Sexual Health & Mental Health
September is Sexual Health Awareness Month, a time to center discussions of not just sexual health, but also its connection to other aspects of overall well-being. Sexual health is intertwined with physical, emotional, relational, and behavior health—as well as, crucially, mental health.
Actively keeping this in mind as we discuss both sexual health and mental health topics can help us be more pro-active in creating structures, systems, and frameworks to both treat and prevent the sort of traumas and other struggles that can so often arise from within sexual contexts.
The Six Principles of Sexual Health
Building off of previous conceptions of sexual health, these six principles are versions of those developed and discussed by psychotherapist Doug Braun-Harvey, founder of the Harvey Institute. Together, they are intended to enrich our understanding of sexual health, situate sexual health alongside other aspects of overall wellness, and promote a more holistic and inclusive approach to the topic that encourages agency, advocacy, and flourishing.
Through approaches to sexual health that center these six principles, we can not only work toward addressing existing traumas and other struggles, but also move toward preventing (or reducing) future struggles by eroding systems, practices, and attitudes that perpetuate such traumas in the first place.
Consent
First and foremost, a healthy sexual practice is one that centers consent: the freely-given, informed, and reversible agreement for specific activities to take place, among all parties involved. Conscious consent practices—and conscientious consent education—is at the heart of any movement toward sexual health.
Non-Exploitation
Much sexual misconduct that leads to trauma or other struggle is the result of exploitation: typically, the irresponsible use or abuse of power dynamics and differentials on behalf of those who hold that power. A healthy sexual practice is one that is non-exploitative, as exploitation of power in sexual dynamics can lead to the sort of coercion that negates meaningful consent.
Honesty
According to this principle, a healthy sexual practice is one rooted in honesty: all parties involved are showing up in good faith, sharing openly and without hidden motive, and not withholding any relevant information. Tying back once again into the fundamental principle of consent, we see a connection here, too: meaningful consent is informed consent, and informed consent requires honesty.
Shared Values
To say that sexual health requires shared values is not to say that all involved have to agree on all social, political, and moral issues. Instead, it is to emphasize that we ought to seek and embrace clarity and alignment on the meaning and value of activities that we engage in together. The sort of incongruence that can arise from this lack of alignment—where one participate values the act or experience in one way while another sees it through a totally different lens—can lead to failures of honesty, open doors to exploitation, and ultimately lead to the sort of breakdowns of consent that give rise to traumas and other struggles.
Prevention
While no sexual activity (or really, any activity) is 100% safe and risk-free, a healthy sexual practice is one that intentionally centers safer practices with respect to risk-awareness toward potential outcomes such as STIs and pregnancy. Mindfulness toward prevention is mindfulness toward well-being—both our own and that of our partners.
Pleasure
Perhaps most radically, the Six Principles of Sexual Health conclude by reminding us that alongside all of the above, a healthy sexual practice will foreground and center pleasure—which, of course, can look and feel very different for different persons!
Connection Between Mental Health and Sexual Health
Unhealthy sexual practices, those that deprioritize shared values and risk-awareness, eschew consent and honesty, create easy entry points for exploitation, and forget about pleasure, can lead to varieties of traumas and other mental, physical, emotional, relational, and behavioral struggles.
No matter what our personal sexual practice is, a healthy sexual practice is an essential component of our overall well-being—including our mental health.
During Sexual Health Awareness Month, we can take the opportunity to reflect on this connection so that we can all contribute to building a world more conducive to our individual and collective health, mentally, sexually, and beyond.
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