Speaking Grey
Lived Experience → Knowledge → Agency
Speaking Grey
Lived Experience → Knowledge → Agency
We begin where most mental health resources do not — with what people are actually living through. We document it, identify what it means, and translate it into tools that others can use.
Most mental health systems are built for experiences that are easier to define, name, and standardize.
Speaking Grey works in the spaces that often remain fragmented, misunderstood, or unsupported.
Experiences shaped by chronic illness, fibromyalgia, schizophrenia, DID, bipolar disorder, progressive conditions, and invisible disability.
Not only medically complex — but emotionally and socially layered.
Migration grief, caregiver fatigue, identity fragmentation, economic constraints, queerness, displacement, and realities shaped by cultural context.
Experiences that are often felt deeply but poorly translated by existing systems.
We stay with lived experiences long enough to identify what matters underneath them — then translate those insights into language, tools, and support systems others can actually use.
Reflection notes
Interviews & conversations
Lived experiences in context
Emotional patterns
Language gaps
Systemic & structural realities
Recurring themes
Tools & guides
Fellowships & programs
Resources & frameworks
Conversations that drive change
Our work sits at the intersection of empathy and analysis, where lived experience is the most honest map we have to build mental health agency.
Each resource begins with a specific lived experience — not abstraction. The goal is not visibility alone, but language, reflection, and agency people can actually use in real life.
Short-form reflections that give shape to what is often hard to say.
Practical resources for everyday realities that are rarely understood or supported well.
Long-form essays, personal stories, and conversations that create shared understanding.
A platform for lived-experience writers and researchers to deepen, develop, and lead.
Our work sits at the intersection of empathy and analysis, where lived experience is the most honest map we have to build mental health agency.
the grey
Speaking Grey is shaped by lived experience, interdisciplinary thinking, and the belief that the people closest to complexity often carry the clearest insight into it. Our work brings together founders, caregivers, researchers, creatives, strategists, and people navigating realities that systems often fail to fully hold.
Aditi Joshi is the founder of Speaking Grey, a mental health nonprofit working at the intersection of mental health and complex lived experience. An engineer with an MBA, she founded Speaking Grey during the pandemic, inspired by her journey with mental health and fibromyalgia, and has grown it into a global community that translates complex lived experience into language, knowledge, and agency. Speaking Grey brings together storytelling, peer support, practical tools, and advocacy for people navigating mental health, disability, caregiving, chronic illness, and other complex experiences.
A builder at heart, Aditi has built communities at WeWork, forged global strategic partnerships, and collaborated with organisations including the US Space Force. She is a recipient of the Diana Award, the most prestigious award for young changemakers, and has consulted on ICONIQ's $200M youth mental health fund. She was previously a fellow with Estée Lauder x Vital Voices and Marshalls, among others.
She is also the producer of the podcast Jane's Place and co-author of the Kindness Unleashed children's series, beginning with Hugs Are Happy — a book to help young readers understand kindness, connection, and the power of a hug.
“The absence of language around mental health is a structural gap — not a personal failing. Speaking Grey exists to close it.”
From lived experience to knowledge to agency.
Write to us, share your story, or learn more about fellowship.