Doctoral Associate
Carly Goodman
M.A.
Children who come to Carly often surprise their parents. They open up more than expected, try things they have been avoiding, and leave sessions feeling more capable than when they arrived. For families who have been waiting to find someone their child will actually connect with, that kind of session is exactly what they were hoping for.
My mini goldendoodle is named Rory. Whether that is after Rory Gilmore or Rory McIlroy is entirely up to you.
You don't have to have it figured out.
How Carly works
Carly works with children and adolescents navigating anxiety, low mood, emotional dysregulation, somatic symptoms, eating-related difficulties, behavioural challenges, ADHD, and autism. She also has significant experience supporting families of children managing complex medical and neurological conditions, including neuroinflammatory diseases, early brain injuries, epilepsy, and genetic conditions, where psychological care and medical care need to work together.
At the core of how Carly works is the belief that behaviour is communication. Every child is embedded in a web of systems , family, school, medical, social, and what shows up in a session is always shaped by what is happening in those systems. Once she understands what a child is really trying to say, the strategies to support them start to make sense. Not before.
How sessions actually look depends on the child. With younger children, it is often play-based: characters, drawing, games. With older children and teens, it is more often conversation and skills work. With parents, it is coaching and working through what is coming up at home. Across all of it, Carly is paying attention to what is underneath. The nonverbals, the meaning behind the behaviour, the communication that is not being said in words.
Carly values close collaboration with the other adults in a child's life. She regularly consults with medical teams, schools, and other providers to make sure the care she provides fits into a coordinated, coherent picture for each family.
A first session with Carly is about understanding the whole picture. She wants to know your child, your family, and what has brought you here before anything else. Most families leave with a clearer sense of what is going on and feeling genuinely heard.
Clinical approach
Behaviour is communication. Everything else follows.
Carly's approach is integrative, biopsychosocial, and developmentally informed. She understands that children do not exist in isolation. They are embedded in families, schools, and medical systems that shape how they show up in the world. Her starting point is always to understand the full picture before reaching for any strategy or framework.
She draws on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), DBT-informed approaches, Motivational Interviewing, and behavioural parent training, alongside attachment-based principles. She matches the approach to the child and the family rather than applying a fixed model, and she is trained in the Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, or Conduct Problems, a flexible, evidence-based framework that reflects exactly how she thinks about clinical work.
Carly is particularly drawn to children who feel misunderstood and are juggling more than their fair share at once, and to families navigating complex medical diagnoses alongside everything else. Her neuropsychology training gives her clinical depth in understanding how neurology, development, and mental health intersect, and she brings that depth to the families who need it most.
Behaviour is communication. Once we understand what a child is really trying to say, everything else starts to make sense.
What Carly works with.
Areas of focus
Languages: English
Background and credentials.
Education and training
PhD, Clinical-Developmental Psychology
Neuropsychology Stream · York University
In progress
MA, Clinical-Developmental Psychology
Neuropsychology Stream · York University
BSc (Hons), Psychology
Western University
Professional AssociationsCanadian Psychological Association (CPA)
Ontario Psychological Association (OPA)
Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)
Neonatal & General Neurology · Interact-North Parenting Program
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Better Behaviour Service
York University Psychology Clinic
CertificationsModular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, or Conduct Problems (MATCH-ADTC)
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