The only one who has my lived experience & expertise on my inner world is me. The only lived experience I have is my own. No one can speak for me & I cant speak for anyone else. But we can create ways to listen to & learn from each other. If there’s a bottom line I have it’s that

I have some trauma that I experienced with others in real time and *still* I don’t have the same lived experience as them.

Lived experience isn’t a club to join or a box to check. There’s a wide variety. No one speaks for all just because they check a box or two (or many). I might have almost as little in common with someone with a totally different kind of LE as I do with someone with none.

That’s why discussions re LE are about finding ways to listen to & create space to learn about many different experiences. We can all share our personal perspectives to the extent that we can (which I do a bit) or talk about best ways to help create spaces but that’s it

No one knows my world or my needs better than I do, and I don’t purport to know anyone else’s. But we may have a lot to learn from each other anyway. Some things may resonate. Some may not. We can take, leave or modify things: that’s the beauty. In my view anyway....

If I suggest a perspective for someone and someone says that’s not how it is for me, that ends it for me. I don’t know their world best. I welcome *suggestions* as well. But I reserve the right to say that doesn’t work for me.

Given that no one but me (and a v skilled therapist) knows what I’m dealing with, it seems obvious to me that others’ answers aren’t necessarily right for me. And I promise to give others that same space (to decide for themselves how to manage/heal—what to feel).