Hip Hop Therapy (In schools)
Hip Hop Therapy is an avenue which we use hip-hop music as a platform to discuss and educate youth on the various aspects of mental health and mental health awareness. The topics include anxiety, depression, suicide, etc. Through the use of Hip-Hop lyrics and content, the stage is set to provide valuable material which creates a dialogue with the children. This exchange yields a deeper understanding of the importance of mental wellness and how to appropriately address mental issues when they arise.
Our purpose was to create a platform to open up the dialogue with youth at the middle school and high school level. Our dialogue explores such questions as:
• What does depression feel like?
• What does it look like?
• How does one positively deal with depression?
• Have you ever experienced depression?
• What are the challenges associated with depression and anxiety?
Hip Hop Therapy uses the hip-hop industry as a platform to open up discussion with children about mental illness/ wellness issues that are often in media. By using these songs that have coded messages, we provide clarity and understanding to identify mental health issues through songs.
This dialogue has a two-fold impact:
1. Our youth will have a better understanding how to identify and deal with issues relative to maintaining a healthy mental posture.
2. Assist our youth with increasing their empathy, identifying and understanding mental health issues in others, and the direct or indirect impacts of untreated mental health issues.

The Goal is to provide some Mental Health Education along with discussion about the various mental health issues that are impacting their age group. During this time, we will be addressing: 1) How to identify issues like anxiety, depression and self-esteem issues (how to deal with them in a healthy manner);