• The state of intimacy can occur in healthy and unhealthy ways. Healthy sexuality may not even involve genital sexuality. For example, physical intimacy can occur without emotional, intellectual, or spiritual intimacy being a part of the relationship
• The capacity to be intimate includes abilities such as trust, honesty, vulnerability, self-disclosure, response to the other's self-disclosure, mutuality, courage to take risks, awareness of the needs of the self and the other, and communication skills.
• A healthy person will be able to make a healthy choices about what kind of intimacy are appropriate in a given relationship. They will know and accept the boundaries between the kinds of intimacy.
• An unhealthy person cannot make these healthy choices because they allow their needs in one area to be confused with their needs in another. For example, a person with deep needs for emotional intimacy may confuse those with needs for physical intimacy.