In bloom: nurturing lived experience researchers and responsiveness – reflections and recommendations from an intersectional lens

Within the Western academic landscape, a binary seems to exist: either we are the researcher or the ‘lived experience’ participant. Academics who carry their own lived/living experiences therefore live in a liminal space. Here, identities are negotiated. Tensions are felt. Knots are made. Our subjectivities impact our positionality and praxis, yet we seldom speak of dancing between personal and professional realms – or the transformative potential of this. And yet in this grey space, great things can happen. In this critical reflexive piece, I offer insights of living ‘between worlds’ as an Indian, Australian-born, female academic with lived experience subjectivity. I then provide six recommendations to uphold ‘lived experience responsiveness’ from systemic, structural, and person-centred angles — centring reflexivity and collective action at the heart of transformation. Together, these reflect pragmatic ways forward to support those in bloom to lead, innovate, and thrive within systems that will benefit greatly in return.