Personality Compass with Dr. Shannon Sauer-Zavala

Personality Compass with Dr. Shannon Sauer-Zavala Using science-backed strategies to empower people to become the best version of themselves. Visit my website to work with me!

Dr. Shannon is mental health expert, personality scientist, and TEDx speaker who busts myth that personality is set in stone. Expert Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Specialized mental health services for anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder. Evidence-based therapy tailored to help clients feel better and live a more fulfilling life. Personality Coaching for Goal Achievement

: Develop the traits and skills needed to reach your personal and professional goals with personalized, growth-oriented coaching. Supervision, Consultation, and Training for Mental Health Providers: Expert guidance in CBT, Unified Protocol, and BPD Compass. Training workshops available for therapists seeking advanced, evidence-based methods. Certification programs and program implementation also available.

Want to know which personality trait is getting in your way the most right now? 🧭Comment “PLAN” and I’ll send you my gui...
08/28/2026

Want to know which personality trait is getting in your way the most right now? 🧭

Comment “PLAN” and I’ll send you my guide to help you map your personality traits to your goals.

✨ You’ll identify the one trait creating the most friction and find the one small shift that could make the biggest difference.

Why can a task feel harder to start than it actually is to finish?You might put off an email, appointment, phone call, o...
08/25/2026

Why can a task feel harder to start than it actually is to finish?

You might put off an email, appointment, phone call, or small task for weeks, only to finally do it and realize it took 15 minutes.

The problem isn't always laziness. Sometimes we're avoiding what we expect the task will feel like: boring, frustrating, overwhelming, or uncomfortable. And putting it off gives us immediate relief, which makes procrastinating easier to repeat.

In this week's article, I explain:

→ how personality can shape procrastination

→ why avoiding a task reinforces the urge to delay it

→ how a five-minute experiment can challenge your predictions

Comment “ARTICLE” and I'll send you the full article.

The replay is READY! 🎉A few weeks ago, I ran a live workshop for therapists on how I start treatment with BPD using the ...
08/24/2026

The replay is READY! 🎉

A few weeks ago, I ran a live workshop for therapists on how I start treatment with BPD using the BPD Compass approach.

A bunch of you couldn’t make it live and asked if there would be a replay...

So here it is.

It’s a two-hour, on-demand workshop you can watch whenever it works for you.

We cover:

🧭 How values shape the treatment plan

🧭 How I use an evidence-based assessment to personalize treatment

🧭 Why I focus on getting clients REALLY good at a few skills instead of teaching them everything

🧭 How to think about the BPD Compass approach in real-world clinical practice

You’ll get the slides + fillable worksheets too.

You can finally stop waiting for the replay 😉

Comment “REPLAY” and I'll send it your way!

08/21/2026

Not everyone with borderline personality disorder grew up in chaos.

Some grew up with parents who meant well. Parents who said, "it'll be okay," or "it's not a big deal," every time a big emotion showed up.

That response feels harmless. But when a kid who feels things intensely keeps hearing their reaction is too much, they learn to distrust it instead, to believe they should be able to just turn it off.

In this clip, I walk through this other path to BPD, one that never involved abuse at all.

Does this sound like your story, or someone you know?

08/20/2026

I see this all the time - you know exactly which of your traits get in the way. The overthinking. The people-pleasing. The perfectionism that makes you rewrite the same email four times before you send it.

You've read the books, taken every test, and can explain your patterns better than most people could explain their own name.

But understanding why you do something isn't the same as doing it differently.

So you keep hitting the same wall: overthinking the decision, saying yes when you mean no, redoing work you already finished.

With every year that passes, the dream life you keep picturing (calmer, more confident, more you) stays exactly where it's been. A few years out.

This is what happens when insight isn't paired with a system.

You don't need to understand your personality; you need a structure for changing it.

Inside The Personality Edit, you'll move through Clarify, Cultivate, and Consolidate: the same 10-week, science-backed framework I built from my own clinical research to help you edit the patterns keeping you stuck.

If you know your patterns inside and out and you're ready to stop just naming them and start changing them, The Personality Edit is for you.

Comment “EDIT” to learn more.

[SWIPE 👉🏼] Are you stuck in the Emotional Spiral? I’m sharing what it is and how to get out of it ✨
08/19/2026

[SWIPE 👉🏼] Are you stuck in the Emotional Spiral? I’m sharing what it is and how to get out of it ✨

Here are some of my favorites!If you want results like this for yourself or your clients, the BPD Compass Workbook is NO...
08/18/2026

Here are some of my favorites!

If you want results like this for yourself or your clients, the BPD Compass Workbook is NOW available!

We worked with New Harbinger Publications to create a fully self-guided workbook!

Work through it on your own, take it to your therapy, or, if you are a therapist, take it to your clients!

Order here and get bonuses like fillable PDFs of all the worksheets, assessment tools to help you personalize the treatment, streaming mindfulness mediations, and a fidelity checklist for therapists.

https://www.shannonsauerzavala.com/the-bpd-compass-workbook?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=post&utm_content=&utm_campaign=bpd-compass

What's something you've learned about a relationship because you were willing to have a difficult conversation?Most of u...
08/17/2026

What's something you've learned about a relationship because you were willing to have a difficult conversation?

Most of us don't think of conflict as a way to build closer relationships.

We tend to see disagreement as a sign that something has gone wrong. If a relationship is strong, shouldn't we always get along?

So we avoid it. We let the irritating comment go, agree to plans we don't really want, or stay quiet when something bothers us.

That might keep the peace in the short term, but it also means we miss an opportunity to learn something important: Can this relationship handle disagreement?

In this week's article, I explain why healthy conflict can actually build trust, and why closeness isn't about never disagreeing. It's about learning that you can be different people and still stay connected.

Comment “ARTICLE” and I'll send you the full article.

2 DAYS LEFT to enter! 🎉Want a FREE copy of The BPD Compass Workbook? x are giving away 20 copies! 💚Comment "GIVEAWAY" a...
08/16/2026

2 DAYS LEFT to enter! 🎉

Want a FREE copy of The BPD Compass Workbook?

x are giving away 20 copies! 💚

Comment "GIVEAWAY" and I’ll DM you the link to enter or head to the link in my bio.

Don’t miss your chance! ✨

08/15/2026

2 years ago I started doing something most researchers don't. I began talking about my work on personality change and BPD treatment on social media — right here and on Instagram. Plain language, not journal language.

It started with the data on BPD Compass, eighteen sessions, effect sizes comparable to a year of DBT. I couldn't stop thinking about where that result would actually end up. In a journal, behind a paywall, read by maybe a few hundred people who already study this for a living.

I didn't build a shorter treatment just for the people who already had good options. I built it for everyone else.

I didn't have a strategy. I just knew one thing. The people who needed this weren't going to stumble across a journal article.

That's still the goal. BPD Compass, the workbook this research became, is out now!

If you're a therapist, a researcher, or someone who's lived with a BPD diagnosis, this is for you. If you've ever felt shut out of the conversation about your own treatment, I'd love for you to follow along.

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