Desire: The Workbook: A Guided Journey into the Longings That Shape Our Lives

Desire—and the problems we encounter with it—shapes every part of our lives.

It shows up in the restlessness of a life that feels empty. In the distance between you and your partner. In the sex that feels pressured or unfulfilling. Left unexamined, desire turns into frustration, disconnection, and exhaustion.

This workbook is where you begin to transform your relationship to desire and, in the process, learn to reconnect with yourself and the people closest to you.

Building on his book Desire, therapist and researcher Jay Stringer guides you through a journey to uncover the stories that have shaped you, disrupt the patterns that keep you stuck, and cultivate the intimacy and meaning you long for.

Through prompts, exercises, and reflections, you’ll engage the five desires at the core of your story—grounded in findings from an original study of more than 4,000 people:

1. Wholeness – knowing your childhood story and tending to its heartache
2. Growth – developing hospitality and resilience in the face of difficulty
3. Intimacy – learning how to love and be loved
4. Pleasure – experiencing the revelation, provocation, and healing of sex
5. Purpose – cultivating a compelling and meaningful life

Desire: The Workbook is designed to profoundly deepen your relationship to desire—showing you how conflict and disappointment can become the very ground where intimacy and hope grow.