“I am an anthropologist, musician and researcher with lived experience. My PhD is on the topic of a psychiatric innovation called Open Dialogue, which I first came across at the end of my time as a user of NHS mental health services. 

I was ready to leave mental health services and escape to become an opera singer – my previous degrees were in geography and ethnomusicology, and I am a singer, violinist and composer. However, Open Dialogue came along and I was fascinated by the intersection between anthropology and mental health. It’s also hard to escape the ghosts of psychosis. 

I had a very good care team and care coordinator, which is sadly quite rare in mental health services, and she came along with me when I first met Professor Mosse, who was setting up a piece of embedded ethnographic research. I ended up interviewing for the PhD post in his research team of anthropologists and clinicians.  

I found that what I loved about anthropology was being able to bring my whole self into research. Those of us with lived experience of mental illness help bring epistemic justice when telling others’ stories – something that sociologist Arthur Frank refers to as being ‘wounded storytellers’. We are moral witnesses to both our own and others’ stories.  

It is important to be seen beyond this one identity of lived experience and David has been great in encouraging me to bring other identities into my work, such as creating soundscapes to present the views of my research interlocutors. It also helps in terms of having a balanced life.  

My PhD title is ‘Inside and In-between’ which reflects the different identities I bring as an embedded health practitioner, someone who has used mental health services, a musician and an anthropologist. 

After my year of fieldwork, I took up a part-time role as a peer support worker, as this theme within Open Dialogue was something I wanted to follow up on. It took me into settings with service users in their recovery journeys, often in places outside of the clinic, which would then feed into their Open Dialogue treatment meetings within the clinic. 

Being a peer meant I was able to relate to people in a different way than what may be expected from a professional in a clinical setting. It’s a bridge between service users and the institutional setting. 

As an anthropologist, it’s tempting not to want to leave the field because of the wonderful relationships that are developed and because I experienced this work as life-changing and meaningful, making a difference on the ground. Having left the peer role after three years, I returned to the SOAS academic setting and began my anthropological write-up.  

One of the benefits of CAMHRA will be more anthropologists and researchers with lived experience of mental health services, and more researchers studying mental health. Anthropology has changed me for the better. It’s changed the way I view the world and attuned me to issues around inclusion, advocacy and justice. It’s given me such a profound sense of purpose.”