What is the Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG)?
The LEAG is a group of individuals who have all experience some form of violence or abuse and mental health difficulties. Together they bring with them a wealth of experience in consultancy, training, and research. The LEAG help inform the wider VAMHN, ensuring that grants included the voices of those with lived experience, offering commentaries to journal articles, and they are also planning to produce a series of blogs and podcasts on the themes of violence, abuse and mental health.
The LEAG is a group of individuals who have all experience some form of violence or abuse and mental health difficulties. Together they bring with them a wealth of experience in consultancy, training, and research. The LEAG help inform the wider VAMHN, ensuring that grants included the voices of those with lived experience, offering commentaries to journal articles, and they are also planning to produce a series of blogs and podcasts on the themes of violence, abuse and mental health.
Who is in the LEAG?
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Lisa Ward Lisa joined the VAMHN as our Lived Experience Involvement Consultant. Lisa is the CEO of the Oxfordshire Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Centre, and a lived experience consultant and researcher focusing on lived experience of violence and abuse. She will be involved in coordinating the network's Lived Experience Advisory Group. |
Eleanor La Lune
Eleanor’s lived experiences inspire her to raise awareness of complex trauma as a researcher, advisor and creative social entrepreneur. She studies Community Psychology MA and is working on a PhD proposal researching lived experiences of complex trauma. Find out more via her website EyesOnTrauma.org.
Naima Iqbal
Naima Iqbal is a professional lived experience researcher having worked for a number of organisations including AVA, McPin, AGENDA and Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research specialisms include multiple disadvantage, trauma, and peer support. She is also a qualified gardener and experienced crafter, using these skills to support her community.
Emily Reynolds
Emily Reynolds is a writer and campaigner based in London. After a career in freelance journalism, she now works part-time as Campaigns and Communications Manager for the user-led mental health charity Wish, as Project Office for the Haringey Suicide Prevention Group, as a Lived Experience Designer at Mind, and as a Trustee for the National Survivor User Network.
Lisa S
Lisa’s lived experience involving marital abuse and post-separation stalking continues to motivate her to help others in similar situations. As a victim of revenge porn, she campaigns for stricter revenge porn laws and helps bring to awareness the real harms of online sexual abuse. Lisa is currently in her final year of her masters, but she aims to get more involved in actively campaigning after the completion of her studies. Her main interest in mental health research is the distinctive effects of PTSD from sexual violence on lifelong wellbeing, particularly its impacts on brain health later in life.
Eleanor’s lived experiences inspire her to raise awareness of complex trauma as a researcher, advisor and creative social entrepreneur. She studies Community Psychology MA and is working on a PhD proposal researching lived experiences of complex trauma. Find out more via her website EyesOnTrauma.org.
Naima Iqbal
Naima Iqbal is a professional lived experience researcher having worked for a number of organisations including AVA, McPin, AGENDA and Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research specialisms include multiple disadvantage, trauma, and peer support. She is also a qualified gardener and experienced crafter, using these skills to support her community.
Emily Reynolds
Emily Reynolds is a writer and campaigner based in London. After a career in freelance journalism, she now works part-time as Campaigns and Communications Manager for the user-led mental health charity Wish, as Project Office for the Haringey Suicide Prevention Group, as a Lived Experience Designer at Mind, and as a Trustee for the National Survivor User Network.
Lisa S
Lisa’s lived experience involving marital abuse and post-separation stalking continues to motivate her to help others in similar situations. As a victim of revenge porn, she campaigns for stricter revenge porn laws and helps bring to awareness the real harms of online sexual abuse. Lisa is currently in her final year of her masters, but she aims to get more involved in actively campaigning after the completion of her studies. Her main interest in mental health research is the distinctive effects of PTSD from sexual violence on lifelong wellbeing, particularly its impacts on brain health later in life.
There are also two other members of the group who wish to remain anonymous.