What if your treatment plan fit you, and not a one-size-fits-all protocol?
No two people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are the same. Your history, symptoms, and goals are uniquely yours. Shouldn’t your path to healing be as well? This groundbreaking workbook offers a personalized, research-based program to help you target the specific patterns that keep you stuck, so you can quickly build the skills you need to move forward.
Based on the authors’ innovative COMPASS program and proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), The BPD Compass Workbook focuses on the core risk factors that drive most difficulties associated with BPD: Strong negative emotions, relational difficulties and mistrust, and impulsivity. You’ll begin with a concise assessment to identify which of these symptoms affect you the most. Then, you’ll “chart your course” and work through the modules that match your needs, so you spend time only where it counts.
Using the CBT framework of Thinking, Doing, and Being, you’ll learn how to:
- Regulate strong emotions without shutting down or exploding
- Build trust gradually and show up authentically in relationships
- Pause urges, reduce impulsiveness, and choose long-term goals over short-term relief
- Align daily actions with your values, even when emotions run high
- Track progress and adjust your plan as your needs change
Because COMPASS targets transdiagnostic mechanisms, you’ll also see improvements in anxiety, trauma-related symptoms, obsessive worries, and more. And because it’s brief and customizable, this program can meet you where you are, whether you’re beginning your healing journey or refining the skills that work best for you.
Personalized, practical, and proven-effective, The BPD Compass Workbook is your map to steadier emotions, stronger relationships, and more intentional choices.
A New Harbinger Precision Psychology Workbook
Shannon Sauer-Zavala, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, professor at the University of Kentucky, and lead developer of COMPASS, a short-term intervention for personality difficulties. Her research focuses on personality factors that maintain psychological symptoms and how to optimize treatments to improve outcomes.
Matthew W. Southward, PhD, is an assistant professor at The Ohio State University who studies both how and for whom cognitive-behavioral treatments for mood, anxiety, and personality disorders work to optimize and personalize these evidence-based therapies.
Caitlyn O. Hood, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky. She is a clinical psychologist and implementation practitioner committed to expanding access to effective interventions that address behavioral health.
Julianne G. Wilner, PhD, is a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital, and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on improving mental health treatment by developing and evaluating mechanism-driven interventions, particularly for adolescents and young adults at risk for suicide. She has received NIH funding for her work using multimodal tools to better understand how online interpersonal behavior mechanisms contribute to suicide risk in adolescents.
Foreword writer Kim L. Gratz, PhD, is a senior clinical quality manager and clinical lead of the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program at Lyra Health. She has received multiple awards for her research on emotion regulation, personality disorders, and self-injury; and has authored several books on borderline personality disorder (BPD), self-injury, and DBT.
