Ljudmila Petrovic (she/her)
”Not Queer Enough” Therapeutic Implications for Working with Bi+ Folks in Individual and Couples Therapy
Ljudmila Petrovic (she/her/hers) is a Registered Clinical Counsellor based in what is colonially known as “ British Columbia," specifically on the unceded and occupied lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is a queer, cis, able-bodied white settler with immigrant experience, born in the former Yugoslavia. She does individual and relationship counselling primarily with survivors of sexualized violence, queer and trans folks (including those navigating complex identity intersections), and folks navigating various relationship structures. Prior to becoming a counsellor, she spent over a decade doing frontline work in various sectors, including with youth and in anti-violence and harm reduction settings. She holds an MA in counselling psychology from Simon Fraser University, where her thesis research focused on identity-building and intergenerational trauma in conflict-generated diaspora. Ljudmila believes in community work and activism as part of her therapeutic work and outside of her clinical practice, she organizes around various issues, including in the queer Balkan diaspora. To create balance, she finds ways to root into joy and community wherever she can, including through cooking and baking, spending time in nature, and finding queer subtext in any movie or show she watches with her cats, Wayne and Garth.
Folks who identify as bisexual have long made up a large portion of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. More recently, as our language becomes more expansive and nuanced, we have also seen an increase in other identities such as pansexual and the reclamation of queer (which often allows for more fluidity for folks). Despite making up a large portion of the community and having historically been involved in movements around queer liberation, bi+ folks still often face exclusion from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and are not deemed "queer enough," as well as experiencing erasure, sexualization, and/or homophobia from the broader cis-hetero-normative culture - with specific experiences of sexualization or erasure interacting with various factors, such as gender. Bi+ folks (including youth) often also experience higher risk of sexualized violence than their straight, gay, or lesbian counterparts (significantly increased with other intersections, such as gender identity and race) as well as poorer health outcomes, which also impacts mental health.
While there is some specific literature on bi+ folks' experiences and increasingly more work on working with queer and trans folks, there is very little specific training on working with bi+ folks in therapy. This workshop addresses the specific experiences and therapeutic needs of multisexual folks, including folks who identify as bisexual, pansexual, or queer. This includes myths around bi+ folks, bi-erasure and biphobia, including how biphobia can show up from both straight and queer folks, making belonging difficult for many folks with these identities. The workshop will also look at how these experiences may show up in therapy (both in individual and couples/relationship counselling), including how to work with queer identities within a hetero-appearing couple and how these concepts might also show up with intersections of polyamorous or non-monogamous relationships.
Learning Objectives:
Understanding specific experiences of poly-sexual or bi+ folks, both within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and navigating heteronormativity
Understanding how bi-erasure can show up in therapy for individuals and couples that you're working with, including in the context of navigating non-monogamous relationship structures.
Learning how to resource individuals and couples to create space for queerness and working through internalized bi-phobia
*** This Presentation is also a part of Queering Mental Health 2023. If you have already purchased/attended that conference, no need to purchase it here! ***