Podcast Summary: Something Positive for Positive People – Ep. 386: Help!

Host: Courtney W. Brame
Release Date: September 25, 2025

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode is a candid update from Courtney W. Brame on the current work, challenges, and forward momentum of Something Positive for Positive People (SPFPP). Courtney shares organizational updates, reflects on a recent educational workshop, explores the complexities of herpes stigma and language, and puts out a call for community connection and support—whether through participation, resource-sharing, or collaborative opportunities.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. SPFPP Organizational Updates

• Website Overhaul:
  • Major improvements for accessibility and navigation.
  • New men’s herpes support group and curated resources for men, integrating former emotional wellness offerings.
  • Gratitude to the graphic designer Jenny for helping streamline the site.
• Support Offerings:
  • Weekly groups for men and women (Mondays, 7:30 PM ET); attendance requires a vetting support call and a donation per session.
  • Groups are gendered by demand and attendance patterns, with alternative resources for those preferring different options.
• Courtney’s Professional Development:
  • Ongoing yoga therapy training (certification expected in 2026), influencing SPFPP’s holistic and nervous-system-centered support approaches.

2. Workshop Recap: Herpes & Stigma Education

• Collaboration with Project Safe (Brooklyn):
  • Co-facilitated with Tara Jones of Youth Sexpert, a young innovator in sex education.
  • Focused on herpes and general STI awareness, stigma reduction, and community-based sex education.
• Approach to Stigma:
  • Emphasized the necessity of clear, consistent, and destigmatizing language when discussing STIs.
  • Exercise in workshops: Meditation exploring personal identities and the weight of stigma, highlighting the importance of validating non-stigmatized identities.

3. The Challenge of Language and Data

• Inconsistent Information:
  • Different institutions (WHO, CDC, ASHA, etc.) provide varying and sometimes conflicting STI/herpes statistics and advice.
  • “A lot of the data and information that exists … doesn’t make sense and it’s inconsistent.” (Courtney, 13:20)
• Transmission Rates and Stress:
  • “Stress is the number one cause for outbreaks, so if you’re stressing about bringing the transmission rate down… what are you really doing?” (Courtney, 17:42)
  • The need for focusing on emotional and mental health, not just transmission metrics, due to variable individual factors.
• Language Choices and Their Impacts:
  • Words like “protection,” “safe,” “disease,” and “eradicate” carry unintended negative, fear-based, or violent connotations.
  • Preference for language that removes inherent judgment or alarm (e.g., using “infection” over “disease” to accurately reflect asymptomatic viral presence).

4. Innovative Advocacy: Patient Actors & Training

• Upcoming Initiative:
  • Aspiring to hire sex educators as “patient actors” for training clinics and therapy practices in delivering stigma-free care and communication.
  • Scripting scenarios for diagnosis disclosures, supporting newly diagnosed individuals, and practicing non-stigmatizing conversation.
  • Dependent on grant funding, pending at the time of recording.

5. Community & Collaborative Call-Out

• Seeking Connections & Opportunities:
  • Courtney calls for warm introductions to relevant clinics, organizations, conferences, and speaking opportunities.
  • “If you are someone who works at a clinic … please reach out. If you know of any conferences … let me know. Like, I am doing this by myself and I reach out for help when I can.” (Courtney, 37:32)
• Value of Community Support:
  • Deep appreciation for personal and professional connections, including Tara Jones, Dr. Ina Park, Jolene (No Shame in This Game), and Amari from Instagram.
  • “This life of mine is fueled by community. I don’t do this for money … I need the money, yes … but as long as my living expenses are covered, that’s it.” (45:50)

6. Clearing Up Stigma: The Power of Lived Experience

• Importance of Accurate Information:
  • Example of misinformation: Story confusion between HSV (herpes simplex virus) and HPV (human papillomavirus) illustrates how miscommunication perpetuates stigma.
  • Commitment to sharing firsthand experiences and stories to counter misinformation.
• Encouraging Stories on SPFPP:
  • Invitation for anyone with lived experiences (including allies or professionals) to appear as a guest—anonymously or openly.

7. Philosophical Reflection: Purpose, Flow, and Choice

• Living with Purpose:
  • Courtney reflects on his sense of alignment with his work, his reliance on “flow,” and his comfort with unconventional career decisions.
• Empowerment Through Choice:
  • “All I really want to do is just empower people with choice. … Once you learn that it’s a choice—am I going to continue to be stigmatized and let stigma run my life, or am I not going to?—that’s it.” (52:45)
• Insight from Yoga & Atomic Living:
  • Everything—including challenge, stigma, even pain—has a redirecting purpose, nudging people toward needed change.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Transmission and Stress:
  “If you’re stressing about bringing the transmission rate down and stress is the number one cause for outbreaks, what are you really doing?” (17:42)

• On Language and Stigma:
  “Words like ‘protection’ ... that implies an inherent danger of something as pleasurable, as fun, as connecting, as beautiful as sex can be.” (22:17)

• On Organizational Direction:
  “This episode really feels more like an update to what's been going on. But I also just, like, if you are somebody who wants to help out, can help out...just give me the name. You ain’t gotta do nothing else.” (36:20)

• Financial Honesty:
  “My living expenses are about $1,500 a month … and I just accredited [my life] to just alignment and being connected to what I perceive to be God … or the universe.” (46:20)

• Personal Mission:
  “All I really want to do is just empower people with choice … to just live in a way that empowers people with choice to live out loud.” (52:45)

• On Community:
  “This life of mine is fueled by community. I don’t do this for money.” (45:50)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Website and Support Group Announcements: 00:01–07:15
• Yoga Therapy Training and Vision: 07:16–10:25
• Workshop Recap & STI Language Reflection: 10:26–25:00
• Transmission Rates, Stress & Data Issues: 17:40–22:30
• Language as Harm/Healing: 22:31–26:00
• Patient Actors & Grant Proposal: 27:30–32:00
• Invitation to Community and Partnerships: 35:00–39:00
• Financial Openness & Personal Alignment: 45:00–47:00
• Personal Storytelling as Stigma-Busting: 48:00–51:00
• Empowering with Choice & Meaning: 52:30–54:00
• Closing Invitation for Guests and Input: 57:00–end

Tone and Style

• Candid, direct, and conversational
• Grounded in experience, humility, and a sense of practical urgency
• Oscillates naturally between professional updates, vulnerable personal reflection, humor, and motivational encouragement

Conclusion

This episode is both an operational update and an open invitation: whether you’re navigating herpes yourself, work in sexual or mental health, or are simply curious about stigma and patient care, Courtney invites you to connect, collaborate, and help carry the work forward. The emphasis throughout is on real talk, community, and empowerment—breaking stigma not just by changing words, but by living out loud and supporting one another.

Want to get involved, collaborate, or share your story? Visit SPFPP.org