S3 E10: How Identity, Trauma, and Relationship Structure Affect Pleasure and Consent with Psychotherapist Sam Kendakur

S3 E10: How Identity, Trauma, and Relationship Structure Affect Pleasure and Consent with Psychotherapist Sam Kendakur

CW: Sexual Trauma

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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.

Download the transcript for this episode here.

Resources:

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 Ep9: Abortion and Reproductive Justice Across State Lines

S3 Ep9: Abortion and Reproductive Justice Across State Lines

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In this episode, Dr. Fleming sits down with host Tammy to discuss what she sees as providers’ role in supporting patients, now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. They review the multitude of situations in which a pregnancy is not optimal and how abortion stigma is one of the biggest barriers to medically safe abortion. At the core of her work, Dr. Fleming seeks to ensure her patients are empowered and find joy in their own reproductive health decisions.

Download the transcript of this episode.

Follow Dr. Mai Fleming on Twitter.

Resources:

CAPTC-Related Training and Resources: 

S3 E5: Trauma-Informed Pregnancy Care with Becca Schwartz, LCSW

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Dr. Mai Fleming has a breadth of experience working in primary care settings and providing reproductive health services across the gender spectrum. Her work includes telemedicine abortion services via Hey Jane. As a family doctor, she helps people consider reproductive health and family planning within the broader context of their lives. In taking an expansive view of what reproductive care encompasses—including fertility counseling, abortion, and gender-affirming hormone therapy—Dr. Fleming works to help her patients meet their goals.

S3 Ep1: Disability and Sexual Health

S3 Ep1: Disability and Sexual Health

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CW: Ableism

Download the transcript of this episode.

Follow Andrew Gurza on Instagram.

Resources: 

Disability After Dark

Hot, Wet, and Shaking: How I Learned to Talk about Sex by Kaleigh Trace 

Purchase or financially support The Joystick: The World’s First Accessible Sex Toy by Get Bump’n 

Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health.

Follow Coming Together for Sexual Health on Instagram and Twitter.

Andrew Gurza is an award-winning Disability Awareness Consultant and the Chief Disability Officer and Co-founder ofBump’n, a sex toy company for and by disabled people. Their work has been featured on BBC, CBC, Daily Xtra, Gay Times UK, Huffington Post, The Advocate, Everyday Feminism, Mashable, Out.com, and several anthologies. They were the subject of an award-winning National Film Board of Canada Documentary “Picture This.” Andrew has guested on a number of podcasts including Dan Savage’s Savage Love and Cameron Esposito’s Queery. They have spoken all over the world on sex, disability and what it means to be a Queer Cripple. They are also the host of Disability After Dark: The Podcast Shining a Bright Light on Disability Stories which won a Canadian Podcast Award in 2021, a Queerty Award, and was chosen as an Honoree at the 2020 Webby Awards. The show is available on all platforms. Andrew is also the creator of the viral hashtag #DisabledPeopleAreHot. 

S2 Speaking Frankly Bonus Episode! Asking for a Friend w/ Dr Rosalyn Plotzker

Speaking Frankly Bonus Episode! Asking for a Friend w/ Dr Rosalyn Plotzker

If you work in sexual health, you have probably had the experience of becoming the “sexpert” for your friends and family. In this special episode we have gathered some (but by no means all!) of the questions Dr. Rosalyn Plotzker has received from her various circles to try and demystify at least some of these aspects of sexual health.

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S2 Ep7 Speaking Frankly: Dr. Paul Nash on the intersections of aging, discrimination, and sexual health Pt 2

S2 Ep7 Speaking Frankly: Dr. Paul Nash on the intersections of aging, discrimination, and sexual health Pt 2

We continue our conversation with Dr. Paul Nash, Associate Professor in Gerontology at USC.

In Part 2 of this discussion about ageism, host Duran Rutledge and Paul dive into the harmful stigma surrounding sex and aging, particularly for people at the intersections of various identities and life experiences.

S2 Ep6 Speaking Frankly: Dr. Paul Nash on the intersections of aging, discrimination, and sexual health Pt 1

S2 Ep6 Speaking Frankly: Dr. Paul Nash on the intersections of aging, discrimination, and sexual health Pt 1

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Paul Nash, Associate Professor in Gerontology at USC. His research spans over a decade and focuses on ageism, discrimination, sexual health, and the built environment.

He partners with several non-profit organizations on his research into HIV and aging as well as ageism and intergenerational communication. Paul currently serves as a Commissioner on the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV, and he consults with the World Health Organization on ageism. He is active in teaching and recently published the book, Critical Questions for Ageing Societies.

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CAPTC Podcast—Coming Together for Sexual Health

CAPTC Podcast—Coming Together for Sexual Health

We speak with a diversity of voices about the vast dimensions to what it means to have and create good sexual health.

Join us, and let’s come together for sexual health!

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S2 Ep4 Speaking Frankly: Why sex positivity can transform healthcare with JaDawn Wright

S2 Ep4 Speaking Frankly: Why sex positivity can transform healthcare with JaDawn Wright

“Sex positivity” has become quite a buzzy phrase in sexual health and advocacy spaces in the last decade. But what does that actually mean in practice? Today we will talk with JaDawn Wright of the Pacific Aids Education training Center, about just that.

JaDawn is the Deputy Director of the organization and a long-term trainer in the world of sexual health. She tells us why creating healthcare experiences that are welcoming, nonjudgmental, and unbiased can go so far in helping us realize positive health outcomes.

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S2 Ep2 Speaking Frankly: Supporting youths’ choice to parent with Dr. Aisha Mays

S2 Ep2 Speaking Frankly: Supporting youths’ choice to parent with Dr. Aisha Mays

Dr. Aisha Mays is a Family Physician who focuses on Adolescent Medicine. She is the Founder and Medical Director of the Dream Youth Clinic of Roots Community Health Center, in Oakland, California — a youth-led, youth-engaged adolescent clinic co-located within Oakland’s two youth shelters.

Dr. Mays’ work centers on adolescent reproductive health, reproductive justice for highly vulnerable youth, and the health risks associated with childhood commercial sexual exploitation. Her research focuses on exploring reproductive justice barriers and supporting sexual health for youth.

On this episode, we talk with Dr. Mays about her important work.

S2 Ep1 Speaking Frankly: Welcoming the new CAPTC Director, Dana Cropper

S2 Ep1 Speaking Frankly: Welcoming the new CAPTC Director, Dana Cropper

Dana Cropper recently took the helm of the California Prevention Training Center as its new Director, after Alice Gandelman’s retirement. Dana previously served as Director of Education at HealthHIV.

In this debut episode of Speaking Frankly season two, we talk with Dana about her new position, why Oprah and Sojourner Truth are two of her heroes, and why she thinks to reduce stigma, we must each engage in deep and ongoing self-reflection “about how we navigate through the world”.