Rosiel Elwyn

This guide provides an overview of key considerations for navigating researcher lived experience. It introduces the concept of lived experience in research, outlines common risks and challenges, highlights possibilities and benefits, and offers some practical tools to support researchers with lived experience in their work. While the focus is primarily on lived experience in the context of mental health research, the themes and strategies discussed are likely relevant across diverse lived experience research contexts. The guide does not prescribe a single path, as the journeys of lived experience researchers vary widely. Instead, it highlights key areas for consideration to prompt reflection, especially for those new to the field. This guide will explore questions such as: How accommodating is my workplace to people with lived experience, and how do I work within that context? Should I share my lived experience, and what impact might that have? What helps me stay well and feel safe in this work? How can connecting with peers, mentors, or communities support me—and how might I give back? By exploring these types of questions, it is our hope that this guide can support those with lived experience to chart their own course into and through research in ways that foster safety, well-being, empowerment, equity, and personal and collective growth, and that affirm the vital place of people with lived experience in shaping knowledge through research.