• Question: do you help people from your own experience?

    Asked by anon-204423 to Sally, Lucy, Louise, James, David, Dan on 2 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sally Tilt

      Sally Tilt answered on 2 Mar 2019: last edited 2 Mar 2019 11:32 am

      I’ve never been convicted of an offence or served a prison sentence – so on the surface I might not seem like someone who could relate my own experiences to that of a prisoner. However, I have tried to change my behaviour (get fitter, lose weight, use Facebook less frequently); I’ve also had some difficult experiences in life and sometimes get angry or frustrated with situations or with people (as we all do as humans). And these are just the same type of difficulties as a person might have that I work with in prison.

      The neat thing about human behaviour is that it follows patterns – our brains generally tend to learn to behave in a particular way, and this applies whether we are looking at criminal behaviour, losing weight or reducing time spent on Fortnite. So in that sense I would sometimes reflect on my own experiences when I am at work.

    • Photo: Dan Taylor

      Dan Taylor answered on 2 Mar 2019:

      In my research this is far less central. As my focus is on understanding other people, from a perspective that is as objective as possible. As a lecturer, I do use my personal experience to help understand and motivate students. I only finihed my undergraduate two years ago and found I really struggled when I first came to university. Being able to be the best example as to why I know they can succeed is fantastic! I think it helps that my advice comes from a real place, from experiences that come close to their own!

    • Photo: Lucy Maddox

      Lucy Maddox answered on 2 Mar 2019:

      Yes and no.

      Some of what I use to try to help people is from research showing what is most effective – so I rely on the scientific evidence to help me know what to suggest.

      But… I do try to use my own experiences – for example of feeling really sad, or finding it hard to make decisions, or finding it hard to make a change, to empathise with people more and really try to understand things from their point of view.

      It’s important that I don’t make too many assumptions based on my own experience though, and keep asking questions, because otherwise I might presume I know how someone feels and get it really wrong.

    • Photo: David Chadwick

      David Chadwick answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      The experience that I have gained over many years I try to pass on to my researchers today.

    • Photo: Louise Rodgers

      Louise Rodgers answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      Its not massively important in my job that I’ve had exactly the same educational needs or difficulties that the children and young people in schools might have, but I do have to have genuine empathy with them. Everyone is the product of their experience in life and no two people have had exactly the same parenting, opportunities, etc. I do not have an autistic spectrum condition or ADHD for example, but this doesn’t stand in the way of me trying to understand and help children who do.

      However, I very much remember what its like to be a child and feel powerless or scared or that things are overwhelmingly hard (and that your friends are the most important people in the world) so I try to use these memories to empathise with young people and try to enter their world. This doesn’t mean that I expect their experiences to be exactly the same as my own – I try to keep that in mind too.

    • Photo: James Munro

      James Munro answered on 10 Mar 2019:

      Hey Karis,

      I have suffered from mental health issues in my time, and I have experienced some of the stigma involved in that. I want to make sure that I do everything I can to help any student or colleague who might be experiencing something similar. So I am mental health first-aid trained, and am trained to help students with very learning disabilities or psychological disorders.

      Last week was LGBTQ+ history month, and every day I wrote about a psychologist or event in psychology which helped bring quality and understanding.

      I help my students as much as possible with their experience of going through university. It can be tough, and give people a lot of anxiety problems when their education is being graded. I’ve been there.

      Hope that answers your question 🙂

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