Hip-Hop and Spoken Word Therapy: Strategies for Mental Health

• In Event: Remixing Response-ability: An Interactive Session Exploring Accountability and Praxis in Hip-Hop-Based Education and Research

Abstract

Addressing the mental health needs of students has become a growing concern amongst educators and school leaders as 25% of adolescents are diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Moreover, students in urban contexts are more likely to experience mental health challenges as they face environmental stressors in their communities that stem from a long history of structural racism, institutional racism, and discriminatory practices. Research demonstrates that promoting positive mental health with adolescents can lessen the impact of mental health concerns (Kelly, Jorm, & Wright, 2007). In an attempt to support educators who are interested in supporting the positive mental health of their students, this paper identifies a number of culturally responsive strategies that are anchored in hip-hop culture that can be implemented in the classrooms. The authors draw from frameworks anchored in hip-hop to develop practical strategies that classroom teachers can use to support students in processing and coping with mental health stressors.
Journaling is an activity that involves exploring your thoughts and feelings surrounding the events of your life. For the hip-hop based strategy, Mental Health Journaling students are encouraged to design a mental health notebook in which they can engage and respond to multiple mental health prompts to process daily stressors. For this practice, journaling draws from the Hip Hop and Spoken Word Therapy tool of lyric writing as cognitive and emotional journaling that tasks students with writing lyric-based journal entries to process the emergence of specific difficult thoughts and feelings emotions outside of sessions. During this session, the presenters will take attendees through the process of pinpointing a salient emotional theme, which they will explore emotionally and cognitively through lyric writing.

Authors

• Edmund S Adjapong, Seton Hall University

• Ian Levy, Manhattan College