Anything in life could leave you feeling in need of therapy. From crippling heartbreak to mental health and profound family struggles, music about therapy embraces the positive energy of recovery you need while setting you on track to come to terms with the cruel events which brought you here.
This list of songs about therapy collects some of the most powerful songs to get you back on track.
Songs About Therapy
1. Demi Lovato – Skyscraper
Skyscraper was Demi Lovato’s first single after being released from rehab in 2011. Her track is empowered by her personal journey, powerfully transmitting the strength she’s collected through her therapy work.
Her chorus lyrics carry the pure essence of regained power within them, while Demi’s vocalisation reflects the breaking of innocence that poor mental health brings and the desperate fight to alleviate yourself from struggle.
Demi’s troubles have been shamefully exploited in the media for over a decade, yet this song from her first wave of recovery holds a message so strong that it has continued to persist throughout Demi’s life, “I will be rising from the ground like a skyscraper.”
Demi, herself, is an inspirational figure for anyone who needs to make some positive changes to their mental health and recovery process whilst staying strong against the realistic fear of judgement.
2. All Time Low – Therapy
Pop punk band All Time Low included this clear-headed track at the end of their album Nothing Personal, but its obscure position in the tracklisting couldn’t keep its incredibly personal message hidden.
Therapy is an insight into the warping mind of someone in need of help, overshadowed by the needless events that led them there.
This track sings to anyone feeling discarded, almost tormented by a deceitful friendship group while nodding specifically to social anxiety in its second verse, “In a city of fools, I was careful and cool, but they tore me apart like a hurricane … My lungs gave out as I faced the crowd.”
All Time Low implant a clever lyric that almost shows if you need therapy yourself, based on your own interpretation of it: “Arrogant little boy, love yourself so no one has to, they’re better off without you.”
Do you read that line for its depressing face-value, or does it positively imply that you’re better off without them too?
3. Khalid – Therapy
Therapy isn’t all about sinking deeper into misery. Khalid turns the concept inside out to show that love is therapy in itself.
Scattering his lyrics with pharmaceutical references, his love-letter song exposes his addiction to a girl, the only one who can cure him;
“Cause there’s something that you’re doing that has me falling all the way, I’m tripping off your love and all the other drugs we taking, over all the others, you’re the one all over me, I need your therapy.”
Khalid gives an innovatively optimistic twist to the general vibe of songs about therapy, with a sound that embodies fresh perspectives, the bliss of recovery and the feeling of settling into happiness.
4. P!nk – Sober
Sober ‘s melancholic sound is founded in the realistic struggle of hope; that being sober is a good thing, but it hardly ever feels like it.
While P!nk’s lyrics demonstrate the blatant, logical desire to stay intact, the music reflects the true battle of recovery and the demons that ceaselessly haunt you and test the strength of your newfound sobriety.
P!nk is known for packing profound and relatable honesty into her lyrics, peering into some of the most unsung corners of reality which most people likely wouldn’t admit to.
Her chorus captures the sadness of knowing its time to get help and desperately wanting to change despite the comfort you’ve become attuned to, “I’m safe up high, nothing can touch me, but why do I feel this party’s over? No pain inside, you’re my protection, but how do I feel this good sober?”
5. Central Cee – Retail Therapy
Central Cee sparks a whole new conversation in his grime track Retail Therapy, switching traditional therapy for shoe shopping.
Burdensome relationships can leave anyone feeling like they need to vent to someone that understands, which Central Cee does naturally throughout his rap, “toxic relationship with my queen, but me and the T got chemistry” Like Khalid, Central Cee puts a twist on psychiatric and therapeutic drugs, “Feel like I need amphetamine,” while lost in the mania of impulse buying, “Walk-in wardrobe look like the stock room, mum said I’m materialistic.”
Shopping might be an addiction, but Central Cee uses retail therapy to rewrite the damage of his youth; “Back in the day I had one pair of trainers, I wore that s*** till it gave me blisters, none of my cats had whiskers,” giving a zestful take on how you can overcome childhood trauma.
6. Amy Winehouse – Rehab
Most songs on our list are supportive of therapy, but Amy Winehouse’s hit single Rehab gives a more candid approach to the life-changing decision of getting help.
Anchored by the infamous line, “They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said ‘no, no, no’,” Amy plays the part of a woman affirmed that she doesn’t need anyone to tell her that happiness doesn’t “come in a shot glass.”
Her lyrics are apathetic towards professional treatment yet self-assured that she can find a way to fix herself, “I don’t ever wanna drink again, I just need a friend.”
Amy also highlights the undeserved embarrassment felt by those who commit themselves to recovery, alongside the waste of time it truly is to make someone recover before they are ready, “I’m not gonna spend ten weeks, have everyone think I’m on the mend.”
Amy’s song is an anthem for anyone feeling dragged around by people who are trying to help, but who really just make things worse for you.
7. Demi Lovato – Sober
Since we opened this list with Demi’s Skyscraper, it’s only fitting that we end with its evolution. Sober is Demi’s heart-shatteringly raw follow up, released 7 years after her original song about therapy.
In Sober, she opens up again about her addictions; but while Skyscraper dealt with recovery, Sober deals with the destructive nature of relapse.
She bares her heart in a song addressed to the real people around her, in a pure and honest cry for help, “Momma, I’m so sorry I’m not sober any more.. To the ones who never left me, we’ve been down this road before, I’m so sorry, I’m not sober any more.”
The most profound part of this song is the lessons of its aftermath. Only a month after Sober was released, Demi was rushed to hospital from a near-fatal overdose.
Her track holds a pure insight into the mindset of someone who desperately needs help, while its story shows the risks of taking action too late.