means for you: formal advanced training, a long track record, and a habit of collaborating with other clinicians whenever it serves your care. I treat ADHD, depression and bipolar spectrum disorders, anxiety, OCD, trauma and PTSD, insomnia, and substance use, pairing current research with practical judgment in every plan I make.
On the therapy side, two traditions shape how I work. I lean on cognitive behavioral therapy for its structure and evidence: practical tools for the patterns of thought and behavior that keep people stuck. I am also drawn to Jungian and depth psychology, which takes the longer view and asks what the symptom might be pointing toward. The two fit together better than they might sound. One gives you something to do on Monday morning; the other honors the fact that you are more than a diagnosis, and that real change often means understanding yourself rather than just managing yourself.
Credentials
The training behind the care
Board-Certified PMHNP
Nationally board-certified by the ANCC as a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, with full diagnostic and prescriptive authority.
Licensed in six states
Active APRN licensure in Idaho, Washington, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, and Connecticut, so care can follow patients across state lines.
Every level of the field
Inpatient units, intensive outpatient groups, crisis settings, community mental health, and the VA, starting in 2004. That range means whatever you bring, I have almost certainly helped someone through something like it.
VA substance use & PTSD care
Years at the Boise VA Medical Center working with veterans in substance use and PTSD programs, which is some of the hardest work in mental health.
A medical foundation
Earlier work elsewhere in medicine, so mental health is never treated in isolation from the body.
Working Together
What you can expect from me
Personally
A little about my life
Roots and staying active
I grew up in Pocatello, and the West has always felt like home. Over the years I have lived in a lot of very different places before settling in Boise, and each one taught me something about the people who live there. That is the part I carry with me every day as a provider. Good psychiatric care is never one size fits all. Everyone arrives with their own context, and meeting people where they are is at the heart of how I practice.
I still spend as much time outdoors as I can, mountain biking, hiking, and camping in the country that first shaped me. Staying active is a constant, and between that and my years in medical nursing, I have come to see caring for the body as inseparable from keeping the mind steady. Sleep, movement, and physical health are not side notes in my visits. They are part of the treatment, and I try to live that myself rather than just recommend it.
Music, comedy, and staying grounded
I have played guitar for years, with some time in bands along the way, and music, rock especially, has always been a release for me. I am also a longtime fan of stand-up comedy and the honesty and timing it takes to do it well. Both give me a way to step back, laugh, and reset. I think anyone who has found an outlet like that knows how much it can carry you through a hard stretch, and helping people find theirs is part of what I love about this work.
Family and what matters most
Of everything I have done, being a father is what I am proudest of and what I have enjoyed most. Raising a family has shaped me at least as much as any part of my training. I have also come to value the steadiness a loving partnership brings, and the perspective that comes from building a home alongside someone. Together they taught me how much it can take to care for the people you love while keeping up with everything else life throws your way. That is not an abstraction to me. It is daily life, and it is where a lot of the compassion and practicality I bring to my patients comes from.
Community and recovery
Outside of my practice, I stay involved with the Boise Hive, a local nonprofit working to prevent suicide in the music community through counseling, support groups, and drug- and alcohol-free rehearsal spaces for musicians of all ages. As both a musician and a mental health clinician, that mission sits close to home for me, and being part of a community built around recovery and creative well-being keeps me close to the people and the purpose behind the clinical side of what I do.
I built Boise Psychiatry around the kind of care I would want for my own family: attentive, honest, evidence-based, and within reach. The clinical training matters, but so does understanding the lives my patients are actually living. I try to bring both to every person I work with.
Or see how visits work first.
This page is biographical and informational. Nothing here creates a provider-patient relationship or constitutes medical advice. A relationship and clinical care begin only through a formal intake and evaluation process.
