A practical DBT skills workbook for managing bipolar disorder, mood swings, depression, and mania.
If you’ve been diagnosed with bipolar disorder (bipolar I, bipolar II, or cyclothymia), chances are you’ve already spent years coping with intense mood swings, depressive episodes, hypomania, or mania. You may feel like your emotions shift quickly―from energy and confidence to exhaustion, sadness, or irritability―and that your mood is often outside your control.
The good news is that powerful, evidence-based tools exist to help you stabilize your mood and build emotional balance.
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder introduces practical skills from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)―a proven treatment developed by Marsha Linehan and widely used in mental health care to help people manage emotional dysregulation, impulsive behavior, and overwhelming feelings.
By combining DBT skills training, mindfulness practices, and practical coping exercises, this workbook helps you manage the emotional highs and lows of bipolar disorder while building stability in your daily life. These tools are designed to complement professional treatment, medication, and support from therapists or clinicians.
In this workbook, you’ll learn how to:
- Use mindfulness and meditation skills to stay grounded during intense emotions and mood shifts
- Manage depressive episodes, hypomania, and manic symptoms with healthier coping strategies
- Strengthen emotion regulation skills to reduce mood dysregulation and emotional overwhelm
- Tolerate distress without acting on impulsive urges or destructive behaviors
- Improve interpersonal communication and relationships with family, partners, and friends
- Build a practical plan for living well with bipolar disorder and maintaining long-term mental health stability
The four core DBT skill areas―mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness―provide a structured framework for understanding and managing bipolar symptoms. Through guided exercises and real-world practice, you’ll learn how to respond to emotional triggers, reduce the intensity of mood swings, and maintain stronger relationships.
Whether you’re newly diagnosed or have been living with bipolar disorder for years, this workbook offers clear tools for navigating depressive and manic cycles with greater awareness, stability, and confidence.
With practice, support, and the right skills, you can move beyond feeling controlled by bipolar disorder―and start building a life defined by balance, resilience, and emotional strength.
Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice and at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Ontario, Canada. She specializes in treating psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder, using dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mindfulness practice.
Foreword writer Zindel V. Segal, Ph.D., is the Morgan Firestone Chair in Psychotherapy and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also director of the cognitive behavioral therapy unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He continues to advocate for the relevance of mindfulness-based clinical care in psychiatry and mental health.
