Dr. Jennifer Ritchie-Goodline, Licensed Clinical Psychologist

10/14/2026

"'You're an idiot.' 'You're weak.'

Have you ever said critical things to yourself when you feel any emotions? If so, it may be a sign you struggle with self-worth, says psychologist Marisa Franco. That means feeling good about yourself and 'treating your emotions like they matter.'

The good news is that self-worth is a skill that you can learn and get better at, says Franco, author of Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment, published in September. Drawing on the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, the book offers insights and exercises on how to build a stronger sense of value for yourself.

One effective way to do that is to revisit difficult memories, Franco says. This approach is based on memory reconsolidation theory, based on the work of behavioral neuroscientist Karim Nader."

https://www.npr.org/2026/09/17/nx-s1-5971141/boost-self-worth-self-esteem?fbclid=IwY2xjawUddTVwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMVVTaEFmS0pIY1Y4UFlSRHBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeTobSgNj_8OmvTgpTZGFVAk9niNHOW2MCB4snC7wOggllTssDbjUn9iqDzNQ_aem_eL2DppV3Zpzw8ckETgluyg

In a new book, psychologist Marisa Franco explains why it's good to feel good about yourself — and shares a helpful memory technique that we've turned into a printable worksheet.

10/13/2026

"We’ve been sold a lie about happiness.

Self-help books, motivational speakers, and social media influencers routinely tell us that we can and should strive for ultimate happiness—a “10 out of 10” life. But what if that goal is impossible? What if, instead of reaching for a perfect state of joy, we should focus on something more attainable: gradually moving our happiness baseline up?"

We’re all holding onto something we’re sure we can’t give up on, but research shows that letting go can boost our happiness a lot more than we might think.

10/12/2026

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a good reminder to schedule your yearly mammogram. Early detection can save lives.

And while awareness is an important first step, what patients really need is support, access to quality care, and research for better treatment, better outcomes, and a cure, not just a marketing campaign wrapped in a pink ribbon.

10/08/2026

This Saturday, October 10th, is World Mental Health Day. 🌎 Let’s all do our part to change the narrative, normalize the conversation, end stigma, and raise surrounding mental health issues, not just on World Mental Health Day but every day of the year.

10/07/2026

From the American Psychological Association Monitor On Psychology's In Brief Section (September 2026, Vol. 57, No. 6, Print version: page 15):

A Tendency to Minimize Joy May Signal Depression

Increased negative emotions like hopelessness and sadness are hallmarks of depression, but a study in Clinical Psychological Science suggests depression may also be linked with dampening, or downplaying positive feelings. For the study, researchers examined cross-sectional data from a sample of 4,015 participants and longitudinal data from a sample of 1,457 participants. Overall, they found that features of dampening were most strongly linked with key depressive symptoms like negative self-perceptions, pessimistic outlook, and pervasive negative emotions. Longitudinal analyses indicated that two future-oriented aspects of dampening—believing “these [positive] feelings won’t last” and “my streak of luck is going to end soon”—were most predictive of later depressive symptoms. While additional studies with clinical samples are needed to confirm these findings, the researchers suggest that dampening may be another possible point of intervention for people with depression.
DOI: 10.1177/21677026251413535

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10/06/2026

"Since (their son's) death in 2021, his parents have made it their mission to raise awareness of what some in the field are calling 'su***de crisis syndrome' — a state characterized by feeling trapped and hopeless, while also withdrawing from people and being jittery or sleepless. The term can apply to people with a long-term mental illness who are at a crisis point, or those like (their son) without an apparent psychiatric history.

'We understood the tragedy of su***de to be the result of a long-term mental illness,' said Ash, a Boulder resident who works in the mental health field.

But (their son) had never shown previous signs of mental health problems, and while he was adjusting to a new job following a mid-pandemic move, he hadn’t gone through an obvious crisis, such as unemployment or a bitter breakup."

https://www.denverpost.com/2026/09/20/su***de-crisis-syndrome-boulder-colorado/?fbclid=IwY2xjawUdc9JwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMVVTaEFmS0pIY1Y4UFlSRHBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeylrvIipd2XjaO8wm-i5sCCtFAiy08mSkxx4ijMqDga5UjvHs8HJz8VbJSLA_aem_KVZmeVlaA9tEl2YfraJS9g&utm_campaign=mrf-facebook-denverpost&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202609206aafef00d173fd66fd916015

The majority of su***de decedents said they weren’t thinking about killing themselves. Conversely, few of those who said they had serious suicidal thoughts in the past year made an attempt.

10/05/2026

09/30/2026

"Several years ago, I started noticing something new when teenage girls or young women came to my office for their first psychiatric sessions. Patients used to dread being told that there was something, as they saw it, wrong with them. Now these young women were announcing their diagnoses — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, depression — almost before telling me their names.

They had researched their symptoms on Instagram; they’d taken TikTok quizzes about them; they had cross-indexed their conditions with those of their friends. It was everyone — gravel-voiced film majors and earnest high school athletes, class presidents and girls who skipped school, girls who spent weekends in the Hamptons and girls who had to work for their spending money. The patients of this new wave were talking in therapy-speak, and their therapy hadn’t even started.

The physician part of me would instantly start thinking through an alphabet soup of treatments for the conditions these girls were reporting — D.B.T., C.B.T. and E.M.D.R. and medications to go with each.

Another part of me — the parent, the Xennial — would struggle to suppress an inner eye roll. If you’re a parent of an adolescent girl, you might have experienced your own version of these two reactions: either terror for your daughter’s psychological well-being or alienation from all the jargon. You might have even tried to convince your daughter that everything was fine. None of those responses set us up to hear what these girls and young women are trying to say...
..In some cases, my patients’ self-diagnoses were spot on. In many others, however, the psychiatric label seemed more like a compromise between uncomfortable feelings and the desire for social acceptance. Are these labels a source of strength or a straitjacket? Are they helping young women find help and acceptance or standing in the way? The answer isn’t so simple."

Opinion: I’m a psychiatrist. I’m hearing something new from young women.

09/29/2026

"U.S. health officials and states have increasingly scrutinized kratom, an herbal extract that acts as a stimulant at low doses and a sedative at high doses, over the past decade. Kratom is legal at the federal level, but some state and local governments have banned the substance and federal authorities have issued warnings about its risks...
..It is used in capsules, powders and liquids that are often sold in gas stations or smoke shops. Proponents say that in its pure form, kratom is a safe, natural herbal supplement that can help manage pain, anxiety and depression and ease the effects of opioid withdrawal.

Doctors who treat addiction, however, say people can quickly become dependent on it, leading to withdrawal symptoms. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration webpage is blunt: Don’t use it.

The agency says it carries the risk of serious adverse effects, including liver toxicity, seizures and substance use disorder."

A drug task force in Mississippi is urging people to avoid kratom after authorities found packages of the substance while investigating the deaths of two University of Mississippi students.