Kelly R. Goodness, Ph.D.

Clinic Owner and Director
Dr. Goodness & Associates
A Clinical & Forensic
Psychology Practice

"We have the expertise needed to assist our clients in identifying underlying problems, developing concrete action plans and implementing solutions that bring about important changes. It is hard to solve problems, get unstuck or effect change without clarity and helping people develop clarity is our business."

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Adult Therapeutic Services
Child & Adolescent Therapeutic Services
Parent Consultation
DBT
Employment Related Therapeutic Services
Treatment Program Development

Adult Therapeutic Services

Adult clients seek services for a multitude of different reasons. They may be struggling with trouble in a relationship, family or financial issues, parenting difficulties, problems with work or school, addiction or substance abuse, mood problems, or post-traumatic stress, just to name a few. They may be seeking treatment or may want to have a diagnostic examination to determine what the next step should be or because they were referred for an assessment by their physician or other professional. For adults, we offer the following therapeutic services:

• Phase of Life Counseling
• Grief Counseling
• Adult Attention Deficit, Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Treatment
• Treatment for Mood, Adjustment, Anxiety, or Impulse Control Disorders
• Treatment for Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, or Addiction
• Treatment for Sexual Addiction
• Family Therapy
• Parenting Education
• Adult Survivor Therapy for Childhood or Adult Sexual or Physical Abuse
• Survivor Therapy for Victims of Violent Crime
• Anger Management Skills Training
• Dialectical Behavorial Therapy (DBT)

Child & Adolescent Therapeutic Services

Parents generally seek psychological treatment for their child because of behavior problems, poor grades, friendship problems, failure to turn in homework, or poor school attendance. Some of the therapy services that we offer to meet these needs include:

• Psychoeducational Assessments
• Learning Disability (LD) Assessment / Dyslexia
• Assessment for Gifted Students
• Diagnostic Clarification Testing and Treatment Recommendations
• Attention Deficit, Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Assessments
• Assessment and/or Treatment for Mood, Adjustment, Anxiety, or Impulse Control Disorders
• Assessment and/or Treatment for Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, or Addiction
• Family Therapy
• Survivor Therapy for Victims of Sexual or Physical Abuse

Sometimes parents just need a little help to help their child. As children change, parenting approaches, skills, and reward systems need to change as well. Parenting consultation can be a helpful tool for parents to help them create and maintain solutions so that they create positive changes in their children and families, feel more in control, and feel less stressed. Parent training can involve implementing and maintaining behavioral programs, helping parents to be on the same page and presenting a unified front, decreasing problem behaviors and increasing pro-social behavior in children, and increasing calm in the household.

We offer other services which may be helpful for families, including child and family therapy, adolescent therapy, and couples therapy.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) was created by Marsha Linehan, Ph.D. as a treatment for persons with Borderline Personality Disorder. Individuals with BPD lack many of the fundamental skills required to regulate emotional experience, engage in successful interpersonal relationships, tolerate painful experience, and manage cognitive dysregulation.

Over time, DBT skills therapy has been demonstrated to be helpful not only in persons diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, but for many clients who have engaged in a pattern of self-destructive behaviors. For these persons, their frequent attempts to escape emotional pain (e.g., drinking, cutting oneself, binge eating, explosive anger outbursts) may provide temporary relief yet produce an increase in shame and less opportunity to practice more effective ways to reduce emotional pain.

DBT therapy has a didactic skills training orientation, and include four modules:

• Mindfulness skills: Learning to increase awareness and control over attention in order to balance reason and emotion.
• Interpersonal effectiveness skills: Learning strategies for obtaining changes, maintaining relationships and self-respect, and coping with conflict.
• Emotional regulation skills: Learning how to modulate emotions in effective, non-harmful ways.
• Distress tolerance skills: Learning to accept painful events that cannot be changed, without resorting to harmful behaviors.

• Out-of-company therapy services for individuals referred by their Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for issues such as substance abuse, family problems, and emotional issues that impact job performance

• Design of effective psychiatric evaluation systems
• Creating therapeutic forensic milieus
• Social Learning milieus