How Do “Mental Health Professionals” Who Are Also or Have Been “Mental Health Service Users” Construct Their Identities?

“Mental health professionals” are increasingly speaking out abouttheir own experiences of using mental health services. However, research suggests thatthey face identity-related dilemmas because social conventions tend to assume twodistinct identities: “professionals” as relatively socially powerful and “patients” ascomparatively powerless. The aim of this study was, through discourse analysis, toexplore how “mental health professionals” with “mental health service user” experience“construct” their identity. Discourse analysis views identity as fluid and continuallyrenegotiated in social contexts. Ten participants were interviewed, and the interviewswere transcribed and analyzed. Participants constructed their identity variously,including as separate “professional” and “patient” identities, switching between thesein relation to different contexts, suggesting “unintegrated” identities. Participantsalso demonstrated personally valued “integrated” identities in relation to someprofessional contexts. Implications for clinical practice and future research areexplored. Positive identity discourses that integrate experiences as a service user anda professional included “personhood” and insider “activist,” drawing in turn ondiscourses of “personal recovery,” “lived experience,” and “use of self.” Theseintegrated identities can potentially be foregrounded to contribute to realizing thesocial value of service user and other lived experience in mental health workers, andhighlighting positive and hopeful perspectives on mental distress