Epicormic Growth: Practice Frameworks in Times of Climate Crisis

“In this age of climate crisis and separation from nature, we can no longer escape the connection between human nature and green nature, between human health and the health of the planet. How did it ever happen?” – Sue Stuart-Smith

Two hundred and forty-five days of COVID lockdowns. The devastation of the Black Saturday bushfires. A recent flood.

Tanya Bearup has experienced natural disasters as a victim, survivor, and therapist.

Drawing on Tanya’s interest in integrating metaphor into her work — and to illustrate her connection to nature — I return to her words from this podcast episode about epicormic growth: the regenerative shoots that emerge from a tree after fire.

“And yet there’s a little shoot, there’s a little shoot still there. You just need to prune it back and then nurture that growth again.”

Tanya’s belief that nature’s resilience mirrors our own human nature to adapt and heal reflects the budding of her own new growth. This is evident in her commitment to nurturing land and Country through the wisdom of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and most importantly, in seeing herself as part of community, and part of the solution.

Perhaps this podcast conversation itself facilitates reflective practice for Tanya. Perhaps she may “prune” aspects of her post-traumatic growth in order to nurture something new. As I write this blog, I too reflect on our conversation and notice how clearly Tanya’s values and beliefs form the foundation of her practice framework.

From this foundation, she integrates existing skills and knowledge, practice theories and modalities, scope of practice, relevant legislation, organisational policy, and professional ethics and standards. In doing so, she demonstrates how private practitioners can consolidate and integrate these components to inform sound clinical decision-making.

Yet there is something more within this framework that has nurtured Tanya.

Wilkins and Moorhead (2023), in their podcast discussion on social work identity, inform my thinking here. Wilkins describes an “emerging social work practice framework model” consisting of components. These include:

• Outer components — individuals, families, communities, and demographic contexts

• Use of self — the professional and personal lens brought to practice

• Legal and political frameworks — organisational policy, legislation, ethics, practice standards and the broader sociopolitical environment

Add to this Tanya’s theoretical knowledge and experiential learning; the influence of Carl Rogers and person-centred theory; her skills as both social worker and horticulturalist; and the legislative frameworks under which she practises. The result is a complete practice framework that is adaptable to an eco-informed approach.

Each component of Tanya’s practice framework mirrors the components of a living ecosystem.

Biotic and abiotic components, the living and non living elements of an ecosystem that create and maintain stability and resilience within the ecosystem. The communities, micro-environments, organisation of nutrient and water flow, and the impact of floods and fire on the entire system.  

Each element working with the others to grow within — and despite — the climate.

Just as the green nature Tanya works within every day supports ecological regeneration, her practice framework supports her human nature. This connection supports  the impact of cumulative trauma resulting from both personal adversity and natural disasters.

In correspondence following the floods at Cumberland River in December 2025, Tanya reflected on cumulative trauma and her capacity to navigate it through knowledge, skill, and lived experience — both as therapist and as human.

She could not, and did not, escape the connection between human nature and green nature.

Like epicormic shoots after fire, growth does not erase the burn marks. It grows because of them.