Silence in The Exam Room: The Cost of Clinical Discomfort

Resumen

This article examines how Black sexuality and kink are often met with discomfort or erasure in clinical spaces. Anchored in personal narrative and supported by current research, it highlights how implicit bias, historical trauma, and provider discomfort impact patient care. Drawing from lived experience and therapeutic insight, the piece argues that tools like the Implicit Association Test and reflective SOAP notes can support more inclusive, trauma-informed practices. It calls for a deeper commitment to presence, humility, and accountability, not as add-ons, but as essential to ethical care.