“I bring to bear considerable forensic experience to my work as I have been charged with treating, evaluating and investigating thousands of individuals involved in all manner of legal cases. I am equally comfortable conducting assessments in the community, testifying in court, developing trial strategy in a plush office or interviewing an out-of-control defendant in a jail cell.”

Major Practice Areas:

• Courts Martials
• Homicide
• Rape / Sexual Assault
• Black out versus Pass out
• Serious Mental Illness
• Personality Disorders
• Amnesia for the offense
• Mental State at the time of Offense / 706 evaluations
• Competence to Proceed
• Mitigation
• Sex Offenders

Training and Experience:

Dr. Kelly Goodness is a clinical psychologist who routinely evaluates and treats some of the state's most difficult behavioral and psychiatric patients. Her interest in forensic psychology began in her teenage years, when she read Gary Gilmore’s romantic letters in Norman Mailer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Executioner’s Song. Though Dr. Goodness freely admits that the book was probably not the best choice for a teenage girl, she was struck by “how much love he had in his heart” despite the nature of the crimes. From that point on “I needed to know how the criminal mind worked".

Her early curiosity led to many years of psychology coursework, culminating in her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of North Texas. UNT’s training program includes well known forensic experts, and Dr. Goodness established herself as an expert on malingering and psychopathy through her graduate research. While in school, she was employed at North Texas State Hospital – Vernon Campus, which is the maximum security forensic hospital. After her doctoral graduation, she advanced to become a Chief Psychologist at Vernon where she led treatment teams in treating the most dangerous and violent psychiatric patients in the State of Texas. Later on, Dr. Goodness went into private forensic practice and also developed, owned and directed a mental health clinic in Keller, Texas for 15 years. The clinic served and treated the general public, as well as those who were involved in legal matters.

Her extensive forensic experience combined with her hospital, community, and institutional clinical experience, provides her with a breadth and depth of expertise unsurpassed by those in most other clinical or academic settings. Not surprisingly, Dr. Goodness attributes her expertise to actually evaluating and treating difficult forensic and clinical cases rather than merely studying or researching them in the academic arena.

Dr. Goodness assists the courts and various legal professionals as a forensic examiner and an expert witness. Trial consultation is a large part of her forensic caseload, and her cases range from the simplest of misdemeanors all the way up to capital murder trials where the death penalty is sought. Additionally, Dr. Goodness has emerged as a frequent trial consultant and expert witness in international military courts martial on all manner of violations of the Uniform Code of Justice.

In her leisure time, Dr. Goodness enjoys gardening, traveling, and art.

Education
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of North Texas - 1999
M.S., Clinical Psychology, University of North Texas - 1996
B.S., Psychology,
University of Texas at Dallas - 1994 (Summa Cum Laude)