A Trauma-Informed DBT Inspired Guide to Renew the Mind & Spirit
Date Published: April 21, 2026
Publisher: Lucid Books Publishing
The Mind-Spirit Bible Practice was written for you.
In these pages, author and mental health advocate Nicole Doña bridges the gap between faith and psychology—showing how Scripture and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can work together to bring emotional and spiritual wholeness. Drawing from her own story of healing and resilience, she offers practical tools and biblical insight to help you regulate emotions through grace, find God’s presence in your pain, and live from “the mind of the Spirit” (Romans 8:6).
Whether you’re a believer, clinician, or ministry leader, this book is a resource for experiencing lasting healing—where emotional health and spiritual transformation finally become one.
I still remember the taste of that
morning—oatmeal, coffee, and fear.
It was March 2015, my first day
returning to work after six months on disability. I had just been diagnosed
with bipolar disorder. My first boyfriend since becoming a Christian—the one I
trusted enough to tell—broke up with me over text when I shared my diagnosis.
My psychiatrist was exploring different cocktails of medications that left me
dizzy, sleepless, and hollow. I’d been laid off from a job I loved, creating
youth-leadership programs for teens and young adults with trauma and
schizophrenia. During those months, I sank into the couch and into despair,
binge-watching The Walking Dead until I felt like a zombie myself.
When I finally accepted a temporary
job at a real-estate firm—far from the purpose-filled career I’d hoped for—I
thought I was starting over. But as I sat on my red couch that morning, oatmeal
bowl in hand, I realized I was still just trying to survive.
My roommate slept, and her tiny
chihuahua, “Coco,” snored on the floor. Everything looked peaceful. But inside,
it was war.
“You’re disgusting.”
“No man will ever want you.”
“You used to be strong, now you’re
weak.”
“God’s disappointed in you.”
The accusations came like waves until
I could hardly breathe. My chest tightened, my legs buzzed with energy, my mind
screamed RUN, though there was nowhere to go. I was sitting in safety, but my
body and mind believed I was in danger. After all, wherever I could run, my
mind would follow.
That’s when I began to understand: I
wasn’t just battling a diagnosis. I was battling a divided mind.
One part—the Mind of the Flesh—was
ruled by emotion without truth: shame, fear, and self-loathing disguised as
repentance. Another—the voice of Worldly Wisdom—was ruled by logic without
grace: perfectionism, control, and the illusion that if I could just understand
myself, I could fix myself. And somewhere beneath both was a whisper I hadn’t
yet learned to trust—the Mind of the Spirit—quiet but steady, saying, “Breathe.
You are still here. I have not given up on you.”
At that time, I didn’t know how to
describe these three voices. I just knew my mind was constantly at war with
itself. Yet even in that chaos, I kept reaching for my Bible. I couldn’t always
feel God in the words, but I knew I needed them like oxygen.
Every morning, I opened Scripture even
when my heart felt numb, and my thoughts screamed louder than the gentle
whispers of God’s Word. Sometimes I read only a few verses before I broke down
crying. Other times, I clung to one line—reading it over and over and
struggling to believe it.
The Bible wasn’t a comfort at first;
it was an anchor. It didn’t stop the storm, but it kept me from floating away.
During that same season, I also began
doing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) modules once a week. Eventually, I
would complete all of them over the course of 18 months. DBT gave me practical
tools to help me observe, name, and navigate the emotional chaos I lived in
daily.
One skill stood out above the rest: the concept of Wise Mind[1]—the
balanced place between Emotion Mind[2]
and Reason Mind, where both truth and feeling can coexist.
At first, I didn’t realize it, but
what DBT called Wise Mind mirrored what Scripture was teaching me about the
Mind of the Spirit. Both invited me to pause between reaction and response, to
breathe, to notice, and to let truth—not fear—be my guide. Both taught me that
peace wasn’t found in suppressing emotion or mastering logic, but in
integrating them under something higher—what DBT called “wisdom,” and what the
Bible called “the Spirit of Truth.”
[1] Wise Mind is a core concept in Dialectical Behavior
Therapy (DBT), representing the balanced integration of emotion and reason. It
is described as the “inner wisdom” available when a person is simultaneously
aware, centered, and able to access both logic and emotion without being
dominated by either (Linehan 2015).
[2] Emotion Mind in DBT is the state where feelings are
intense, overwhelming, and often interpreted as facts. It is marked by
impulsivity, reactivity, and difficulty accessing logic or long-term
perspective (Linehan 2015).
About the Author
Nicole Doña is a Christian author, nonprofit founder, and mental-health advocate passionate about integrating faith and psychology for emotional healing. She is the author of The Mind-Spirit Bible Practice—a groundbreaking guide that bridges Scripture and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to bring emotional and spiritual wholeness to believers, clinicians, and ministries alike. A brain tumor survivor, wife, and foster mom, Nicole writes from lived experience, weaving neuroscience, trauma recovery, and biblical wisdom into a practical framework for transformation. She has led policy reforms in San Francisco for system-involved youth, advanced statewide mental-health reforms across California, and collaborated with global brain-health leaders through the University of California, San Francisco. In 2015, she received a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco City & County Board of Supervisors for her contributions to mental-health policy and advocacy. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Josh.
Instagram: @mindspiritbiblepractice
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