What Therapists Should Know About Sexual Health, Monkey Pox, and the Echoes of the AIDS Epidemic: An Interview with Mallory Garrett, LMFT

The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

What Therapists Should Know About Sexual Health, Monkey Pox, and the Echoes of the AIDS Epidemic: An Interview with Mallory Garrett, LMFT

Curt and Katie interview Mallory Garrett about sexual health as well as the current concerns related to Monkey Pox. We discuss what therapists usually get wrong when working with sexual health, what therapists need to know about STIs, as well as Monkey Pox. We talk about the relevant history of the HIV/AIDs epidemic and the community responses to Monkey Pox. We also look at how therapists can be most helpful to clients within our scope of practice. Resources to stay up to date with Monkey Pox and sexual health are also included in the show notes.

Transcripts for this episode will be available at mtsgpodcast.com!

An Interview with Mallory Garrett, LMFT

Mallory Garrett is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California and New York. She graduated with a BA in Comparative Literature from UCLA and an MS in Counseling from CSU-Northridge. She began working in the social services sector as a Resident Services Intern with a low-income housing corporation for people living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic health conditions. She continued working in this field during her traineeship and internships as she worked towards licensure. She loves speaking to therapists about destigmatizing HIV/AIDS and STIs and has co-facilitated a workshop through Simple Practice Learning. When not working she enjoys going to the theater and traveling.

In this podcast episode, we talk about sexual health and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

We talk about sexual health broadly as well as the recent concerns about Monkey Pox and the historical context of HIV/AIDs.

What do therapists need to know about sexual health, STIs, and Monkey Pox?

• Monkey Pox is not technically a STI, but is primarily transmitted sexually in the US
• The stigma and concerns of being ignored, especially from those who lived through the HIV/AIDS epidemic
• Gay Rights and Sexual Liberation has relevance to these diseases
• The extreme societal bias toward the gay community during that time, medical neglect
• The emergence of Monkey Pox brought back the fears, stigma, and neglect