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Involving People with Lived Experience (PwLE) in the development and delivery of teaching provides a more in-depth insight and authenticity to students learning about important social concerns like substance use. Involving PwLE is recognised as an approach to teaching and collaboration which is beneficial for those involved as learners and (if done correctly) for those who gift their time to sharing their opinions and experiences. More is known within the literature about the benefits for academics and students in relation to involving PwLE in the development, design, and delivery of teaching, less is known about how PwLE experience their involvement and how they prepare for their involvement in the process. In this reflective chapter, we utilise our own collective experiences of working with and/or supporting the involvement of PwLE in the development of teaching resources and teaching practices. The reflections contained here are based upon own highly subjective experiences of working with and supporting PwLE to get involved in the development of resources and delivery of teaching content. From these reflections, we hope that you the reader is able to understand more about how PwLE and this will encourage you to become engaged with this process. In doing so, we hope you also gain some insights into your own teaching practices and learning needs.

The chapter focuses on the use of the lived experience when teaching trauma to students who are studying mental health. In order to provide a context for what follows the chapter begins with an overview of how trauma is defined and understood in the research and literature.This is followed by a brief exploration of how ‘ story telling’ and lived experiences of trauma can be used to provide authenticity and increase understanding to students, without it being stressful for them or counterproductive in relation to their learning and learning experiences. Advocating a ‘psychoeducational’ approach to teaching and practice that is informed by the needs of the facilitator, the needs of students, sensitivity, attunement, and transformative learning experiences informs the latter part of the chapter.The chapter concludes with a short, critically reflective examination of practice and makes recommendations for the reader (based on experiential learning) to consider when teaching about trauma in your practice.