Using lived experience to transform culture, learning, and practice

Psychology educators often have research-based knowledge and expertise but lack practice experience to inform curriculum that reflects a nuanced and diverse view of mental health, intersectionality, and recovery. Student feedback highlights they want authenticity in their educational experience to prepare them for the workplace. They also seek to be represented and included in co-creation of their learning. A disproportionate number of students are drawn to the mental health field because of their own lived experience. This offers a unique opportunity for both authentic and transformational learning through incorporation of this rich experience to inform curriculum, break down power structures inherent in the traditionally expert model of psychology education, and provide an avenue for reconsidering stigma and positionality from first year education through to professional practice. This project explores student and staff perceptions of the barriers and benefits of lived experience inclusion in psychology curriculum and evaluates the personal and educational impact of lived experience narrative being included in curriculum. It also seeks to develop and pilot a trauma informed training framework which supports students to craft a brief narrative of their lived experiences and contribute this to a resource repository. This repository will be a sustainable and ongoing opportunity for educators to incorporate lived experience voices into their curriculum, and in doing so enhance authenticity, diversity, inclusion and acceptance.