What if a herpes diagnosis didn't take away your freedom, but actually freed you from an energetic cage you didn't know you were in? In Part 2 of "What Herpes Taught Me About Authenticity," Courtney Brame drops the standard narrative of "good vs. bad" and dives deep into the quantum physics and spiritual mechanics of an STI diagnosis.

We explore how living unconsciously chasing validation, ignoring the gentle whispers of the nervous system, and bleeding energy into casual encounters can leave us fragmented. Through the lens of his own 13-year journey, he explains how a herpes diagnosis acts as a "Heavenly Restriction" (Jujutsu Kaisen Reference) a permanent, physical boundary that chokes off the leakage of unconscious energy, forcing a return to radical authenticity and intentional connection.

If you are exhausted by trauma-dumping, people-pleasing, or feeling stuck in the identity of your diagnosis, this episode provides a new atomic blueprint for achieving maximum evolution with minimum waste.

Episode Timestamps:

• [00:00:00] Intro: The danger of the "Good vs. Bad" polarity.

• [00:05:58] The Leasing Office Analogy: Why we miss the early warning signals of our nervous system.

• [00:12:45] The Identity Collapse: How a diagnosis "screenshots" us into a stuck identity.

• [00:28:08] What is True Authenticity? (Hint: It’s not just "being yourself.")

• [00:40:07] The Luffy Rule: Why I stopped being an "emotional boyfriend" and trauma-dumping sponge.

• [00:47:12] The Heavenly Pact: How a herpes diagnosis acts as the ultimate energetic bouncer for intimacy.

• [00:56:46] The New SPFPP Boundaries: 30-minute caps, the end of weekend calls, and zero-waste operations.

• [01:04:37] March 21st NYC Event Details & The future of the SPFPP Podcast.

Finally! We celebrated me closing out the 400th podcast episode it took me damn near 3 months to record, only for me to realize I’m not closing it out after all. My options for getting these resources out there are limited given social media has not been kind to anything I have to talk about, however, the website has been booming given the care and attention I’ve given to it. Last month we had almost 80 scheduled support calls, this month halfway through February, we’re at 40, so I’m busy, but I think instead of replacing the podcast with the support groups, it’s time I give much less energy to social media instead. The podcast has served several major purposes including remaining connected to the community by bringing people in to share their experiences, letting people hear from others, and I think most of all, it’s been another outlet of expression as an extension of me. Last year things were chaotic for the first half of the year. I’d say I got some solid footing in August/September 2025 and now I have a firm rhythm of running SPFPP, working part time, wrapping up Yoga Therapy Training, and my romantic life. This is part 1 of what herpes taught me about authenticity, where I just share about some changes that happened in a way that hopefully makes sense to ya’ll listening. Apologies in advance for the audio. My mic was never plugged in and when I noticed it, I lost track of my point so I ended the episode shortly after haha. Anyways, welcome back!

I had every intention of making my last podcast episode being on this topic but I was called to take a different route based on the direction this episode went. I interviewed a member of the Women's Support support group as well as a Yoga Therapy client at the time of this recording. Herpes and Spirituality is one of the main searches that drive people to SPFPP, and many of the people I talk to have a background of Christianity, growing up Catholic, and our conversations generally head in the direction of speaking to their relationship to God. With all this free time I'll have from no longer running the podcast, I'll be able to read the Bible myself and be able to have more fitting conversations with people coming from that purity culture upbringing. I enjoyed getting to bounce some reflections off someone in this conversation rather than doing it alone and rambling too much, so I'm grateful to Lia for letting me talk her ear off and tie her experiences together with this conversation topic that has become so meaningful to so many people.