{"id":28654,"date":"2025-10-29T11:44:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/?p=28654"},"modified":"2025-10-30T10:08:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:08:51","slug":"uci-ecopsychologist-in-residence-delaney-to-help-students-restore-at-the-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/2025\/10\/29\/uci-ecopsychologist-in-residence-delaney-to-help-students-restore-at-the-shore\/","title":{"rendered":"UCI Ecopsychologist in Residence Delaney to Help Students \u2018Restore at the Shore\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monmouth University Associate Professor Megan Delaney<\/a>, Ph.D., LPC, has joined the Urban Coast Institute (UCI) as its ecopsychologist in residence. In this first-of-its-kind role, Delaney will deliver \u201cRestore at the Shore\u201d programming designed to help students reduce stress and revive their attention and energy for classwork through direct engagement with nature, including ocean and coastal environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Delaney, of the Department of Psychology, has created courses at Monmouth and conducted research with UCI grant support on ecotherapy<\/a>, which focuses on contact with the natural world as a method or element of counseling. According to Delaney, studies have indicated that regular exposure to the environment can reduce stress, obesity, attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder, childhood anxiety, and carry other mental and physical health benefits. Monmouth is one of the few universities in the U.S. to offer an ecotherapy specialization<\/a>, which Delaney designed and oversees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI created the specialty in the graduate professional counseling program because I am an ecotherapist in my private practice. I see my clients all in natural spaces and do a lot of work on their connection with the natural world and how that impacts their mental health, but also how that can help them heal, and how nature is a co-therapist in the whole process,\u201d Delaney said. \u201cThe UCI has been unbelievably supportive all these years in my research, looking both at the outcomes of ecotherapy with clients and students’ experiences in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The residency seeks to present students practical tools for stress relief, concentration restoration, and mental renewal through encounters with water and green spaces. In the near term, Delaney will meet with student clubs with science and nature focuses to offer lessons on ways students can utilize the campus and natural spaces at the shore to reinvigorate themselves when they\u2019re feeling stressed. She said this is especially important for students whose work regularly confronts them with ecological problems that can weight them down emotionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Delaney spoke with the MEBP Club on Oct. 29 about how nature can help with study and rest. After, the group ventured outside to assemble a fall leave mandala.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople very much resonate with their connection to the natural world, or where they feel peace, or where they feel calm, and also where they feel sadness,\u201d Delaney said. \u201cI want to have conversations with as many people as I can that help them identify those feelings and have a plan to cope with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the coming semester, she hopes to organize activities such as nature study breaks, goat yoga, paddleboarding trips, campfires, beach meditation and guided shoreline walks. Delaney will be assisted in organizing the programming by Ian Bley, Sean McCann, and Haley Roberts, all graduate students in the Professional Mental Health Counseling Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delaney is the author of \u201cNature is nurture: Counseling and the natural world,\u201d which combines research and practical application for mental health professionals to infuse nature as a therapeutic partner. She teaches applied and adventure-based ecopsychology courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. Dr. Delaney has a private ecotherapy practice, Therapy Without Walls, LLC<\/a>, and has been a featured contributor to Psychology Today. Her research agenda focuses on clinical outcomes in ecotherapy as well as student experiences in nature-based curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To inquire about collaborating with Dr. Delaney on a Restore at the Shore activity for your club, class or campus activity, email mdelaney@monmouth.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monmouth University Associate Professor Megan Delaney, Ph.D., LPC, has joined the Urban Coast Institute (UCI) as its ecopsychologist in residence. In this first-of-its-kind role, Delaney will deliver \u201cRestore at the Shore\u201d programming designed to help students reduce stress and revive their attention and energy for classwork through direct engagement with nature, including ocean and coastal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":28655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 07:31:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28654"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28662,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28654\/revisions\/28662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/uci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}