I’m Alex, and I’ve been a Lived Experience Tutor with the college since December 2024. I was drawn to this role because of my personal journey with mental health challenges and the meaningful recovery I’ve found along the way. For the past nine years, I’ve been actively involved in peer support groups, sharing my experiences not only to help myself but also to support others on their journeys. It’s something I’ve always found incredibly rewarding, so when the opportunity arose to do this as a job, it felt like the perfect fit.

One of the biggest challenges of this role is making sure that the experiences I share are relevant and helpful to everyone in the room. Mental health is deeply personal, and no two journeys are the same. But that’s also what makes this work so meaningful—finding ways to connect with others, offer hope, and remind people that they’re not alone.

Before coming here, I struggled for years to find work that felt both interesting and fulfilling. I wanted something that truly made a difference—not just a job, but a purpose. Finally, I’ve found that here. Mental health has always been a subject I’m passionate about, so getting to talk about it for a living is something I genuinely enjoy. But what I didn’t expect was how much this role would help my own mental wellbeing as well. Preparing to deliver courses often reminds me of things I’ve forgotten to do for my own self-care or introduces me to new strategies I hadn’t considered before. In that way, teaching is a two-way process—I help others, and in turn, I continue learning and growing myself.

For anyone with lived experience of mental health challenges who wants to turn that into something positive and purposeful, I truly believe peer work, like the role I do, is a fantastic way to turn their experiences into something positive; inspiring and supporting others, all while deepening your own understanding and personal growth.

I feel incredibly lucky to be part of this work, and I’m excited to keep learning and connecting with more people along the way.