Welcome to this eight-week program that explores the therapeutic applications of Hip Hop as a culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and developmentally appropriate vehicle to foster engagement, regulation, and integration for complex and developmental trauma.
These workshops will be led by a collaborative of innovators in the field who will engage participants in various expressive exercises such as lyrical analysis, beat making, rhyme writing, and rapping. This series will give a basic introduction to the various ways in which Hip Hop can be integrated into the therapeutic process. The neurophysiological implications of Hip Hop integrated approaches as they relate to understanding and addressing trauma will be explored through these experiential activities.
Session 1: Feeling the Beat: An Introduction to Beats, Breaks, Beat Making and Hip Hop Music Instructor: Elliot Gann, Psy.D., Executive Director, Today’s Future Sound
This interactive workshop will make use of multisensory integration and learning to teach the fundamentals of beat making/drum programming, starting with the core of Hip Hop beats and its origin in “The Breaks.”
Session 2: Feeling the Beat Part II: Bringing it Home, Instructor: Elliot Gann, Psy.D., Executive Director, Today’s Future Sound
This workshop will build upon Part I and introduce the fundamentals of programming drums/beats on a free, web-based, beat making application.
Session 3: Freestyle Therapy Cypher: Improvisational Growth & Healing Through The Art of Freestyle Rap
This interactive workshop will allow participants to experience the therapeutic aspects inherent in the art of freestyling (spontaneous, improvisational rapping). Using Rhythmic Mind’s Freestyle Therapy Cypher model, participants will focus on developing emotional awareness and expression through a fun and enlivening activity.
Instructors:
Jonah Scott, AMFT, Co-Founder/Co-Executive Director, Rhythmic Mind
Max Kline, AMFT, Co-Founder/Co-Executive Director, Rhythmic Mind
Session 4: “Love Yourz:” Reaffirming the Self through Lyrics
(A) This workshop uses Hip Hop and Empowerment (MUZUZE) strategies including the use of music as a vehicle to reflect upon identity and the self in the context of trauma and the potential of healthy development across the life course.
Instructors:
Aaron Rodwin, LMSW , PhD Student, New York University, Silver School of Social Work, Therapist at Humantold
Dr. Raphael Travis, LCSW , Professor and MSW Program Director, Texas State University, San Marcos, Executive Director of FlowStory, PLLC
Session 5: Growth: From Surviving to Thriving through Lyrics
(B) This workshop uses Hip Hop and Empowerment (MUZUZE) strategies including the use of music to help move beyond only coping and survival, to also focus on thriving across the life-course. Activities will also highlight how to improve personal growth in ways to be of service to others, especially through mentorship and role-modeling.
Instructor: Dr. Raphael Travis, LCSW , Associate Professor and MSW Program Director at Texas State University, San Marcos, Executive Director of FlowStory, PLLC
Session 6: Rhythm And Poetry (RAP): Implications for Traumatic Processing
This workshop will provide an introduction to the art of rapping by delving into the concept of “flow,” or rhyming rhythmically to a beat. Learn the basics of writing rap lyrics, its roots in the poetic tradition, and explore how the metrical movement within the words themselves can be a useful tool for regulation and traumatic processing.
Instructor: J.C. Hall, LMSW, School Social Worker/ Hip Hop Therapy Studio Program Director at Mott Haven Community High School
Session 7: What Rhymes with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?
This workshop will concentrate on the intricacies of rhyming, from identifying different types of rhyme (perfect, imperfect, mosaic. etc.) to the advanced technique of crafting multisyllabic rhyme schemes.
Instructor: J.C. Hall, LMSW, School Social Worker/ Hip Hop Therapy Studio Program Director at Mott Haven Community High School
Session 8: The Remix: Re-Author Your Narrative Through Beats & Rhymes
(Rhythmic Mind X Today’s Future Sound)
This workshop will explore the therapeutic power and potential of re-authoring one’s personal narrative, through the use of beat making and lyric writing. Participants will learn some of the narrative dynamics of both Rhythmic Mind and Today’s Future Sound’s models, and will be led through a visualization and lyric writing exercise focused on the process of re-authoring one’s narrative.
Instructors:
Jonah Scott, AMFT, Co-Founder/Co-Executive Director, Rhythmic Mind
Max Kline, AMFT, Co-Founder/Co-Executive Director, Rhythmic Mind
Elliot Gann, Psy.D., Executive Director, Today’s Future Sound
