Steph is a peer worker currently completing their Cert IV in mental health peer work. Steph is a queer, agender individual who, as a peer worker, uses their own lived experience to support clients mental health and wellbeing.

Some examples of peer work that Steph can provide include:

• Using lived experience examples to validate and normalise clients' experiences of mental health challenges and experiences (including grief, cPTSD, anxiety, depression, dissociative experiences, suicidal ideation, losing a loved on to suicide), autism and ADHD, gender diversity, sexuality, asexuality, non-traditional relationship styles and structures, chronic pain and complex/long-term health conditions, family estrangement, and relational repair after estrangement.
• Providing lived experience perspectives, knowledge, and understanding to support clients to contextualise and understand their experiences.
• Providing lived experience examples of coping strategies and supportive lifestyle modifications and accommodations that they have found helpful in supporting their experiences.
• Supporting clients to understand assessment processes for WPATH, ADHD, and Autism assessments at Q Psychology, and supporting clients to complete paperwork, prepare for these assessments, and discuss the outcomes.
• Supporting clients to identify and access information and/or services that can more specifically support their current experiences and challenges.
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What is peer work?

Peer work is a way of interacting with people in a semi-formal/professional capacity that attempts to capture that ineffable quality that arises from the relationship between people who share, and therefore deeply and intimately understand, similar lived experiences. Peer workers aim to develop relationships with the people they work with based on the principle of mutuality, and in doing so minimise the inherent power imbalances between service providers and people seeking support. More specifically, peer work attempts to use shared understandings and common ground to support recovery, coping, and self-acceptance, and to promote autonomy, self-determination, and hope.