Dr. Jessica Goodnight
Psychologist; thoughtful analysis on neuroscience vs. psychology in therapy, resilience, and behavior change.
Recognize Spiritual Roots to Avoid Blind Spots in Therapy
Psychology and spirituality are inextricably linked, and any MH professionalwho denies it is holding a blind spot. And is almost certainly engaging in cultural appropriation. Example. Mindfulness has been studied extensively in psychology. Where did this idea originate? Who do we owe and who should we honor when we use these ideas in our work?
Parenting Boils Down to Love, Not Endless Advice
So it's funny, I'm a psychologist, I read a million parenting books before my kid was born, and I wish back then someone had told me that my main task was just to like my kid and form a real...
Baby‑free Flights: Shift Blame From Babies to Complainers
I would personally love for people to have the option of a baby free flight so people who complain about babies on planes can be shamed more easily. "Can't handle babies' cries? Why didn't you pick the baby-free flight? Seems...
Therapist Endorsing Perpetration Urges Is Dangerous, Nuance Needed
I have been mulling over the therapyjeff post folks are talking about, trying to decide whether to comment and what to say. In some ways, my thoughts are simple - a therapist publicly supporting folks with perpetration urges sends a hugely...
Turning a Kid’s Galaxy Dream Into Bathroom Reality
I've never considered myself great at this kind of artsy thing, but when your 6yo asks for a galaxy themed bathroom I'm not sure what else you're supposed to do!
Psychologist Argues Against Legalizing Psychedelics for Therapy
I'm not a narc. But as a psychologist and past clinical researcher, I currently oppose the legalization of psychedelics for mental health. Here's why.
People Dismiss Talk Therapy yet Push IFS
All y'all talking crap about talk therapy and then recommending IFS or similar... I have something to tell you.
Disbelieving Doctors Undermine Psychotherapy Progress Amid Illness
In my work, people typically get better over time. You know what tends to make people suddenly, reliably worse? What tends to near-universally halt or totally undo progress in psychotherapy? New onset medical struggles. But not medical struggles alone. Medical struggles...
More Accountability, Not Less, Protects Mental Health
We're talking again on Threads about coaches and therapists - here are my thoughts. 1. Accountability matters. Working with mental health comes with tremendous, literal life and death risk. The entire purpose of licensing is to protect the public from...
Acknowledge Past Harm to Minimize Future Therapy Mistakes
50 years from now, we will look back at the therapy we are doing now and feel embarrassed. That doesn't mean the therapy is fundamentally bad. This is just how progress works. That means that you can do absolutely everything in...
Safety Fuels Growth; Scolding Undermines Improvement
People become the best versions of themselves when they feel ✨safe✨ This is why scolding people doesn't usually work so well to make them improve if they don't feel safe with you.
Therapists Need Balanced Training Beyond Rigid Echo Chambers
There are therapists trained to follow strict therapy protocols and they're told that it's the only way to be evidence based in their work - and they still believe it. There are therapists who are trained in almost no direct...
Apologies Aren’t Enough When Behavior Can’t Change
Ideally the best apology is changed behavior. One thing I'm not seeing in the social media space is nuance around behavior that can't or can't easily be changed. Lighthearted example: My child wants me to stop ever brushing her ears...
Therapy Can Harm, Yet Still Helps Many
Therapy harm stuff is all over Threads right now and I'm just here to say that two things can be true. Our system needs to change. Stigma and coercive practices have shaped our field in ways that cause ongoing harm and On...
Mental Health Care Isn’t Free Speech; Conversion Therapy Is Abuse
The words of a MH provider, when they are providing care, are not and should never be considered free speech. All of us should be held accountable to do no harm. In the words of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson: “Like it or...
Mislabeling Stalking as OCD Highlights Diagnostic Bracket Creep
Diagnostic bracket creep is a thing, and it's an issue. Example: I've seen therapists incorrectly categorize stalking behavior as OCD. If someone says they have unwanted, intrusive, distressing thoughts that someone they care about hates them - and they keep...
Resistance Signals Limits; Flexibility Comes From Pausing
Resistance in therapy isn't bad. It doesn't mean anyone's doing anything wrong. I would love for folks to think of resistance as similar to the feeling of the "edge" when stretching a muscle. That sensation is not bad - it's...
Consultation Groups Beat Loneliness in Private Practice
They told me private practice would be isolating. Now I realize how many people in private practice aren't meeting their needs for peer consultation 🫤 If you're lonely in private practice y'all - you need to be consulting more. I have three...
Hope for Compassionate, Competent EDs Like Pitt
Just over here longing for a world where every real ED could be more like the Pitt - Heartfelt humans - Competent care - No patients' needs dismissed
Magnetic Poetry Turns Waiting Rooms Into Healing Dialogues
Therapists with office spaces: Highly recommend putting a magnetic poetry set in the waiting room for clients to use There is something really beautiful about the anonymous conversations people can have with each other through their healing journeys ❤️
VC Frenzy Risks Unsafe, Profit‑driven Psychedelic Clinics
So I know everyone's really excited about psychedelics and I mean. Me too kind of. You know what I'm not excited about? The fact that every venture capitalist under the sun is throwing money at this right now (trust me, a...
Emotion Regulation Is a Complex Executive Function Process
So FYI emotion regulation is an executive functioning task. Regulating emotions requires that you - notice that you are having an emotion - control the initial impulse of the emotion - think through what the emotion indicates about what you might need - inhibit...
Dismissed Symptoms Harm; Treat Mental Health Equally
Provider dismissal of medical symptoms does so much harm, including and perhaps especially folks whose symptoms are related to mental health. Migraines caused by stress are still painful, debilitating, and need to be treated. If medical providers want people to address the...
Healing Is Like Jenga: Unstacking Deep Schemas Carefully
When you really dive into your schema structures it's like turtles all the way down. You start working on your view that you're defective by finally standing up for yourself? Whoops, you've accidentally become as punitive as your mother. Jenga, man. Healing...
Critics Call Bessel Van Der Kolk’s Trauma Theory Pseudoscience
So some of y'all might have some feelings about this but Bessel van der Kolk is not to be trusted He uses pseudoscience and flat out lies to push his agenda in the Body Keeps the Score and while I love that he...
Therapists, Stop Pushing Unscientific, Ideologically‑laden Love Languages
I once ghosted a therapist who wouldn't stop talking about love languages Not a bit of the love languages idea is evidence based and, oh yeah, it's also steeped in Christian nationalist underpinnings. PSA for all therapists everywhere
Unresolved Cognitive Schemas Fuel Relapsing Mental Health Issues
Sometimes a mental health problem keeps coming back because the work did not identify deeper, less conscious cognitive schema networks. Let's dive in.
Why Psychologists Share Their Own Mental Health Stories
Why as a psychologist I choose to publicly disclose my personal mental health history I am having lots of thoughts so buckle up 🧵
Feel the Pain, Don’t Let Atrocity Numb You
Atrocity becomes normalized when we see it so repeatedly that we start going numb. This is how people, over time, feel so beaten down they can't stand up, or worse - start participating in harm. Don't avoid the news, but imit...
ADHD? Try These Real Cleaning Strategies From a Psychologist
If this chart works like a charm for you, you probably don't have ADHD. Here are some strategies that actually might work to get you cleaning your space, from a psychologist with ADHD.