Blog offers straight talk about healthy sex

While searching the Internet, Alexis Katehakis, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Sex Addiction Therapist and Certified Sex Therapist based in Los Angeles, thought that Web sites about sexual health were static. She wanted an outlet where she could easily provide up-to-date information and saw blogs as a way of doing this.

"Blogs are more alive and active," she said.

So Katehakis opened a Typepad account and started her own blog, Center for Healthy Sex, in August 2005.

Katehakis said she also saw a need for more sites on sexual health because of the lack of discussion by society.

"I think there is very little news coverage about sexual health. When there is coverage, it tends to be on the conversative side re: AIDS, teenage pregnancy and the problems of youth engaging in sex," Katehakis wrote in a follow-up e-mail.

"There's very little that's sex positive that encourages people to explore the beauty of sex, the spiritual component that sex brings into relationships."

Posts featured on the site range from general sexual topics to more specific entries on cybersex addiction and sexual dysfunction. Additionally, the blog makes it easy for readers to find help from other sources, including links to Sexaholics Anonymous (SA) and The Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health.

Katehakis dedicates one to two hours a week to her blog in addition to her practice. She has written articles for the blog with topics ranging from overall sexual health to sexual addiction. Her articles, which she writes with the aid of Google Alerts, promote sexual education and well being.

The Internet can be a powerful tool for disseminating timely health information, Katehakis said. She said she hopes that education will help lower the negative stigma associated with sex so individuals feel more comfortable with their sexuality and that her blog will help make sex addiction something less shameful and more understood by our society.

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