M.I.N News Rap Therapy

Rap Therapy: Hip Hop Psychotherapy

Throughout urban settings ranging from Boston, New York to Chicago psychotherapist Don Elligan began to treat his clients by using rap music therapeutically. His technique is called Rap Therapy.

I first encountered “Rap Therapy” while doing some research on the psychological effects of rap music. My first reaction was one of deep skepticism. These days the word therapy is adjacent to almost everything in some type of a gimmick. I wasn’t going to read the article but my curiosity had me asking “what’s this moron trying to sell”? However, to my surprise as I began to read I started to conclude that Rap Therapy was both sound and legitimate.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Don Elligan says he was the first to coin the term Rap Therapy. Born in Chicago in 1968, Dr. Elligan grew up with rap music (which began in the early 70’s but gained popularity in the 80’s and 90’s) but he mostly credits the kids whom he has worked with for his insights into rap music and it’s effects on developing young minds. He started to write about rap therapy in Boston while working at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Elligan takes credit for first quantifying and delineating the theoretical framework of Rap Therapy. Rap Therapy is a form of psychotherapy which is the use of different modalities to help people find answers to the challenges that they encounter whether their obstacles be emotional, behavioral or cognitive. Although Dr. Elligan says he prefers the cognitive behavioral approach to psychotherapy he also refer to his style as being rather “eclectic”. With Rap Therapy he’s treated ailments such as substance abuse, depression, low self-esteem, anger management and anxiety disorder. He calls Rap therapy a culturally sensitive approach to psychotherapy.

In a interview I had with Dr. Elligan he said that “Rap Therapy is basically utilizing Rap music or Hiphop culture as a tool, a resource to develop a relationship and potentially influence some sort of positive change for people who are influenced and fans of Rap and Hiphop music”.

There are 5 phases to Rap Therapy 1) assessment, 2) alliance, 3) reframing, 4) role play with reinforcement, 5)action & maintenance. In the assessment stage the therapist will try to find out if the client is significantly influenced by rap music. The therapist will get to know the client at this stage and find out how the client’s self-identity is shaped by rap. Self-identity Dr. Elligan says is “just basically how you define yourself”. The alliance stage aims to form a bond with the client. He suggests through Rap Therapy a bond can be formed “by being empathic and supportive” of the clients interest in rap. During reframing and restructuring “the clinician attempts to broaden the client’s scope of appreciation for rap music”. Then they go on to restructure “what rap music means to the client”. Role play with reinforcement is a creative stage within Rap Therapy. During this stage the client is encouraged to create rap lyrics. These acts of creativity function as a therapeutic device for the client. Action and maintenance is the final stage where results begin to appear. Dr. Elligan says that the stages are flexible and not necessarily hierarchical, rather they serve as a general template for the therapist to use.

I asked Dr. Elligan what he thought the biggest misconception of Rap Therapy was? He answered “probably the biggest misconception is that Rap Therapy endorses some of the anti-social things, the anti-social commentary discussed in rap music”. He maintains that Rap Therapy is neutral and non-judgmental in this respect.

Dr. Elligan believes that Rap therapy is catching on in the world of psychotherapy “slowly but surely”. He says that “a lot of psychologists that I’ve spoke to that work in urban settings are incorporating rap music into therapy”. Unfortunately there is no data to quantified how wide spread this practice has become.

Dr. Elligan’s book “Rap Therapy” is available in bookstores throughout North America.