When she was in her 20s, Jo Blakeley admits she would never have looked at a self-help book - even though she desperately needed some guidance in her life.

Addicted to chasing unsuitable men, increasingly jealous that all her friends were settling down and unsure of her career path, things came to a head when she travelled across the world to escape her problems, but found she was still following the same patterns.

"I couldn't understand it," she says.

"I kept going for the same men, I piled on weight, I smoked way too much and drank way too much, ate too much. I didn't realise it at the time, but I was on a journey, physically and emotionally.

"When I got back I thought 'this is enough now'."

It was the catalyst Jo, who now lives in Poole with her husband and young son, needed to change her life, and led to her writing the world's first self-help novel.

Blokes, Beers & Burritos tells the tale of Cath Brown, a 20-something who is fed up with her job, eats and drinks too much and continually falls for unsuitable men.

After being dumped on her birthday, she flees to Central and South America for a year's adventure and begins receiving mysterious emails from The Bliss Expert, who promises to gradually send her Ten Steps to Bliss, to give her everything she has always wanted.

Readers can follow the steps with Cath and create positive changes to their own lives too.

The idea for the book came about after Jo finally found meaning in her life when she attended a seminar led by renowned life coach Tony Robbins, and discovered Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), the practice of understanding how people organise their thinking, feeling, language and behaviour to produce the results they do.

"It was a big wake up call for me," she remembers.

"The reason I loved NLP was, for the first time, I understood that I wasn't a victim. I didn't realise that I played the victim and that I liked getting all that sympathy from when another man had dumped me.

"NLP made me, for the first time, understand I was in full control of my life. It was a huge turning point."

Jo studied NLP to the highest level she could, did a course on teaching and got a job with professional service company KPMG, running courses with its employees.

But she found people wanted more and, after ten years with the company, left to set up her own training firm, Orchard Training, offering courses in confidence, communication, leadership and NLP.

"I found both men and women were coming to see me at the end of courses saying they loved what I did, but how could they take it further," she says.

"It just started me thinking - I needed to get to the people that were like me in my 20s. So I thought 'why don't I write Ten Steps to Bliss?' It's understanding that your inner world is reflecting your outer world, but in a way that people can understand.

"I'm appealing to people that turn their nose up at a self-help book."

It took Jo four years to write the book - which is based partly on her own journey - and she has now also created a two-day training course based on the teachings in the novel, which she is running from her own home.

"I take people through very slowly, because I have to get them to trust me," she explains, "I have to get them to trust each other and have that rapport.

"We look at first impressions, they start to understand that the first impression that you make is long-lasting. The key of the whole course really is the belief cycle - for them to understand that whatever they're thinking causes them to feel a certain way, causes you to behave a certain way and how you behave causes what you get.

"We look at what causes you to feel a certain way, we look at thoughts and beliefs. We talk about assertiveness - it's all about self-esteem.

"Actually, life is amazing - you can have anything you want, but you have got to look at yourself."

The two-day Bliss Live course with Jo Blakeley, AKA The Bliss Expert, takes place from July 10 to 11 at her home in Poole. The course costs £495, with a 50 per cent discount available to the first four Seven Days readers who contact Jo by emailing jo@theblissexpert.com.

A second course, Bliss in Luxury Live, is being held at Burley Manor, and an on-line course (free for those attending a face-to-face course) is also available for £135.

Blokes, Beers & Burritos is available on Amazon.

For further details on all three courses and the book, visit theblissexpert.com