Abstract
Centring and valuing lived experience flips the dynamic where traditionally knowledge and expertise on a problem often comes from professions, institutions, authorities, and governments that have studied or assessed a situation detached from direct experience. The term ‘lived experience’ has gained greater prominence in social work. It refers to personal knowledge gained from direct experience that would not ordinarily be apparent through observation or via representations constructed by a third party who has not ‘lived’ it through the eyes of those who were in the situation.
We all have lived experience of varying forms – some unique, some shared widely. Lived experience is the knowledge we bring because we have firsthand involvement or exposure to particular events, occurrences or conditions that we have tried to make sense and construct meaning of. It is not merely having or reflecting on an experience as it occurs; it is a recollective account that reflects on what has taken place and its retrospective impact. The concept is strongly allied to social work values and the profession’s history of centring client experiences to shape our professional practice. In this way, lived experience informs how problems or situations are understood in context. It can shape the response but also be a mechanism for justice and accountability as to how responses impact people with lived experience. In the social work relationship, we bring both our personal experiences and the necessity to learn and empathise when we work with a client (O’Leary et al., 2013). Therefore, the place of lived experience in the social work relationship is critical to its purpose and success.
Our own lived experience influences how we contribute to the social work relationship and how we practice. Yet, we do not need lived experience to be able to practice in most fields, but we do need to be able to comprehend and engage with the lived experience of clients. For example, our lived experience of being a parent worried about sick child is quite different from the position of being a social worker in a children’s hospital working with families. This lived experience may impact our practice as a professional social worker in this context. Conversely, we may not have lived experience, for example, of discrimination based on disability, but work with people with disability. In such instances, we need to connect closely with people’s lived experience of disability to focus our practice on these needs. It requires awareness that we will not know the same things as those with lived experience and could miss or misinterpret particular aspects that are not self-apparent to those without lived experience. This explains why we need to be sensitive and humble all the time.
Being a member of a discriminated or minority group brings with it a lived experience, where the everyday experiences of subjugation are not visible or not comprehended by those without that lived experience. This can be the experience of living with the absence of privilege that others take for granted or being discriminated on the basis of your appearance or cultural group. Social workers often partner with those with lived experience to model ways of working (Gollan and O’Leary, 2009). When we are diagnosed with a mental or physical health condition or live with a disability, this brings lived experience and can shape our choices and freedoms. Similarly, when we are subjected to trauma through being victim of abuse, violence, accident or a disaster, we have lived experience that not only shapes us in the aftermath but also can influence our life course. There can be triggers that retraumatise and words that may position blame; by sharing and understanding this insight from ‘lived experience’, the journey of recovery or healing can be easier. Understanding trauma from a lived experience standpoint can facilitate important learning not only about effects but also about the structures that allowed such injustices to occur (Moran et al., 2022). Bearing witness to people’s lived experience has become a powerful tool in state investigations into systemic acts of violence and injustice (Wyles et al., in press). For example, in Australia the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard from thousands of survivors who spoke often for the first time about their lived experience. Similarly, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa provided a basis for people with lived experience from the injustice and violence from the apartheid regime to tell their story.
Much of the knowledge about problems and challenges comes from people who have shared their lived experience. Knowledge is often acquired through research or inquiries through the testimony of people with lived experience. The knowledge is often attributed to the party that collected this knowledge even though its origins lie with the lived experience. In this way, people and communities with lived experience bring particular experience and expertise to understanding how a particular problem or situation emerges and how best to respond or prevent it in the first place. For example, lived experience of psychosis and academic knowledge can be combined from the bottom up to inform policy, practice, research and education (Fusar-Poli et al., 2022). The power of lived experience expertise brings insight that is not immediately apparent to the outsider; it offers a relationship where expertise is not centrally located but relational.
Social work attests to work with clients in such a way that we are not the experts of their life or experience. Rather, social workers bring professional knowledge and skills as well as the use of self to bring authenticity to the relationship. The relationship is a place where social work values and purpose are prioritised towards self-determination but also in some instances (such as statutory or correctional social work) to facilitate accountability to society. In policy, research and community development fields of social work practice, often a key social work role is to prioritise the voice of those with little voice or power. To better address the importance of ‘lived experience’ in social work education alongside formal representations is increasingly being utilised by educators (Dorozenko et al., 2016). Lived experience has become a critical part of co-design work with communities (Moll et al., 2020).
Centring lived experience provides a basis for social work relationships to jointly have capability to share expertise from different sources towards more effective and just outcomes. It allows social workers to recognise their own lived experience and how that can contribute to their practice while opening up a space for the client’s lived experience to be a centrepiece for guiding practice. In this way, lived experience is a constant companion in social work relationships. In the aftermath of the pandemic and all that has occurred over the last 3 years, how will we use our lived experience to advance our human condition?