Andrea Vassilev
Psychotherapist · Advocate
Andrea Vassilev is a California-based psychotherapist and mental health advocate whose clinical and advocacy work focuses on bipolar disorder and self-stigma. She created the Overcoming Self-Stigma in Bipolar Disorder (OSSiBD) program, serves on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, and is the author of the 2026 workbook Beyond the Bipolar Label. [1][2]
Last updated
Career and work
Andrea Vassilev is a registered psychological associate and psychotherapist in private practice in California, where she specializes in working with people with bipolar disorder. [3]
She holds a doctorate in psychology and developed Overcoming Self-Stigma in Bipolar Disorder (OSSiBD) as part of her doctoral work. The eight-week program was designed specifically to address self-stigma among people with bipolar disorder and has since been used in hospitals, treatment centres, universities and private practices internationally. [6][4]
Vassilev serves on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) and is a member of its Psychological Interventions Task Force. [3]
She was also a co-author of the task force's 2024 position paper on psychological therapies for bipolar disorder. [5]
In 2026, New Harbinger Publications published her workbook Beyond the Bipolar Label: A Workbook to Overcome Self-Stigma, Break Free from Shame, and Live Authentically, which adapts the OSSiBD approach for individual use. [2]
What has been publicly discussed
"You are so much more than your diagnosis."
— Andrea Vassilev [10]
