WE BELIEVE IN OPEN, HONEST CONVERSATIONS…
We believe in fostering deeper personal understanding about sexuality and relationships. Our goal is to provide information that is inclusive, innovative, research-based, and accessible. We also want you to have fun and not be afraid to ask the hard questions. Let’s work and grow together.
Kris Gowen
L. Kris Gowen, PhD, EdM, has been a sexuality educator and researcher for over 25 years. As a child, she learned very little about sexual health from her parents – when she was four she got a book called the Wonderful Story of How You Were Born, and then her mother took her to the doctor to get on birth control before she headed off to Stanford University as an undergraduate. Feeling that her school-based sexuality education was equally inadequate –focusing more on anatomy than the information about relationships and pleasure she wanted – It became her quest to help develop quality sexuality education.
After receiving her Master of Education from Harvard University Graduate School of Education and her Doctorate from Stanford School of Education, she taught Human Sexuality and Women’s Reproductive Health to university students. Kris was continually surprised at how many young adults lacked basic knowledge of the reproductive system, and how they were eager for open discussions about communicating effectively in relationships. So, she wrote Sexual Decisions: The Ultimate Teen Guide, unique in its addressing of both the biology and relational aspects of sexuality.
Kris has been studying the intersections of sexuality and technology since the mid-1990s, when she was a sexpert in an AOL chatroom for teenagers. There she learned from the young people she interacted with online; she discovered how “cybersex” (before pictures!) could impact a young person just as much as sexual intercourse, and how much young people craved answers to questions about relationships. Today, Kris presents on different intersections of sex and technology from sexting to online dating to sex robots. In 2018, she released a revision to her guide for educators, A Guide to Teaching about Online Sexually Explicit Media: The Basics, in response to her community wanting more evidence-based strategies about how to address pornography in the classroom.
Leah Haas
Leah Haas, LCSW, has been passionate about having open and honest conversations about sexuality for as long as she can remember. She’s been working in sex education for the past 13+ years, first as an AmeriCorps member and now with the State of Oregon administering a statewide, middle school curriculum. She’s trained hundreds of teachers, peer educators, and served thousands of middle school aged youth though this program. Leah honed her skills and expertise developing and delivering trainings, and developing lessons.
Leah obtained a Master's of Social Work (MSW) with a specialty in clinical social work from Portland State University in 2017. During her graduate internship at a high school, she started the school’s first LGBTQ+ therapy support group. She also interned at Providence’s Intensive Outpatient Unit where she facilitated the anxiety and mindfulness therapy groups using a variety of approaches including qi gong, yoga, meditation, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).
Leah began providing individual and couples counseling through a therapy agency she co-founded called Inner Awareness Therapy. She specializes in supporting clients address sexuality and gender related concerns and mental health diagnosis including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. She incorporates somatic therapy, mindfulness, and attachment theory when guiding the therapeutic process.