Should Social Workers be Tree Huggers?

Welcome back to my blog, where this week we get green by taking social work theory and practice out into nature!

I am incredibly excited to share episode 07 of the Social Work Café with you.

This is because I had the great pleasure of speaking with two fabulous guests: Laura Fletcher and Associate Professor Heather Boetto.

I have known Laura for a number of years as a social work practitioner and academic colleague.

Each session, we run social work intensives, where our online students get the chance to come onto campus for a week and practise their social work skills.

It is a great opportunity for students to meet local social work practitioners, who also come along to facilitate workshops.

When I start to prepare a programme for an intensive, Laura is usually at the top of my list of people to contact.

She has a wealth of practise experience and is always someone who is willing to try something new, whether it be a job or research.

You will get a sense of this when listening to Laura talk about her social work background.

Her insatiable curiosity prompted her to participate in an eco-social work research project co-led by our other fabulous guest and my dear colleague, Heather Boetto.

Heather also has a rich practice background and keeps her feet firmly in the field, especially as a volunteer with local refugee communities.

I have had the great pleasure of working with Heather for a number of years now, and we both graduated with our PhDs in the same year!

I highly recommend checking out Heather’s PhD titled: An ecologically centred approach in social work: Towards transformative change.

You can see why I wanted to speak with her about environmental social work.

In order to unpack this topic, we chatted about the eco-social work research project.

(Click here for a symposium presentation involving several of the participants.)

It was a group project based on sharing knowledge and exploring ways to implement environmental social work in practice.

Some of you might be thinking, “What does the natural environment have to do with social work, and why the heck do I need to bring it into my practice?”

As Heather explains, conventional social work, with its modernist roots, often positioned humans outside of the natural environment, so it was largely ignored.

You can see this in one of our most popular practice theories, ecological systems theory, which traditionally centres social systems.

It is strange for a theory drawing from “ecology” to ignore the natural environment!

Fortunately, we are transforming our knowledge and practice base to centre the natural environment in social work theory and practice.

This means social work is embracing the worldview that humans are intrinsically interconnected with the natural environment, as explained by Heather.

As we discussed, these ideas are actually not new, but have finally taken root in social work against the backdrop of climate change, which impacts absolutely everything and especially marginalised populations.

 Laura and Heather talk in detail about the successes and joys of the eco-social work research project.

They share multiple insights about how participants developed a beautiful community of practice to support one another both professionally and personally.

They also describe a multidimensional process involving advocating for change at the team and organisational levels, as well as working alongside individuals and communities.

For example, Laura speaks about articulating to her managers how environmental social work can lead to improved outcomes in mental health.

Laura then explains that when working with clients, it is vital to allow them to generate ideas about sustainable activities and connecting with nature.

What a wonderful example of facilitating ownership of the process, which reflects social work values of self-determination!

I also love the five levels of practice that Heather describes for environmental social work, starting with the personal.

 (Where can I pick up my gold star for using SmartArt?)

After explaining these layers, both Heather and Laura give practical advice for dear listeners.

My favourite piece of advice was about making small changes, even in your personal life.

To me, this resonates with solution-focused brief therapy.

One small change often leads to more small changes.

I think this is especially crucial for environmental social work because we can often feel overwhelmed by the impacts of climate change and the huge task ahead.

But, small changes can add up to big changes.  

The beauty of chatting with two guests in this episode is that you get two definitions of social work!

Both are short, sweet, and powerful.

Laura made a good case for providing a contextual definition as opposed to one that encompasses the whole profession.

Her definition is:

Social work starts where the person is at.

I think this is a definition that would resonate with clients when we first connect with them, and as Laura says, it can then be expanded depending on who you are talking to.

Heather stays within the environmental social work context with this elegant definition:

Social work IS environmental social work.

Before you say this is circular, Heather goes on to explain that her definition is about social work getting to the point where we don’t need to use the term “environmental” because it is embedded in the profession.

What do you think?

I left our conversation with so many ideas about little things I could do to be more connected with the environment.

On that note, I see a beautiful crepe myrtle outside my home office that needs a hug.

Stay green social work.

Dr. B