Teachers working in under-resourced contexts struggle to provide psychosocial support to learners. In this article, we focus on 10 teacher participants' reflections of how a transformative action research process enhanced their collective capacity for initiating sustainable learner support. A linked participatory action learning and action research (PALAR)-life design (LD) process initiated at their school with an LD counsellor, assisted them to provide sustainable support at the school. LD enabled teacher participants to build on personal and professional narratives as a foundation for embarking on the PALAR process to attain positive change. LD deepened their psychological understanding of the link between their past and present, which remained a sustainable motivation throughout the PALAR process. Data generated from transcriptions of action learning group discussions and teacher reflections during the project were thematically analysed. Findings suggest that the PALAR-LD process is suitable to enable the sustained addressing of contextual challenges, through the development of action leadership in teachers. Although the LD process has to be initiated together with an LD counsellor, teachers can then sustain the PALAR process on their own, making it both cost-effective and feasible. The framework has value for enhancing learner support in contexts of social and economic adversity.