Lived Experience
Bringing the human experience into the conversation.
Lived experience has the power to turn mental health from something abstract into something deeply human.
I draw on my own experiences of mental health challenges, recovery and help-seeking alongside years of professional work within mental health and suicide prevention.
I share lived experience with purpose.
Not for shock value. Not to present one experience as representative of everyone. And not simply to tell my story.
I use it to help people recognise themselves, their colleagues or someone they care about in the conversation.
It can challenge assumptions about what mental ill-health looks like. It can make help-seeking feel more normal. And sometimes hearing someone speak openly gives another person permission to have a conversation they have been avoiding themselves.
My lived experience work is grounded in hope, safety and responsibility, with careful consideration given to the audience, setting and purpose of every conversation.
Because lived experience is most powerful when it helps create space for other people’s experiences too.
