Incredibly humbled to have been a part of the training team for the elevator pitch session of Lived Experience Training's Executive Leadership for Lived-Living Experience Roles. This is exactly the kind of training I would have found incredibly valuable when I first started applying my lived expertise in leadership roles. Amazing people, incredible vibe, and really thought-provoking content. Thanks LET team for making it so.
Lorna Downes
Family/Carer Lived Experience Educator, Facilitator, Supervisor, Consultant and Researcher
I’m really grateful to Lou and the team at LET for creating the Executive Leadership training. Having worked in senior Lived Experience Leadership roles for over 15 years, this is the first professional development opportunity I’ve found that is directly related to the roles I work in. It’s been incredible to learn directly from Louise and to develop and explore my own leadership style. It has deepened my knowledge of relational advocacy, research, and a highlight for me is being part of a national community of peers and learning from each other. LET is shaping the future of Lived Experience leadership in Australia. I highly recommend.
Lisa Gott
Executive Director, Lived Experience Leadership, Flourish Australia
This training provides a strong and much-needed foundation for understanding LLE roles, including their function as agents of change across the service system. From an AOD LLE perspective, the training’s emphasis on power, marginalisation, and system reform resonates deeply, particularly for those of us whose LLE include criminalisation, coercion, and cultural exclusion. The framing of lived expertise as both individual and collective, as something political as well as personal, mirrors the roots of AOD peer work which has always been about mutuality, resistance, and survival, not just recovery. Importantly, the training names the uncomfortable truth that many of us have learned to survive systems that harmed us. It’s heartening to see designated peer roles acknowledged as holding unique, non-clinical, rights-based knowledge, especially when it comes to structural barriers like forced treatment, incarceration, or stigma against drug use. Going forward, ensuring that AOD LLE voices remain central, particularly in policy, funding, and role design, will be critical to embedding the kind of transformation this training calls for.
Aimee Schoeman
Peer Development Coordinator, DUO
Just completed the orientation module. Thank you Louise Byrne, great foundation for all staff. I particularly enjoyed the format, accessible, and the length was easy to manage in a busy workday. The information was about the what and the why and left me keen to learn more about the how.
Rowena Jonas
Practice Advisor - Family Support, Wellways Australia
We engaged Louise to deliver Lived Experience literacy sessions for our whole Mental Health and Wellbeing
Division, Victorian Department of Health as way to grow understanding about the difference between having
lived experience and developing and making use of lived expertise. She is able to engage people in a way that
is inspiring, informative, warm and authoritative. Louise is able to draw on decades of research and evidence
along with her own lived experience. Feedback from the division has been overwhelmingly positive and people
have subsequently asked for further opportunities to learn from her.
Lived Experience Branch
Mental Health and Wellbeing Division, Department of Health Victoria
I did the [orientation] course and it took me just under an hour, I felt the content was pitched just right to be informative and form as good basis of Lived Experience. The landing page is straight to the point and clear, the information provided in each section is comprehensive once opened. I think you have done an awesome job with this, congratulations on such a significant innovation.
James Hill
Mental Health Manager, Energy Queensland
The [orientation course] layout and registration process was easy to manage. Colours, layout and site navigate felt very accessible and neurodivergent friendly. The video content was particularly excellent.
The content was articulated clearly and use of images, text boxes and other visual aids made the training easy to follow along. I’m excited to see the way this has been put together. It outlines the challenges and benefits of LLE work well, and could greatly contribute to role clarity, fidelity of practice, LLE values and lived expertise for people in, or aspiring to be in LLE roles. I can see massive benefit in this training. I wish I had access to it when I first started in peer work!
The content was articulated clearly and use of images, text boxes and other visual aids made the training easy to follow along. I’m excited to see the way this has been put together. It outlines the challenges and benefits of LLE work well, and could greatly contribute to role clarity, fidelity of practice, LLE values and lived expertise for people in, or aspiring to be in LLE roles. I can see massive benefit in this training. I wish I had access to it when I first started in peer work!
timothy mcgregor
Lived Experience Project Lead, Mind Australia
The orientation course was made available to our entire National Leadership Team and was a fantastic way to build a shared foundation and language. The content was easy to navigate and really helped demystify some of the core concepts and set us up as a leadership team to undertake the Foundational Knowledge session to deepen our understanding and being to contemplate application and implementation.
Thanks Louise and Team, this is fantastic training and couldn’t recommend more highly.
Matthew Colledan
General Manager People Experience & Capability, Neami National
Great work Louise Byrne. A key piece of work [Lived Experience Training] to empower those with lived experience to bring their expertise to the decision-making table and enable truth to talk to power. Bravo.
John Mendoza
ConNetica Consulting Pty Ltd Adjunct Asso Professor, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, former CEO, Mental Health Council of Australia
It [orientation training] was very easy to navigate through the different lessons and complete the quiz at the end. The content for lesson 1, 2 and 3 was seamless and engaging. Lesson 4 provided a great overview of designated Lived Experience roles with an opportunity to continue exploring this topic through the Critical Thinking and Reflection exercise. This created a space for deeper learning and discussion about the importance of organisational commitment to Lived Experience practice.
Congratulations on developing the website and paving the way for organisations to engage in thinking about how we can work collaboratively through a shared understanding and value of Lived Experience.
Violeta Peterson
Director of Carer Lived/Living Experience, Alfred Mental and Addiction Health
The lived experience peers have become an integral and invaluable part of our team…In many ways your [Louise Byrne’s] research, advocacy and [bespoke] training has helped contribute to this success.
Dr Melody Fudge
Regional Director Open Arms, Veterans & Families Counselling
One of the key drivers of change across the organisation has been the training Louise has provided across our executive, senior leadership and management teams. Louise’s [bespoke] training programs provide such clarity on the nature of lived experience, lived expertise discipline specific approaches and clear and practical examples for teams to take forward. Louise provides a unique and critical direct line to the evidence for what matters and how to be effective.
Katie Larsen
Executive Director Lived Experience, Mind Australia
Dr Louise Byrne is an internationally leading expert in lived experience development and the most prominent Australian scholar in this field. This training program represents the best of Dr Byrne’s pioneering, ground-breaking research and national policy development work accumulated over a decade, in a highly digestible and accessible manner. Engaging, insightful, and practical, this program [orientation training] will benefit so many that have interest in lived experience work but do not know how to start. It will also benefit many who are already in this journey but appreciate a deepening of their knowledge using the best, research-based evidence.
Ying (Lena) Wang
Associate Professor, School of Management, Co-Director, Centre for Organisations and Social Change (COSC), RMIT University
Some days in lived-experience roles are heavy. Systems are slow. Advocacy can feel uphill. The emotional labour is real. And then there are days like today. I’m currently participating in Executive Leadership for Lived-Living Experience Roles with ‘Lived Experience Training’ — and I cannot overstate how energising this space is. Thank you so much Louise Byrne and team and my fellow participants. To be with others who understand the nuance, the tension, the responsibility and the possibility of lived-experience leadership… it fills the cup in ways that are hard to describe.
Hayley Brown
Founder, Lived Impact
The Lived Experience Training program, developed by Louise Byrne, is a transformative opportunity to enhance understanding and capacity regarding Lived Experience workforces.
This training provides both foundational and advanced knowledge to drive organisational readiness.
I think this training is the missing link so many of us have been looking for!
Authentic, no jargon, includes information on the background so you can really understand this workforce and support them for even better outcomes across the board.
Transform, improve, grow, thrive.
craig worland
Manager – Lived Experience, Queensland Health
I had the privilege of participating in the Foundational Knowledge course offered by Dr Louise Byrne and her exceptional team, Sean and Mel, at Lived Experience Training. This experience was nothing short of transformative. From the outset, the communication from Sean and the team was outstanding—clear, supportive, and genuinely engaging. The course itself delved deep into the principles of Lived and Living Experience (LLE), providing invaluable insights that have profoundly influenced my perspective.
At Social Futures, under my guidance, we are committed to integrating authentic LLE practices into our work. This course provided the foundational knowledge necessary to move forward confidently in this space. It was everything I hoped for and more.
I wholeheartedly recommend this training to anyone looking to deepen their understanding and application of Lived Experience. Thank you Louise Byrne.
Karissa Lewis
Lived Experience Practice Lead, Suicide Prevention Australia, Social Futures
This training reflects the evolving landscape of the Lived and Living Experience workforce. It upholds foundational, relational values through a rights-based approach that honours diverse perspectives and peer contexts , including those grounded in harm reduction, AOD, and other emerging areas. It recognises how intersectionality shapes experience, perspective, and contribution.
Katie Shields
Communify
Louise’s work is recognised both nationally and internationally and shapes the national perspective on lived experience work as a respected, evidence-based discipline. Her work allows lived experience perspectives to more meaningfully contribute to the awareness, prevention and support approaches for mental health in Australia.”
Gill Callister
Mind Australia CEO
Lived Experience Training [orientation course] is valuable and enriching. Louise is engaging in her presentation of the course content. The training is informative and enjoyable.
As a blind user, I found the website easy to navigate and the quizzes were compatible using both my screen reader on my computer and voice-over function on my phone.
The visual descriptions that accompany each video presentation allowed me to access the written information and images in the presentations. Thank you for your quality training and attention to accessibility.
As a blind user, I found the website easy to navigate and the quizzes were compatible using both my screen reader on my computer and voice-over function on my phone.
The visual descriptions that accompany each video presentation allowed me to access the written information and images in the presentations. Thank you for your quality training and attention to accessibility.
aliza Francis
Accessibility Consultant
This [Lived Experience Training] is wonderful! I'm a huge admirer of Louise Byrne's work, particularly her seminal contributions to the concept of lived experience leadership. Her work is widely recognised as foundational in this field.
Michael Elwan
General Manager, Mental Health Outreach Services, Richmond Wellbeing, PhD Candidate - Mental Health
A fantastic experience to [then] engage with Louise and team in the foundational knowledge course. Hearing Louise explain key concepts with such clarity and authority, based on years of experience and evidence was wonderful. Louise’s ability to engage with our team in a welcoming and warm manner set the stage for a safe space to ask questions. Louise’s ability to draw a direct line to the evidence that so clearly demonstrates the value in investing, supporting and developing a lived experience workforce is second to none.
Matthew Colledan
General Manager People Experience & Capability, Neami National
When I was looking for a Lived Experience workforce expert for my PhD supervisory team, there was only one choice. There aren’t words for what I have learnt from Dr Byrne since.
She combines extensive experience on the ground with knowledge of, and connection to, peer work practice and research nationally and internationally. Mental health folks, if you’re not following her already stay tuned. This [Lived Experience Training] will be awesome.
She combines extensive experience on the ground with knowledge of, and connection to, peer work practice and research nationally and internationally. Mental health folks, if you’re not following her already stay tuned. This [Lived Experience Training] will be awesome.
Alicia King
Research Fellow at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
Louise’s newest gift to us is ‘Lived Experience Training’, an accessible and engaging suite of trainings that allow individuals and organisations to understand and embed the power of the Lived Experience workforce as promised by the Guidelines.
The training followings the necessary staged approach to achieving mature readiness for the Lived Experience workforce by beginning with a whole of staff orientation and induction, to embedding foundational knowledge of Lived Experience workforce development within workforces and organisations. Upcoming leadership and allyship training will be the keys to unlocking true transformation of mental health services. I can’t wait!
Congratulations Louise!
Tim heffernan
Deputy Commissioner, NSW Mental Health Commission
Louise not only has been leading Australian Lived Experience Led Research but her ability to translate and communicate what this research means in practice for various audiences is excellent.
Upon the launch of the National Guidelines, we were fortunate to be able to partner with Louise to run a series of [bespoke training] literacy webinars for different cohorts in the sector and agreed to being a key-note speaker at MHLEEN’s Annual Forum. I can attest to Louise’s ability to engage and be flexible and demonstrate positive outcomes with her consultancy work with us at a National strategic level.
Upon the launch of the National Guidelines, we were fortunate to be able to partner with Louise to run a series of [bespoke training] literacy webinars for different cohorts in the sector and agreed to being a key-note speaker at MHLEEN’s Annual Forum. I can attest to Louise’s ability to engage and be flexible and demonstrate positive outcomes with her consultancy work with us at a National strategic level.
Paula Arro
Lived Experience Engagement Coordinator, Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drugs /Priority Communities, National PHN Mental Health Lived Experience Engagement Network (MHLEEN)
Awards & Honours
See our awards and honours below and click on the icon to learn more.
2024
The Australian Mental Health Prize: Lived Experience
2019
The Mental Health Services Award of Australia and New Zealand in the Early Career Research Category for Best Practice
2017
Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship, Australian/American Fulbright Commission
2017
TedX Speaker: Mental Health, but not as you know it.
2015
Queensland Mental Health Week Achievement Award, Individual Award
2013
Queensland Mental Health Week Achievement Award, Organisational Award
Lived Experience Training acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands upon which we live and work. We are grateful to past and present Elders for their cultural knowledge and deep connection to land, sea and community. We pay our deep and heartfelt respects to these essential leaders and thank them for their guidance. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.
For a definition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived-Living Experience, please go to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre