What on Earth Is Lived Experience? Is It a Woke Buzzword or a Tool for Empowerment?

Hello there. I'm in Kathmandu right now, speaking at a WHO summit on integrating lived experience in policymaking, and I thought this is an excellent time to host another edition of my popular two-hour interactive session on the super-fascinating history of lived experience.

Welcome to Lived Experience 101. I've delivered this session for the past two years as part of a closed-group mental health leadership programme, and now I am opening it up to you.

Attendees have included therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, researchers, policymakers and allied professionals, students, lived experience experts, and folks curious about the mental health movement from diverse parts of the world. Here's what some of them have said:

"Thanks Tanmoy for reshaping the discussion around persons with lived experience. Since we are in throes of the beginning of this movement of transparency, we will have to accept the distress and unease that comes along with inclusivity."

"The way you introduced the fish pamphlet in the beginning was a really interesting and novel way of looking at 'the struggle' of those going through mental health conditions. It really helps reshape the narrative from a passive victim to an active and empowered survivor. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on the subject!"

"Thank you Tanmoy. Wonderful session."

Big questions we will explore together

• What is lived experience, really, and what is it not?
• How did a term that originated as part of the feminist movement become embroiled in one of our time's most polarising culture wars?
• Are individuals weaponising lived experience to undermine 'objective' capital-T Truth, by claiming that their own subjective experiences are the highest form of truth?
• Or is lived experience a legitimate form of expertise that's finally asserting itself against the privileged elite who have long monopolised the idea of expertise?
• Who can lay claim to lived experience and who is kept out of this community? Does lived experience belong only to people with a diagnosis?
• How did lived experience expertise become a career currency you can put on your CV?
• How can people in power incorporate lived experience in their policies and programmes to create better, more inclusive systems and structures?

Session structure

In this two-hour interactive session open to a limited audience, I will:

1. Walk you through the modern history of lived experience - its origins and evolution
2. Address myths and confusions about the idea of lived experience
3. Highlight best practices on integrating lived experience in various domains
4. Direct you towards a rich list of further readings and reference materials
5. Hold space for intra-group discussion.

After this session, you will be able to...

1. Get a nuanced understanding of lived experience that goes beyond the polarising noise on the topic
2. Better appreciate, evaluate, and contextualise your own lived experience
3. Feel equipped to explore the history and politics of lived experience in depth
4. Develop your own frameworks for integrating lived experience expertise in your domain

What you should not expect + housekeeping

1. This is a space for reflection and discussion and NOT an academic lecture. The aim is to help us engage with perspective-expanding questions rather than rigid and prescriptive answers.
2. I am NOT a mental health professional and WILL NOT offer clinical advice or therapist recommendations. To ensure the safety of all participants, please don't use the message board during the session to ask for or offer mental health advice.
3. This session is meant for a conceptual discussion on the idea of lived experience and is NOT meant for sharing personal mental health stories. Please do not use it as such and seek out peer support groups if that's what you need.
4. We will follow the Chatham House rule. This means that you are free to use the information received, but you MAY NOT disclose the identity or affiliation of any speaker or participant in the session.

Who am I?

Hi, I am Tanmoy. I am a lived experience expert, mental health storyteller, and former newsroom leader with top publications. I bring all these experiences to bear as the creator of Sanity by Tanmoy, India's first independent reader-funded mental health storytelling platform, which has subscribers in over 50 countries.

I love teaching and mentoring, and have spoken and delivered sessions at forums including the University of Amsterdam; The Vedica Scholars Programme for Women; Knight Centre for Journalism at the University of Texas, Austin; and King's College, London.

My work has been featured on, and I have been quoted in, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, IJ Net, Times of India, The Economic Times, Forbes, Poynter, and Suno India, among others. I also write for global publications including The Mekong Review, Griffith Review, Business Insider, and Welcome to the Jungle.

I'm a past fellow of the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford and a LinkedIn Top Voice in Social Impact, and I sit on lived experience panels and committees across the world. I was an invitee to the WHO South-East Asia Lived Experience Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, in June 2024. I have co-authored a paper on suicide prevention in the Lancet Psychiatry and serve as an advisor to the Keshav Desiraju Indian Mental Health Observatory at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy. I am also a jury member for the Project SIREN Awards that recognise excellence in journalism on the topic of suicide prevention.

I hope to see you soon.