“Music can heal the wounds which medicine cannot touch.” − Debasish Mridha – An American Philosopher
Man has been into music since Biblical times. As a matter of fact, King Saul sent for David to play the harp when he was sad and disturbed. The history of mankind is rich with such incidents where man has articulated his emotions and feeling through music. Since the earliest civilization, man has played different musical instruments such as bone flutes, jaw harps, and percussive instruments.
Music is influencing our lives in every possible way. Music’s evolution has affected the world through centuries; one of them is healthcare. Mental treatment techniques such as counseling therapy, guided listening, or improvisational playing have been embedded with music. But why is music incorporated into mental health therapies? Is it merely an experiment or hope or much more than this? Studies have deduced that music therapy is effective in healing because it is translated to the brain via nonverbal communication.
Moreover, music is differently linked to the brain and promotes cellular connections throughout the central nervous system that are critical to healthy functioning and responses to environmental challenges. That’s why it is implied in mental therapies and counseling. Propelling and nurturing the process of mental disorder healing, Alonzo Carlos DeCarlo devised Rap Therapy to address maladaptive aggressive behavior and instill social-emotional protective factors for youth and young adults stuck in at-risk living conditions.
In 1999, DeCarlo invented a unique technique entitled “Rap Therapy;” this innovative group psychotherapy was formulated by targeting the urban ethnic minorities adolescents who were in need of social and emotional protective factors and those involved in maladaptive aggressive behavior. His practice was later extended cross-culturally to adolescents and young adults globally. His technique has been described as groundbreaking, and versions of his work can be found in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States. Along with his musical therapeutic technique, DeCarlo has also introduced revolutionary concepts to the behavioral sciences such as Traumatic Experiential Acute Response State (TEARS) and Opprejudice.
Besides being an exceptional psychologist, clinical social worker, public intellectual, Fulbright scholar, and actor, DeCarlo has been in academics for more than 20 years. He is a valuable asset with his extensive experience in academic affairs, including serving as a tenured faculty member, international scholar, division chair, associate provost, vice-chancellor, and director of graduate and professional programs.
DeCarlo is a system thinker skilled in coaching educational leaders to develop long-term strategic plans for various institutions. He is also a senior visionary leader with vast experience in accreditation processes, having served as a university accreditation liaison officer and peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission. DeCarlo has received multimillion-dollar grants from the National Science Foundation and has written several accredited graduate and undergraduate programs. His leadership in academe spans the range of associate through doctoral degree-granting and minority institutions of higher learning.
DeCarlo has authored numerous theoretical and empirical studies regarding his technique. Some of his selected publications include The Culture of Education and Experiential Polemics, published by Author House in 2021. In this book, DeCarlo critically expressed his thoughts on Black Americans and the institutional impositions weighing heavily on them. He rationally dives into diverse topics such as psychiatry, sexual orientation, religion, culture, social justice, neuroscience, identity, psychology, and technology. DeCarlo demonstrated a philosophical, provocative, and refreshing intellectual depth in his book with keen insight. He has brilliantly summarized over a century of scholarly discourse on Black identity in the book’s statement on Black American existential struggles.
His other works include A Reason for reasonable doubt in social justice: The Weight of Poverty, race, and Gender in lopsided homicide case clearances outcomes, A Collaborative Control Governance Model to Address the Politics of Mental Health and Juvenile Justice for Urban Minority Youth, A developmental explanatory model of maladaptive aggressive dispositions in urban African American adolescents and many more.
DeCarlo holds a doctorate in Developmental Psychology and a Master of Arts in Experimental Psychology from the University of Toledo. He also earned a Master’s in Clinical Social Work with an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Wayne State University. His research is centered on mental health policy and social justice issues. His most recent work involves investigating the mental health industry and Black Americans and is due to be published during the fall of 2023.
Conclusively, Alonzo Carlos DeCarlo is amalgamating mental therapies with music, which is novel and remarkable. DeCarlo has established himself as a mental health juvenile justice expert, a psychotherapy consultant, and mental health evaluator through his innovations and literature. He is also aligned with several notable community and charitable organizations. In collaboration with university stakeholders and non-profit organizations, DeCarlo facilitated policy and best practice implementation around risk and protective factors for trauma-exposed youth and young adults.
