The Wild Shift Journal

The Growth Route (Or, The Root — To Keep On Brand)

Katie Stacey Published on: 16/04/2026

Every transformation needs a track to run on. Mine is a 4km loop through the mountains of Asturias that I've walked in every season, every mood and every version of myself — with babies on my back, dogs dragging me round, and more recently with an ACT course in my ears and orchids on the verge. This is about how a familiar route becomes a growth practice, why the landscape matters less than you think, and the question that lives with me every time I walk it. Plus an excerpt from my book No Paradise with Wolves — where the Loop began.

MEET THE Author

Hi, I'm Katie!

I spent a decade as a wildlife journalist documenting how environments shape behaviour — from Peregrine Falcons in Chicago, to otter families in Singapore, the return of wildlife to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to the return of wildlife to our finca in Asturias. Then I had children.

And I realised I'd been studying parenting all along.

The same principle that restores ecosystems restores families. You don't force change, you restore the conditions.

That insight became The Wild Shift™.

Wildlife journalist — BBC Wildlife, National Geographic, Geographical

Author of No Paradise with Wolves (Earth Books, 2025)

Founder of The Wild Shift™ and the ROOTS Framework™ — a nature-led parenting methodology for parents of children aged 10 and under.

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