SPECIALTIES

Dating/Being Single Support, Empowering Women

Credentials

MA

Additional Expertise

Dating Coach

About Catherine Townsend

As a dating columnist-turned-private investigator, I’ve spent the last decade writing, thinking and obsessing about relationships.  I was a staff writer for New York magazine, then moved to London to create the Sleeping Around dating column for The Indepednent newspaper there. Two bestselling books followed: Sleeping Around and Breaking the Rules

But my bad dates made me an expert at interpreting body language. My friends started calling me the 'relationship whisperer' because I could tell if their lover was going to say ‘Will you marry me?’ or ‘It’s not you, it’s me’. I helped them, yet my own love life was a train wreck starting with my first boyfriend (a gorgeous French con artist who really should have been a Lifetime movie of the week). Then I started detective school, threw out sappy self-help and started using detective logic in my love life. Immediately, I felt more empowered and in control. Within a couple of months, I met the love of my life. Now I'm engaged. 

In the same way that former thieves are the best people to ask about which locks to put on your doors, I can tell you how to stay out of dark corners with shady characters. I used to have most of them on speed dial! 

My work has appeared in publications including The Independent, GQ, The Times, Grazia, Marie Claire, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, the Daily Mail and the New York Post.

I have a BA in Journalism/Politics from New York University, and an MA in International
Journalism from City University in London.