Lived Experience Is the Work

For years, mental health systems have treated lived experience as a side note — something to be consulted, managed, or cautiously included. But lived experience isn’t an add-on. It’s the work.

When I walk into a room, I’m not bringing a theory. I’m bringing the reality of what it means to survive, to rebuild, to heal, and to lead from that place. It changes the room. You can feel it.

This isn’t about telling my story for sympathy. It’s about using what I’ve lived through as a compass. My scars are not weaknesses; they’re coordinates. They point toward what needs to change — in services, in culture, in the way we hold each other through difficulty.

The professionals I work alongside bring knowledge, frameworks, and skills. I bring the lived perspective that makes those things real. When the two meet, something shifts. That’s when genuine recovery, safety, and possibility begin to open up.

And here’s the truth: lived experience doesn’t need validation to be valid. It doesn’t need a permission slip from the system. It is, in itself, expertise. The more we centre it, the closer we get to creating spaces that heal rather than harm.