Becoming an expert by experience: An analysis of service users’ learning process

The study examines mental health service users’ learning processes regarding becoming “experts by experience.” The data consist of 12 audio-recorded interviews of mental health service users who took part in a specific training program regarding becoming experts by experience. The research methodology was based on a qualitative attitude approach, in which each interviewee is asked to respond to statements related to the research question. According to the study, the interviewees’ learning processes consist of individual and collective processes. The individual learning process helps a service user to create his or her identity as an expert by experience, and the collective learning process supports a service user in constructing the social role of such an expert. Throughout the learning processes, service users explored four different themes: creating distance from experiences, sharing experiences with peers and friends, combining experiences with existing competences, and developing an orientation toward the future. The interviewees reflected all four themes as a part of their learning process, but the order of the themes varied greatly. Thus, expertise is a unique phenomenon that can be constructed from different combinations of the themes. In this study, the learning process is described as a vector model.