What Is Sexual Wellness?

I started my next workbook. As before, I will incorporate parts of the topics in this blog. The first blog from the new workbook is on Sexual Wellness.

Believe it or not, sexual wellness is not defined within the field of psychology. A literature review of both psychology and medicine literature databases identified three articles. A brief review of the internet also finds few resources. One website, http://www.definitionofwellness.com/ highlights 10 different types of wellness but fails to include sexual wellness in this list. Amazon.com, for example, highlights dildos, condoms and lubricants. A few websites offer services toward sexual wellness. Ohio State University (http://swc.osu.edu/for-students/sexual-wellness/), for example, highlights many aspects of helping the student move toward developing skills integrating behaviors and values. The term as defined on their webpage elicits the idea of sexual health as defined in this workbook. The dictionary defines wellness as the quality of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal.

Given the lack of an existing definition, the definition of sexual wellness we are establishing for this workbook is that sexual wellness is the movement toward sexual health. All of the issues, concerns, and barriers within the concept of sexual health are integrated into this definition. Sexual Wellness is the active participation of the individual in his or her life by addressing the numerous issues within sexual health. This requires active participation and movement. The purpose of this workbook is to help expand specific topics from the literature to help you move toward improved sexual health. The process is what we define as sexual wellness.