SPFPP 358: The Power of Disclosing to a Friend
The Power Of Disclosing Your Herpes Status To A Friend
“Should I tell my friends about my herpes diagnosis?” is actually an uncommon question people ask me. It has come up recently perhaps because of the recent media attention mental health has gotten. Generally, people believe the only people who NEED to know about their herpes status are those they intend to have sexual contact with. While these are the only people who NEED to know, I think many of us who struggle with herpes have a need for others to know as well.
You get diagnosed and the first interaction about herpes is the one between you and your doctor or the person delivering the news. You may not quite know what you need, but in most cases, it wasn’t what you got from the person delivering your diagnosis. 9 times out of 10, it’s likely that when getting your diagnosis, you might even space out as this wave of emotion drowns out any existing logic, making the thoughts pour out of that subconscious system of beliefs you’ve held about herpes, people with it, the stigma, and STIs in general. This flood of stigma coats all the senses upon diagnosis and all you’re left with is maybe seeing a distorted image of the person in front of you, or if you’re on the phone just blankness in unfamiliarity of the familiar setting you’re in when you get the call. This is traumatic!
The trauma of an STI diagnosis is not what we hear people talk about if the circumstances around acquiring it are themselves not traumatic. This may have a person thinking it isn’t a big deal and the inner conflict of stigma will make a person think to themselves, “I’m not telling anyone about this.” If we have THAT kind of relationship to ourselves, the energy behind that, the burden, and the weight of the emotion absolutely impacts our behavior. It’s as I’ve said for years: Sexual health is mental health, in that how a person perceives their sexuality is a major part of their identity—especially when a change in status occurs.
Now, things that never had to be thought about come to the surface and you’re stuck with wondering how this could’ve happened to you. Well, who are you having that conversation with? Who’s receiving that statement to validate that it happened because you’re human so that you can obtain the experience of having your experience normalized and your identity aside from your sexuality seen?
In yoga, there’s this concept that there are five selves, and herpes is an example of five ways to view its impact on us:
Annamaya Kosha—the physical body
Physically, we have the herpes diagnosis. What this means is that our physical body is susceptible to outbreaks.
Pranamaya Kosha—the life energy body and breath
Energetically, while identification occurs with the genital area where we associate sexual energy, what happens is we lock this whole aspect of self to this part of our being. This creates limitations on identification, which shapes our behavior and beliefs.
Manomaya Kosha—the mind body
Our mind begins to create these thoughts as a result of feelings and memories that create an imagined future about what life will look like with a herpes diagnosis and this shapes how you perceive yourself and experience the world.
Vijnanamaya Kosha—the intuition body
Our intuition makes us believe that we know how the world is going to view and relate to us. Based off how we understand our friend groups and inner circles, here’s where we may feel disconnected from ourselves and others due to isolation and believing no one will love us now.
Anandamaya Kosha—the bliss body (or your true nature)
And finally, with attachment to our sexuality as our identity, the bliss body or true nature of ourselves becomes distant because we’ve only known our sexual selves.
I felt like I had to break that down but I want to be sure to explain this in a way that we have a lens of science and spirituality through yoga to view this from. From that same lens of the Koshas, what disclosing to a friend does for each is or can be a start to:
Annamaya Kosha—receiving touch and shared physical space or grounding
Pranamaya Kosha—expand the sense of self outside sexual identity into the fullness of being
Manomaya Kosha—challenges your thoughts and emotions about your diagnosis
Vijnanamaya Kosha—reveals a sense of greater connection empathetically
Anandamaya Kosha—interconnects all these layers and re-know joy and love through self
So in more simple terms, when you tell your friend(s), you really challenge all of those beliefs you have about yourself and are reminded who you are beyond your sexual self. That identity is hands down so insignificant to us, but we heavily identify with it simply because of how the world tells us to obsess over sex and sexuality to the point it IS who we are.
When I speak to people with herpes, I let them decompress the excess energy of being overwhelmed by a diagnosis. Ultimately, to address all these aspects of the self per yoga philosophy, just a conversation with a friend alone will shake things up. And if you need more than that, this can be an entry point to seeking professional help with a therapist. And by the way, I’m a yoga therapist in training, bringing a yoga therapeutic approach to supporting people with herpes stigma. So if you want to work with me while I’m under my mentors to complete the training, check it out and see if it’s a fit.
For more and examples of how disclosing to a friend can be supportive, check out my podcast episode about the subject. Also, reach out if you want to be a guest, we’re attempting to make SPFPP into a virtual show in the evenings on the last Tuesday of the month. So stay tuned for updates to SPFPP.
Article source: https://www.pornhub.com/sex/disclosing-friend/
Episode 358 Transcript
The Power of Telling a Friend
00:00:00 Courtney Brame: Welcome to Something Positive for Positive People. I'm Courtney Brame. Something Positive for Positive People is a 501c3 nonprofit organization supporting people navigating herpes stigma. Today, what I want to talk to you about is the power of telling a friend about your status. I don't mean, you know, disclosing to them because uh not in the same way that you would to a partner, right? I just mean exercising the practice of talking about a thing that you know is affecting you outside the scope of just your sex life because you think that your sex life alone is what having herpes impacts. But as we always say, sexual health is mental health. And the way that you feel about yourself sexually is very much going to impact how you move uh behaviorally, which comes from your beliefs about yourself. It comes from the feelings that you have about yourself and it comes from the thoughts that you have. those collective thoughts that just run rampant. Is that the word? Rampant. Yeah, I think so. Uh in your mind it’s earlier than 5:00 a.m. I woke up and I… it's so like… I needed to say the things that I'm saying in regards to this before I lose it and something else comes up because uh many of the conversations that I have been having with people, I don't know if y'all know this, but I do offer uh just support one-on-one calls at a donation base.
00:03:21 Courtney Brame: You give whatever and we just talk for 30 minutes. Whether that be you venting or if you have a specific question that you want more of a personalized approach to whatever, however you want to move forward with it, like that's something that I offer on the Something Positive for Positive People website as well. But uh the power of disclosing to a friend I am low risk. What do I mean by that? When I say I'm low risk, I mean I'm a stranger. I'm a stranger to you. You're a stranger to me. And as strangers, what happens is you might feel much more… it's easier for you to find someone who has herpes and then to say the things to me about your experience, about how much it sucks, how much you wish you had some support around you. uh you know, and it goes to my DMs. Like I was supposed to be off of social media for October, but I didn't.
00:04:36 Courtney Brame: So, um I just had too many things that I agreed to that needed to be promoted, that needed to be shared and talked about. Um so, that wasn't really good timing for me to do my social media break. Um, but in the time I was off, and we'll talk about that later, there were a lot of good things. But, um, you DM me and you say all of the things that you need. You're expressing your needs to a complete stranger, right? Maybe you feel like, you know, you listen to the podcast, you follow me on social media, and then what happens is there's this limbo. this limbo between I got the message and then am I gonna respond to it? Will I respond to it? Will I even see it? Right? Because people when I do reply, that's one of the first things. Oh my god, I didn't expect you to answer it. So, what did you expect?
Low-Risk vs. High-Risk Disclosures
00:05:34 Courtney Brame: Um, and I asked that because I think almost everyone has responded with that. So, you reach out. You share that you have needs. You share that you're struggling with something. Why is it so much easier to be vulnerable with a stranger than it is your friend? I think I have an answer to that, but I want to let you sit with it for a second. If you had an answer for that question, what would it be? Why is it so much easier to disclose to a stranger than it is to a friend? So, you send the message, I get the message in my inbox, my request. Let's use Instagram for example. It's in my requested, you know, items folder, right? Um, and Well, I'm not, you know, active. I'm not really in my messages because I'm doing other things, right? Uh and then I finally get to it, you know, like three days later.
00:06:47 Courtney Brame: What's happening in those three days? I always wonder. But uh in that time just I think about when we disclose to someone someone we like someone that we're much more uh invested in and how that there's that wait period of you have a desired outcome if you're disclosing to someone that you have sexual interest and that wait period is so hard right you waiting on them to respond. If you sent a text or before a date, um you don't know what they're going to say. You don't know what kind of research they're going to do. You don't know if they're interested. Right? So, that person is more high-risk. Now, I give you that because you have your, um… you're directly hoping for a particular outcome with said person, whether that be another date, whether that be to have sex, whether that be for an ongoing long-term relationship. There's a need that's attached to this ask, right? And even with that, I think that people are because it's so high risk, much more strategic about how they go about disclosing how they go about asking for what it is that they need, you know.
00:08:13 Courtney Brame: And our friends, our friends should never… I want y'all to really sit with this. Our friends should never be high-risk to where we have to try and like sell them on being our friend… the same way that we would someone that we're dating or want to date… have to sell ourselves in order to be in a relationship with them. And going back to the high-risk/low-risk thing, if I don't respond to you, you might make an excuse for it. You might go, "Oh, well, he's busy." Or, "Oh, maybe he didn't see it." So, I kind of get that grace, but also I get the most of you in the sense that you might tell me about the darkest struggles that you've had with your herpes diagnosis mentally. You may tell me how it's affecting your behavior. You may tell me that you struggle with dating and that that's really getting to you. There's all these aspects of your um you're sharing with me about your status as this low-risk person because you know I have herpes.
00:09:29 Courtney Brame: You know I'm open about it. You know that this is my line of work. So it probably just feels much safer to do. Um safer meaning low-risk that I'm probably not going to say anything that's going to make you feel sad or bad. And I welcome it because it's great practice. But I gotta tell y'all, there's nothing that I can do for you that you should not be able to get from your friendships. What my goal is for supporting people through stigma, part of it looks like getting you to a place where you can confidently be vulnerable with the people around you, being real. You know, I used to believe prior to going into this podcast in 2017 that suicide and suicide ideation was about sadness. Uh, come 2020, 2021, I learned from a grief counselor that it was more about loss of control. And here we are, you know, all these years later, that never really sat right with me either. And in 2024 coming to the end of it, I know that it's really about identity and validation.
00:10:46 Courtney Brame: So if identity validation is associated with uh withdrawal from life, identity validation must be the deposit for life. And I was trying to be cool with that. But just meaning more life when you are seen, when you are experienced, when people connect with you, when you feel connected to people, when you feel connected to community, when you feel like you are able to be who you are, that is validating to your identity. This is how we fight the the suicides. This is how we fight depression. So many of us are invalidating our own identity and even with that like not putting the same amount of weight onto you know the people that we feel like we can't tell things maybe because we don't so much value their opinion but that's really the only difference that I can see between like me and a friend like you very much value the identity that you've established with those people and it's easier to, you know, start from scratch and do nothing or work from, you know, an unknown.
Herpes Stigma and its Various Forms
00:12:05 Courtney Brame: I don't even want to say that because some people really have a fear of the unknown. Some people are definitely afraid to reach out and ask for help or share any vulnerability. And by the time they do, it's often happening because a very difficult experience occurred. And you might be seeking some form of help, some form of support because damage was done. And I don't think that anyone really should have to wait so long before they get the help they need; or seek out the help that they think they need. But what kind of friendships do y'all got? where you worried about losing your friend because you're dealing with something that's challenging? And the reason that I'm bringing this up, I did this podcast episode way earlier um talking about my own experience with disclosing to a friend and I actually interviewed her too. Um but the reason I keep bringing this up is because it's been coming up to me. Um, and yeah, I try to encourage people to lean into their friendships, lean into their support system.
00:13:28 Courtney Brame: Because one thing about having herpes is of course the stigma associated with it. And I think when people just say stigma, they don't really know what that means. Oh, because of the stigma. Okay. Well, what is a stigma doing to you? Because I'm experiencing herpes stigma. The direct way that I experience it is my own interpretation of what people believe about me and my relationship with herpes and what that looks like. Like do you know how many times I hear things like “Courtney might… Courtney may harm women because he's attractive and he talks about having herpes and all women have herpes and he's got all these women that follow him”. That's annoying because it's not the kind of business I'm running. And you know, ain't nobody talking about, you know, that side of stigma. Yeah. Great problem for Courtney to have. But like, has it occurred to anyone that maybe that's a little bit of a frustration or a little disrespectful to the fact that I'm in the relationship?
00:14:41 Courtney Brame: For someone else, stigma looks like they go home and they are doing okay, they're doing well, they've accepted their diagnosis, you know, they go through the dating and disclosing process. Some people are okay with it, some people aren't. And then they turn on the nighttime TV or something on Netflix and then there's a herpes joke. Now this person is cutting themselves. There's someone who is in a relationship, a loving relationship, been together for eight years only with each other, goes to the doctor for their annual checkup. Doctor just casually mentions, "Oh, hey, you know, you I noticed you haven't been tested for STI. You want to do a full panel?" "Yeah, okay. Yeah, test me for everything." The doctor tests them. They come back positive for herpes. They go home. They are deathly afraid of telling the person that they're in a relationship with because they think that even though they've been together with this person for 8 years, they believe that the other person's going to not believe that they've been faithful in their relationship.
00:16:01 Courtney Brame: Or let's say that they do tell them and then the other person like, "Well, I get cold sores. I don't get anything down there, oh, have you been cheating or uh I don't know. I need to really think about this relationship now." Right? Like so much of living with herpes is just waking up to the reality that we need to wake up to reality. Herpes for me has really been a gateway into healing. And it's been through being willing to examine stigma for what it is and having that curiosity that I've been interrogating stigma for almost eight years now. And 8 years in, stigma for me looks significantly different than stigma for you. Looks significantly different from stigma for my girlfriend. It looks significantly different for someone who, because my girlfriend doesn't have herpes. So stigma looks different even for people who don't have it who are in a relationship with people who do. So, in disclosing to a friend what's happened when and I guess I can kind of “I don't like that”. I don't like to tell people what to do, but I can absolutely tell you what I know has worked.
What Do We Expect from Our Friends?
00:17:50 Courtney Brame: Um, and the reason I don't like telling people what to do is because I think we all have different desired outcomes. So you might be wanting to tell a friend and or in wanting to tell a friend, you are expecting the worst, right? Like we, we try to prepare for the worst. And this is really some misfortunate conditioning because that's not how we're supposed to be, especially with our friends. Why are we expecting the worst of our friends? Why do we expect them to tell other people our business? Why do we expect to not be supported or challenged or celebrated? Because that's what friends do. Friends support us. They challenge us. They celebrate us. You know, we want to be supported, challenged, or celebrated. And the best part is they know us. So when we do come to them with this vulnerable thing like we are the pioneers of vulnerability because we are initiating a first time conversation with people that they often have never had to have not just with our friends but even with potential partners.
00:19:09 Courtney Brame: Right? When we open up and tell someone that we are living with herpes, this is really about vulnerability, it's an extension, an invitation for emotional connection because we often do it like it's a hard thing. A lot of people don't know that they would be able to tell someone if they had um herpes themselves. They don't know if they'd be able to. They don't think they got it in. And we really don't know until we try. like I I can scroll through your Instagram, your social media, but most people like make a fake one because they don't want to be associated with the herpes organization regardless of, you know, my work being with men's emotional wellness and in yoga therapy and yeah, I have a podcast and do advocacy, but I also teach medical students how to give jingle exams. Like that is a part of the work that I do, teaching people how to communicate about their sexual health and then relationships. And for whatever reason, like that small aspect of ourselves, herpes and herpes stigma gets just completely blown up into becoming more than just you being a person.
00:20:47 Courtney Brame: like you being a whole ass person with a whole ass life story, a whole ass identity, family, your relationships around you, your community, your work, career path, all of these things become just null and void just because you get herpes. And that ain't that ain't how this supposed to work, y'all. We now have not just a pathway to connecting with someone, not just something to put out there to quickly rule out if you're dating someone who's not your person. But we also have this pathway to healing. And I don't mean healing hurts. I don't mean healing, you know, just looking at one aspect of yourself because herpes does activate several other things. And I don't even want to say it activates, but it's just more so like there's patterns, there's behaviors, there's beliefs, there's emotions that drive who we are. And when we have herpes, we have to take a look at that because now that… that shame piece comes in and the shame is a lot more difficult to deal with on your own than it is to deal with in community or with other people, but we don't really feel that way.
00:22:28 Courtney Brame: Like we power through it and stay to ourselves. We don't want people to know that we have this shameful thing. We don't want people that we don't have to tell to know this about us. And that's because we give it too much power. We really do. And yeah, I can't do anything for you that your friends aren't capable of doing. And my work is to get you to that place where you can take the power back from it and into your entirety of being and see yourself outside of just being what your herpage diagnosis tells you that you are or what you tell yourself your herpage diagnosis tells you you are. Because I regret not saying anything to my friend sooner. I don't know what my life trajectory would have been. I probably wouldn't be doing this podcast because I wouldn't need to create a thing encouraging people to tell their friends because I would have told my friends and it would have just been I wouldn't have seen the suffering.
00:23:43 Courtney Brame: I wouldn't have seen the the people who the 36% of people who have suicide ideation after because of the herpes diagnosis. I probably would also make a lot more money because I would be working. I probably wouldn't have, you know, felt that called to some greater purpose. But, you know, I'm happy. I'm happy with where I'm at. I'm happy with who I am. I'm happy with what I'm doing. Yeah, I got a lot of jobs and you know, some pay more than others, but I'm where I'm supposed to be. And that's hopefully supporting people to the point where they feel empowered to do more than just throw a message to a stranger. Like, I want y'all to engage with each other. I want y'all to experience community in the same way that I have in small doses, right? Because this is really… this is healing. This is powerful. But I need y'all to know that.
Healing Through Stigma Minimization and Upcoming Events
00:24:49 Courtney Brame: I need y'all to believe that. And there's a ton of resources out here. There's all these different podcasts. There's a lot of different books and social media. um herpes education advocates. You know, I think that all of the efforts are leading towards an outcome where stigma is just relevant, you know, and that's why I push for this sexual health is mental health. Stigma minimization, right? I try and throw s*** to the walls and see what sticks. And I'm even at a place where I'm getting, you know, people outside the herpes community involved because we're talking about herpes disclosure. Um, not discuss… discussion. Damn it. We're talking about sexual health communication. We're talking about getting people to identify what their pleasure and safety needs are and then give them practice communicating that with a partner. And that's what's become the Safe Sex Expo, which I want to shout out to the Little Nest Fund for supporting us.
00:26:01 Courtney Brame: Um, we got a uh grant that allows us to run. I don't know how many I can squeeze out of this thing, but the previous Safe Sex Expo, the cost was $5,000. It was around $5,000. My goal is to stay under that between presenters, the venue, the snacks, the food, um, and the marketing for it. Everything that went into it was about $5,000. So, um, yeah, we got at least three expos. Um, and the reason we're doing them in 2025 is because I got to get some, um, I got to close out some things for 2024 before um moving on to something new. Like I need to just go through and clean up some things and decide how I'm going to run Something Positive podcast moving forward. What I'm going to do for Selfed, which I am getting the opportunity to live out my dream and make a presentation/workshop on what the high value man is the emotionally… really intelligent one. And this is with Shag.
00:27:19 Courtney Brame: Uh it's a soy shop in um in uh New York. I think there… I don't know how many locations they have, but I know that they're in Brooklyn. And I know that the workshop is going to be live at the Moxy Hotel in Williamsburg. Um, so yeah, if you are interested, I'm going to be talking about vulnerability uh through the examples we have in anime characters. So, uh, yeah, I'm hyped and this will be recorded. So, if you know somebody who might be interested in that, um, I want to make it a discussion. I want it to be engaging. Um, and yeah, the purpose is to really look at emotional vulnerability and intelligence through the fans of some popular anime characters uh some of my favorite anime characters. So, I'm in the process of promoting it now and that's going to be on Sunday, November 17th. So, uh yeah, that's that's it. And I'll link that in here.
00:28:21 Courtney Brame: Of course, this cat wants to play right now while I'm recording a podcast at 5 a.m. This is amazing. Okay, so if you hear some rumbling in the background, cat's playing. Um yeah, I am closing this out like I want to just make sure even if I emphasize it. Uh I want to be sure that the point is made that we got to get to a place where we can at least make that choice on whether or not to tell friends and challenge ourselves on why we wouldn't. Why wouldn't you tell someone close to you that you're struggling with something and you would like their support on it? Maybe you'd like their advice. Like if you think you have judgmental friends, I imagine that you are a lot more judgmental of yourself. And what better way to test a friendship than with something that the way that they respond to it is going to tell you whether or not this is a person that should even stay in your life.
00:29:21 Courtney Brame: If you worried about you telling a friend, “oh, you know, I got herpes. It's something I've been dealing with for a while”. And they laugh at you. First off, I don't think we got those kinds of friends. I don't think that people, you know, welcome those types of friendships anymore to themselves, especially if you listen to this podcast. So, your friends shouldn't laugh at you. Your friends shouldn't uh say mean things. Your friends shouldn't ghost you. And if they do, these ain't your friends. these people that you should have lost acquaintanceship with forever ago. You just didn't have a reason to look at the friendship. So this is a reason to start interrogating everything with curiosity. So even as we look at herpes stigma, we begin to check our emotions surrounding that. like this is a great place to start. You listen to the podcast. That's dope.
00:30:27 Courtney Brame: But y'all, I say the same thing 400 something times. You come here and you know, we have a conversation with someone or maybe there's an episode uh oh, excuse me. Maybe there's an episode where I happen to have something, you know, at a different angle to talk about. But all in all, y'all, like we got to be able to tell our friends because that's who's going to be able to uh to validate our identity. That's who knows us. When you tell a friend, "Yeah, I got herpes. I'm" and they cut you off and they go, "What they got to do with anything? So what? Whatever. Like am I supposed to treat you different?” you know, and I've gotten some of the best and most unexpected responses from people around me who I've told and I am absolutely grateful for the kind of support that I've gotten, especially for deciding to be open about it. You know, even family and friends just being like, "You sure you want to do that?" I don't think I gave him the chance to to to ask me
00:31:40 Courtney Brame: that. I just did it. and this happened to work out for me. So, what's your… what's your Something Positive for Positive People? You know, what's… what's on the other side of this herpes diagnosis for you? Is it a family? Is it a connected relationship? And maybe let's go beyond that. Let's not just look at, oh, you know, I want to get laid consistently or I want to have a relationship. I want to have a family. What does that look like? What does that mean to you? instead of getting laid, like why don't we why don't we focus on having the kind of sex that we want to be having. What does that look like? Because what'll happen is we'll attach, you know, this idea of, oh, I want to get laid to just the outcome of getting laid. We ain't talking about whether or not it's good.
00:32:30 Courtney Brame: We ain't talking about whether or not it's consensual. We ain't talking about whether or not it's something that is going to be healthy. You know, and I know how that sounds, but we need to be more specific. We need to be willing to sit with and identify, you know, what is great sex. What is good sex? I want to have great sex. I don't want to just have sex. I've had sex. And in that, there's been bad sex. There's been okay sex. But the good sex that only comes when you're willing and able to interrogate your relationship to sex with curiosity. Relationships. You shouldn't just want a relationship cuz people just get into a relationship just to say they are in a relationship. Be with somebody who has no desire to be in a relationship. Maybe you are the person that don't want to be in a relationship. But what does the relationship look like?
Yoga Therapy and the End Goal of Support
00:33:31 Courtney Brame: What does a healthy and fun and, you know, inspirational and cohesive relationship look like where you're compatible with somebody? I ain't just I ain't just talking. Y'all write this. Write this down and ask yourself these questions. See what answers you get. Find out what comes up for you. What is there to learn? Right? Like herpes and herpes stigma has brought us here to be able to go where we want to go. Like you ain't want ain't nobody want to be here. I ain't want to be here. But this is where I'm at, right? And I'm meeting y'all where y'all at so that y'all can go by a choice in the direction which you would like to go. So I I don't have like the answer for how everyone needs to tell their friends or you know what the motivations are like that's something that you got to reflect on and if you need help with that I'm happy to offer uh these are peer one-on-one support calls and I I keep telling y this I'm a yoga therapist in training.
00:34:49 Courtney Brame: We just finished the longest module, y'all. And I'm so happy we did the pain care awareness course, which um is so different than being trauma informed, but it's inclusive to that. I think that trauma informed is very much avoidant of activating or triggering a particular group of people, which leads to the generalization of these groups of people and just this fear of engagement. Whereas pain care awareness is very much more engaging. It gives you language and an understanding of how to be able to engage people on the topic of something that is too arguably stigmatized, which is pain, chronic pain, uh knee pain, back pain, whatever kind of pain there is. So, uh we just finished that and I'm done with the foundations in December this year. I got two clients for my case study. Um I do need one more. So if you're hearing this and you're somebody who has a time commitment to really like go into this and you know take the approach of identifying your own imbalances especially with herpes stigma because I want this is where I'm going to be applying it.
00:36:07 Courtney Brame: Um, and I'm in pursuit of grants that will allow for me to maybe see 10 clients a month for yoga therapy. Um, so yeah, I'm working, I'm working on this. I'm in the program. It's even though I'm finishing the foundations course, like I'ma have to get a total of 500 more hours. So the next two years are going to be looking a little uh… a little busy, a little busy for your boy. But I kept my part-time job teaching genital exams. Um, I'm running uh Something Positive. I'm running Selfed, which I'm going to be much more strategic about in terms of how much time I commit to putting in that. Um, but that's something I care about. Uh, the emotional wellness symposium, the Black Men's Emotional Wellness Symposium is November 30th, which is a Saturday and we're going to go from 10:00 a.m. to 3 PM Eastern time and start a little bit earlier. I'll be leading a yoga class if anyone wants to join and see what that's about.
00:37:09 Courtney Brame: But tell people like if you are connected to any mental health organizations, if you know men, you know, black men especially who uh can benefit from some conversations deconstructing the high value man. We're going to be about spirituality. We're going to talk about fitness. We're going to talk about uh integrity, leadership, and we're also going to talk about vulnerability and emotional um yeah, emotional vulnerability. I'm going to have a conversation in relation to that whole anime thing that I'm going to be doing a presentation on. Um this is just going to be a conversation. So the self black men's emotional wellness symposium is just it's a day of conversations related to the topics the subcategories of uh deconstructing the high value man. All right. So, tell your friends, "All right, tell your friends, I'm dealing with this. Here's what I need from you." But do so after you've identified what it is that you need. If you need help with that, again, one-on-one support calls, make a donation, and schedule a call.
00:38:15 Courtney Brame: We talk for 30 minutes. Um, whatever you need, like we got you. So, there's an intake form. You talk to me directly. Um, and then, yeah, yoga therapy. If you're wanting some type of action thing, uh you can listen to the yoga therapy episode. But essentially what we do is identify your mental, physical, spiritual, emotional baseline and then restore whatever imbalances there are from that and work towards whatever the goal is. Um, the two clients I'm seeing now, a lot of it is going to be talking for them. A lot of it is listening for me, then creating and incorporating movement, breathing, and um, more, you know, just creating the space for what needs to be communicated to be communicated. Uh, so, and I ain't going to put their business out there. So yeah, if you're curious about yoga therapy, uh check out the yoga therapy tab on the website. Reach out to me. Um I'm taking one more serious client so that I can fulfill the needs for my case study. Uh so yeah, if you go to the yoga therapy tab, you read it, you listen to the video or watch the video, and if it feels like something that is calling to you, please I encourage you to reach out. All right, so go disclose to your friends, tell them what's up, and I wish y'all the best. Till next time.
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