Psychotherapist Sam Kendakur talks with Tammy about the intersections of sexual health and mental health. Listen in for nuanced conversations about the gray areas and messiness of consent; how to piece apart our own understandings of sexual pleasure, desire, and attraction; the impacts of stigma on sexual and gender identity and those who choose non-monogamous relationship styles. We learn about the unexpected impacts healthcare providers can have on the wellbeing of folks with marginalized sexual, gender, and racial identities, especially when there are stark differences between the provider and client’s lived experiences.
Higher Education Scholarship Opportunities for LGBTQ+ students listed at Edumed, Petersons, and gograd
Sam Kendakur has worked in the mental health field for the past 12 years in a variety of settings across college campuses, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, alternative peer support networks, clinics, institutes, and currently private clinical practice. He’s invested in creating spaces that make healing accessible and relevant to people from different realms of experience, especially those that inhabit marginalized spaces. The social structure and health care system have failed so many, and he tries to address and combat these shortcomings through a commitment to client-centered anti-oppression practices that honor that suffering is most often nested within inequitable and unjust systems and their consequences rather than individual lack. He specializes in working with the LGBTQIA community, BDSM and kink, race and ethnicity, trauma, and alternative relationship styles.
S3 Ep8: Mpox in California: A Personal Story and Public Health Perspective
Stephan Ferris, a Bay Area activist lawyer, received one of the first 40 reported diagnoses of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) after attending a Pride celebration in San Francisco, California. Here, Ferris sits down with host, Tammy Kremer, and Dr. Akanksha Vaidya, a clinical fellow responding to the current health crisis, to share his experience and discuss the need for improving treatment accessibility and provider education concerning a mpox diagnosis.
This is a follow-up on an episode we put out on June 1st of this year with Dr. Ina Park at a very different stage of the spread of mpox. With the US and the World Health Organization declaring this a public health emergency, Ferris and Dr. Vaidya use their respective lenses to reflect on representation of this disease in the media, transmission, and the stigma associated with those who receive a diagnosis. As commercial labs begin to provide greater testing capacity, the group discusses improving messaging about limited vaccine supply and other treatment options for groups most vulnerable and individuals experiencing moderate symptoms.
Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health.
Follow Coming Together for Sexual Health on Instagram and Twitter.
Stephan Ferris is an openly queer and activist lawyer who focuses on entertainment law with an emphasis on uplifting LGBTQ+ voices. Stephan is also the producer and co-host of the entertainment law podcast Reading is Fundamental. He volunteers with various Bay Area LGBTQI+ organizations and is on the board of directors for Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (“BALIF”), a community of LGBTQI+ legal professionals.
Dr. Akanksha Vaidya is a clinical fellow trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the California Prevention Training Center. She completed her medical degree at Cornell University and her residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. She came to UCSF in July 2020 for her Infectious Diseases Fellowship. Her research and professional interests include improving health equity and access to care for people with STIs and HIV.
S3 Ep7: Breaking Down STI Stigma with Dr. Ina Park & Courtney Brame
Courtney Brame, the founder of Something Positive for Positive People (SPFPP), sits down with guest-host Dr. Ina Park to discuss the ongoing need to foster spaces that destigmatize STI diagnoses. In the ninth year of his herpes (HSV-2) diagnosis, Courtney speaks on navigating life with the virus and what drove him to connect with people struggling with mental health issues as a result of their herpes status. What started as informally providing solidarity to those living with herpes, quickly became a podcast and platform for sharing the experiences of those battling societal stigma and self-shaming, creating pathways to disclosing their status and tools that can make waiting for a vaccine more manageable.
Courtney says that “sexual health is mental health.” He hopes to expand the mental health resources available to those living with herpes and use the collective stories of the SPFPP community to inform health care practices, especially the delivery of an HSV diagnosis. Courtney engages those living with a positive diagnosis and their allies to transform the stigma that often works to silence them.
Have any questions, concerns, or love letters? Send us a message on Instagram @comingtogetherpod or email us at comingtogetherpod@ucsf.edu. Don’t forget to leave us a review on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Courtney Brame (he/him) is the founder of Something Positive for Positive People, a 501c3 nonprofit organization highlighting the intersections of sexual health and mental health stigma. After discovering that many people diagnosed with herpes struggled with suicide ideation, Brame decided to interview those living with herpes and share their stories with other folks navigating herpes stigma. Something Positive for Positive People also works to give health care professionals tools they can use to provide anti-stigmatizing, identity validating, sex-positive health care. Courtney also hosts a podcast, called Something Positive for Positive People, where you can hear these stories and experiences directly.
This special episode features Dr. Ina Park discussing monkeypox: what it is, what’s the hype, and how worried (hint: not very) she is about the spread.
Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health.
Follow Coming Together for Sexual Health on Instagram and Twitter.
Dr. Ina Park, MS, is the medical director at the California Prevention Training Center. She is a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California San Francisco and a medical consultant in the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
California Guidelines for Suspected Gonorrhea Treatment Failure
Discusses treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhea and what clinicians should do in cases of potential treatment failures.
Use of Treponemal Immunoassays for Screening and Diagnosis of Syphilis
Guidance for medical providers and laboratories in California. Includes laboratory procedures and reporting, results interpretation, congenital syphilis, integration of HIV and other STI testing, partner management, serologic follow-up, public health reporting, and clinical consultation options.
S1 Ep6 Speaking Frankly: Fighting STIgma with humor & honesty w/Dr. Ina Park
In Dr. Ina Park’s new book, Strange Bedfellows, she helps readers understand the broad impact of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), while removing the unfair stigma. She speaks with us about the writing process, tackling sex ed with her own kids, and how stigma impacts mental and physical health.
S1 Ep5 Speaking Frankly: What’s driving the rise in Congenital Syphilis? w/ Dr. Plotzker
Congenital syphilis (CS) is up 900% in California since 2012. UC San Francisco’s Dr. Rosalyn Plotzker speaks with us about CS prevention and treatment and about the complex issues contributing to the spike, like systemic racism.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website, but we also recognize the right to privacy. Please accept or disable cookies for this website.
