The Thinker: July 2026

Spotlight

This work gave me an opportunity to see my own experiences differently, and another shard of shame came loose

- Navigating lived/living experience in professional practice, by Jessamy House

As a social worker and trauma-informed practice consultant I have always privately considered my “unwanted inheritance” of intergenerational trauma and childhood family violence to be liabilities. These experiences did not meet my imagined standards of legitimacy to qualify me as a victim or survivor. My family, I thought, suffered more intensely than I. The faces of my relatives who had systematically exploited girls and women were only known to me via stories and old photo albums. The family violence that punctuated my childhood was perpetrated by my grandfather, not a parent or a partner, so surely is not as bad?

I can now see how I silenced, minimised and ultimately dismissed these experiences. In my early years I witnessed close family members retreating into their own unresponsive silence when the subject of these traumas was broached. I was encouraged into silence myself by the same, loving relatives seeking to protect me from the anger and violence that drawing my grandfather’s attention would bring. In a horrific warping of logic, the abuse he dished out to those who stepped in to protect me, a child, was my fault because I had made myself visible.

It should be no surprise that my mother and I trained to intervene in such situations- helping others where we could not help ourselves. This is a well-trodden path for victim/survivors of violence and exploitation, for those who have found themselves dependant on alcohol or other drugs, and for those navigating mental health issues, be it their own, or other people’s.

My training did not mention any of this at all. It seemed to assume that I was a clean slate, freshly prepared for professional practice and free from the marks of earlier experiences, ready to be useful and unbothered by my own adversity. My studies failed to prepare me for how my deeply entrenched patterns of survival would play out in my work. It is only now, a full 25 years since I graduated, that I realise my training also failed to appreciate and draw upon the insights and skills that surviving gave me… Continue reading here

Our impact in practice

Wellbeing Plan to support practitioners with lived/living experience

ThinkWell recently delivered a 2-hour learning workshop called “Supporting Practitioners with Lived/Living Experience (LLE) through Trauma-Informed Supervision”, on behalf of the RMIT Graduate Resource Centre as part of the Community and Social Services Graduate Program (funded by DFFH). We drew on research and current literature to inform the content, paying particular attention to recommendations that practitioners with LLE bring additional insight and experience to their roles, but many also require thoughtful supports from their organisation in order to manage the impact of the work.

We’ve developed this resource (above) specifically for practitioners in any role, who have lived or living experience that might impact on their wellbeing at work. The tool fosters thoughtful and collaborative conversations between the practitioner and their supervisor, to proactively identify strengths, positive coping strategies and relational supports in the event of the practitioner needing support.

Would you like a copy? Click here and we’ll email it to you!

The brain building bit

Article: Aligning the Personal with the Professional: Lived Experience as Motivation for Further Education and Employment in Domestic and Family Violence

This article by Dr Ilsa Evans (Chisholm Institute, Melbourne) outlines a study of students doing further education in the field of D&FV: “Results indicate that the majority of those undertaking specialised education in the field of FV have lived experience as victim survivors, and that these students bring valuable skills, knowledge and passion to the sector. However, this also has significant ramifications for educational institutes and for industry. The paper discusses a range of associated impacts, as well as support initiatives…” Access article here

Resource: Wellbeing Guide

Beyond Blue has published a guide to what works for mental wellbeing, a summary of the evidence for different types of wellbeing strategies. Alongside the more formal CBT and ACT approaches, the strongest evidence found was for physical activity, art, mindfulness and reminiscence interventions.