Treating Borderline Personality Disorder with Confidence
A Practical Guide for Generalist Clinicians
Live Webinar ⁕ September 25, 2026 ⁕ 12-1 PM ET
The Basics:
Learn to apply the CBT skills you're already familiar with to effectively address BPD
1 Continuing Education Credit (APA)
$35 for Professionals (Free for students with code: PERSONALITY)
The Details
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is common in clinical practice, yet many therapists feel underprepared to treat it without specialized training. The good news is that you don't have to become a BPD specialist to help clients make meaningful changes.
In this practical one-hour workshop, you'll learn how familiar cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles can be applied to some of the most challenging problems associated with BPD. Drawing from BPD Compass, a personalized, evidence-based treatment for BPD, we'll explore four versatile strategies: values-based behavior change, cognitive flexibility, emotion exposure, and mindfulness. Through clinical examples, you'll learn how to use these tools to help clients respond differently to intense emotions, impulsive urges, and interpersonal challenges—and leave with strategies you can begin incorporating into your practice right away.
Your Instructor,
Shannon Sauer-Zavala, PhD
I'm a Professor of Psychology at the University of Kentucky, where I direct the Treatment Innovation for Psychological Services (TIPS) Lab.
My research sits at the intersection of personality science and clinical psychology. The central premise guiding my work is this: the Big Five personality traits are risk factors that maintain the full range of mental health conditions. Rather than developing a separate treatment for each diagnosis, my lab studies whether we can help people more efficiently by targeting the patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving—the personality vulnerabilities—that those conditions share.
That work led to the development of COMPASS, a set of cognitive behavioral modules designed to target personality traits that contribute to anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, and related problems.
Your Instructor,
Shannon Sauer-Zavala, PhD
Clinical Psychologist & PRofessor
Dr. Sauer-Zavala is Licensed Clinical PsychologistHeadline with over 15 years of experience working with people struggling with anxiety and depression. She is also an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Kentucky (UK) where she develops new treatments for common mental health conditions and tests them in rigorous clinical trials.
Dr. Sauer-Zavala is the lead developer of a short-term intervention personality difficulties to address common mental health problems – COMPASS (a loose acronym for cognitive behavioral modules for personality symptoms).
Registration
ATtendees Can Expect....
Educational Objectives
1.
Learning Objective one
Apply values-based strategies to help clients with BPD make behavioral choices based on long-term goals rather than immediate emotional urges.
2.
Learning Objective TWO
Use cognitive flexibility and emotion exposure techniques to modify rigid thinking patterns and reduce maladaptive avoidance of intense emotional experiences.
3.
Learning Objective THREE
Implement mindfulness strategies to help clients observe thoughts, emotions, and urges without automatically acting on them.