Introducing 10 First Dates Workbook: A Guided Journey for Dating With Intention

I’m so excited to finally share this with you.

Back in 2018, after a marriage that ended three years earlier in a very painful and confusing way, I did something a little wild: I decided to go on ten first dates. Not to find find love again. I just wanted to learn how to trust myself again — to talk to people again, to recognize red flags before they became heartbreak (or worse), and to figure out what I actually wanted instead of putting myself aside just to not be alone.

That experiment eventually became a chapter in my survival memoir, One Reason to Live. Then it became a play. 10 First Dates premiered in London to four-star reviews and three fringe theatre award nominations. Women after every performance told me the same thing: I’ve dated every single one of those men. It was like watching my own life.

People wanted more than a play could give them. They wanted something they could actually use.

So I built it.

What’s Inside

10 First Dates Workbook isn’t a book you read once and shelve. It’s a hands-on guide for anyone getting back into dating after loss, trauma, divorce, or just a long time away from it — built around the same ten-date structure that changed how I saw myself.

Inside, you’ll work through:

• Defining what you actually want (and don’t) before you ever swipe
• Building real deal breakers and boundaries — and holding them
• Recognizing red flags early, whether they show up in a profile, a text, or across the table from you
• Understanding the psychology behind chemistry, trauma bonding, and why some of the worst relationships feel the most intense
• Spotting genuine green flags: consistency, accountability, real curiosity
• Practical DBT-based tools for managing the anxiety, grief, and emotional whiplash that dating can bring back up
• A full safety chapter and a glossary that names the manipulation tactics and manosphere language you deserve to recognize on sight

This isn’t a book about finding “the one.” It’s a book about learning to trust yourself again, one date at a time.

Free Ebook, September 5–9

Starting today, the Kindle edition is completely free on Amazon — no strings attached (although I’d really appreciate a review!). If you’ve ever excused a red flag, made yourself smaller, or wondered if you’d ever trust your own gut again, I want you to have this.

The free promotion runs through September 9th.

Paperback Available September 10th

If you’re someone who wants to write in the workbook (as you need a separate journal for the eBook), fill out the date logs, and build this into a daily practice, the full paperback workbook — complete with guided journal pages — launches September 10th.

Why Now

I didn’t plan any of this. Not the dating experiment, not the memoir, not the play, and certainly not a intimate tour through red flags and DBT skills. But every step of it came from the same place: wanting to stop making excuses for bad behavior, and finally believing I was worth better.

If you’re standing where I was back in 2018 — exhausted, terrified, not sure you trust your own instincts — this workbook is for you.

Go get your free copy. And when you’re ready, trust yourself enough to start.

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10 First Dates Workbook: A Guided Journey for Dating With Intention is available now as a free Kindle download (September 5–9) and in paperback on Amazon starting September 10th.