TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 2-FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 2 269 interventions in the counseling process (Kobin & Tyson, 2006; Travis & Deepak, 2011; Tyson, 2002; Washington, 2018). This research engendered hip-hop and spoken word therapy (HHSWT), a culturally responsive counseling process whereby students engage in previously validated counseling interventions through the process of writing, recording, and performing hip-hop music (Levy, 2012; Levy & Keum, 2014). The development of HHSWT over time has thoroughly examined varying hip-hop cultural processes and how those might be used inside counseling offices. For instance, HHSWT offers clinicians a set of hip-hop–centered tools that they can use in the counseling process to support youth in exploring difficult thoughts and feelings. These tools include the hip-hop cypher to support group process and sharing (Levy, Emdin, &Adjapong, 2018), creating emotionally themed mixtapes (Levy, Cook, & Emdin, 2018), lyric writing as emotive journaling, and dyadic song collaboration as role-play (Levy, 2019). Each of these HHSWT techniques offers a culturally salient process in which youth of color can disclose and process difficult thoughts and feelings with their counselor. Levy (2019) found a school counselors’ use of HHSWT in group counseling inside of a school hip-hop recording studio positively supported students’ social and emotional development. The Hip-Hop Recording Studio When aiming to design culturally responsive counseling environments, it is important to note that the hip-hop recording studio also has held an important place in hip-hop culture and is largely unexplored in counseling literature. Harkness (2014) defined the hip-hop recording studio as a symbolic space or “a zone in which identity and meaning are shaped by social exchanges that occur within a culturally specific location” (p. 85). Harkness locates these studios as “sites for legitimization and personal transformation” where artists convene to collaborate on music as a “means of identity construction and development” (p. 85). Home-studios mark a shift of power into the hands of youth, who have easy access to technology and online media to create and release their own content and shape hip-hop music and culture (Harkness, 2014). Harkness conducted a content analysis of interviews with rappers and producers wherein they describe the value of studios as adapted home environments and places for self-discovery and authenticity. His findings offer insight into how hip- hop practices might be used in the design of culturally responsive environments for urban youth. Harkness (2014) illuminated that studios are often built wherever they can fit, like inside of a rapper’s room, basement, living room, or bathroom. Rappers described the need to have studios be aesthetically pleasing, with foam padding on the walls and dim lighting. For many artists, entering a recording booth to rhyme legitimized their thoughts and feelings and generated “an identity shift where they began to define themselves” (Harkness, 2014, p. 91). Although participants in the Harkness study certainly enjoyed being in recording studios, they were adamant about labeling studios as places where serious work and emotional labor occurred. Inside studios, artists felt required to display authentic reflections of their lived experiences in their music and their environment. Overall, the creation of studio spaces is not about how prestigious they look, but more about whether or not the aesthetics of the environment enable artists to carry out the hard work and emotional labor necessary for the discovery of one’s true self. Purpose of the Present Study Given that (a) a limited number of studies have explored clients’ opinions and perspectives on changes made by school counselors to a school counseling space, (b) most studies focus on designing counseling environments outside of schools, and (c) the school counseling profession lacks research on multicultural office design, there is a need for research exploring the processes by which students themselves engage in the construction of culturally salient school counseling spaces. Consequently, the purpose of this exploratory action research was to illuminate the experiences of urban youth of color who were part of a classroom-based school counseling intervention in which they co-created a space