The BPD Compass Workbook: A Personalized Treatment Approach for Borderline Personality Disorder

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.

"The BPD Compass Workbook offers a clear, compassionate guide to coping with intense emotions. The program is practical, structured, and easy to follow and does a masterful job consolidating various research-based approaches to help those who struggle with regulating their emotions. Exercises build awareness, reduce impulsivity, and strengthen coping strategies to build emotional resilience."
--Adam Carmel, PhD, clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, and coauthor of DBT Next Steps

"The BPD Compass Workbook offers a refreshingly thoughtful and clinically sophisticated approach to addressing borderline personality disorder. Rather than treating BPD as a fixed or monolithic diagnosis, this workbook recognizes the profound individuality of each person's experience and provides a personalized road map for change. Grounded in contemporary science and built around the core risk factors that drive BPD symptoms, it helps readers develop greater emotional flexibility, stronger relationships, and more effective control over impulsive behavior. What makes this book especially valuable is its balance of structure and flexibility: readers are invited to move through the material in a way that fits their own values, needs, and goals. This is an important, practical, and genuinely hopeful resource for people with BPD and the clinicians who support them."
--Blaise Aguirre, MD, founding medical director and Michael Hollander, PhD, endowed director of 3East DBT Continuum at McLean Hospital, and assistant professor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School

"The BPD Compass Workbook provides something very valuable and rare: an accessible self-help resource for people with borderline personality disorder that is evidence-based and individualized. Readers are provided real guidance on tailoring the workbook to their specific desires, whether that's coping better with their emotions, improving their relationships, or reducing impulsive behaviors. An important workbook that offers concrete skills and hope for living a more fulfilling life."
--Kiki Fehling, PhD, DBT-Linehan Board of Certification Certified Clinician, content creator @dbtkiki, and author of DBT Cards for Coping Skills and The LGBTQ+ Mental Health Workbook

"Borderline personality disorder (BPD) reflects a unique blend of the five major trait domains and the twenty-five different facets of these traits in the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders in the DSM-5. But what is missing for clinicians is an approach to treatment of BPD that personalizes intervention for each individual patient across these traits. The BPD Compass approach does just that, and in a user-friendly manner that will be invaluable to clinicians."
--David H. Barlow, PhD, ABPP, professor of psychology and psychiatry emeritus and founder of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University

"This workbook serves as an innovative resource, seamlessly integrating research, practical tools, and compassionate guidance to foster personal and relational growth. One tool that truly resonated with me is the Relationship Compass. I plan to utilize it both with my clients and for my own personal development to clarify my values, identify my needs and wants, and navigate relationships with intention. The book provides actionable strategies that can help alleviate frustration, save time, and encourage meaningful change in everyday interactions."
--Melanie Goldman, RP, founder of Mind Over Borderline Therapy Clinic

"With The BPD Compass, this team of outstanding clinical researchers has developed a triple-threat intervention for BPD--one that's evidence-based, accessible, and personalized. First, they provide readers with a straightforward, warm, and actionable manual based on years of their research. Second, they put the treatment in the hands of clients. Finally, the personalized therapy allows every client to create a path forward that works for them. This is an excellent contribution to the BPD treatment toolbox."
--Jennifer S. Cheavens, PhD, BPD and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) researcher and clinician and professor of psychology at Ohio State University

"With this essential workbook, clients with borderline personality disorder finally have now in their hands a concrete key to help them move towards recovery. Starting from one's core values and goals and moving over the actual effectiveness of the skills used toward systematically tracking progress over time, Sauer-Zavala, Southward, Hood, and Wilner offer an ultimately flexible, sizeable, and modular approach to overcoming clients' problems in daily life."
--Ueli Kramer, PhD, professor in psychiatry and psychotherapy at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and past president of the European Society for the Studies of Personality Disorders