Dr. Cheyenne Bryant Sets Record Straight About Doctorate Degree
CAP & Gown? Dr. Cheyenne Bryant Says She ‘Won’t Prove Anything’ As Doctoral Doubters Demand Dissertation Defense Receipts —’My Obedience Is To God’
Dr. Cheyenne Bryant is making one thing crystal clear: she’s unbothered by the internet’s nonstop debate over her doctorate degree and now she's setting the record straight.
Dr. Cheyenne Bryantis making one thing crystal clear: she’s unbothered by the internet’s CAP and gown grumblings over her doctorate degree. During an appearance on The Breakfast Club, Bryant addressed the doctoral doubters head-on, before adding to journalist Marissa Mitchell that she has no intention of proving her credentials to the public.
“I have multiple degrees, and I’m not going to prove anything to anybody,” Bryant said. “My obedience is to God, not to people.”
On her May 12 appearance on The Breakfast Club, the conversation took a serious turn when radio host Loren LoRosa asked Bryant about the growing online skepticism surrounding her credentials. Over the past few months, social media users have accused Bryant of being a “fraud” and a “scammer,” with critics claiming they could not locate records of her dissertation or documentation confirming her doctorate, making her an illegitimate therapist. On her website, Bryant states that she earned a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the now-defunct Argosy University and has a Master’s degree in Marriage, Family, & Child Therapy.
According to Bryant, she completed the doctoral program while the school was still accredited. However, years later, when she attempted to retrieve her official transcripts while preparing for law school, she discovered that the university had already closed.
“I said, oh, well, they got to have records. I mean, they were accredited when I attended the school. They were accredited when I finished the program. I go and look, there is a third party that has the records where I contact the third party. That third party only holds records for two years.”
Bryant explained that because she missed the two-year deadline to retrieve the records, she was ultimately left without access to official documentation.
“And then I contacted financial aid. You can’t make up financial aid. It shows that I paid for a doctoral program alongside my master’s program and my undergrad program, and they said we can fully refund your money under one circumstance, we give you your money back. You don’t get credit for not a class, a course, a program you took in this university….So do you want us to refund you? Or do you want us not? I said no, because I didn’t want to risk the chance of them saying what we’re going to give you back your money, and it wipes out your entire program.”
Bryant also shared that she was able to download portions of her academic records from the Argosy student portal, “including up to” her dissertation, but claims many of the remaining files were no longer available. She added that other former students from the university experienced similar issues.
Dr. Cheyenne Bryant says she does not need a doctorate to be a licensed therapist.
Still, Bryant insists the doctorate controversy does not impact her professional path. She explained that if she ever wanted to pursue LMFT licensure to become a licensed therapist, she already has the educational background and clinical experience required through her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and her years working as a child therapist. She said the next steps would simply involve submitting her credentials, taking the licensing exam, and studying for it.
“I don’t need a doctorate in counseling psychology to go get licensed as a therapist. That’s what were all missing,” she added.
Bryant also pushed back against claims that her popularity is rooted in “pretty privilege” or internet fame rather than genuine purpose.
“I didn’t get into this field to become famous, to become a celebrity. I got in this field because I was a little girl from the inner city who was tenacious and determined to make it out,” she told The Breakfast Club hosts. “And I had a lot of broken pieces and abandonment. And when God provided me tools that helped me take my broken pieces and make peace from it, go from my wilderness into my promised land, which I talk about in my book, Live Your Promise, I thought, wait a minute, I got to make sure I give everybody I come in contact with these principles because everyone deserves that freedom and that healing that I’m experiencing, what I call God’s peace. All right?”
At one point during the interview she sent a pointed message to detractors.
“Listen, I don’t give a f–K what your narrative is. I would like you to recreate it, double down on it and run that sh–t, because I don’t give a f–k about it,” she fired back at critics during the interview Tuesday.
More on the flip, including Dr. Cheyenne breaking down why she’s not “proving” her credentials to anyone.
Despite the continued scrutiny, Bryant is standing firm and has made it clear she has no intention of publicly proving her credentials to critics.
Source: Jamea Beavers / Getty
After her Breakfast Club interview went viral, she appeared on The Marissa Mitchell Show and doubled down on her stance when asked why she refuses to provide proof of her doctorate degree.
“I have multiple degrees, and I’m not going to prove anything to anybody,” Bryant said. “My obedience is to God, not to people.”
When host Marissa Mitchell pressed her on why she would not simply provide documentation amid the growing skepticism, Bryant maintained that her work speaks for itself.
“My proof isn’t something that I have to approve to individuals,” she said. “My proof is already within my credentials, my degrees, and also more than just my titles, it’s in how effective I’ve been.”
Bryant also pointed to her highly visible sessions with celebrities, including Nick Cannon, Cam Newton, Shannon Sharpe, and B. Simone, as evidence of her impact and legitimacy.
“All of my sessions have been live,” she said. “No one knew who Dr. Bryant was prior to seeing all of my sessions that were live… They deemed my work effective before they deemed me validating myself.”
The conversation became more pointed when Mitchell directly asked Bryant why she continues using the title “Doctor” if she cannot produce the doctoral degree publicly.
“I’ve earned the title,” Bryant responded. “I have multiple degrees, and I’m not going to prove anything to anybody… Yeah, Dr. Cheyenne Bryant, baby.”
Social media users react to Dr. Cheyenne Bryant’s Breakfast Club Interview.
As expected, social media had plenty to say after the interview aired. Some users remained unconvinced by Bryant’s explanation.
“Cheyenne Bryant did all that talking in circles to essentially say she is not a doctor. I told y’all years ago shawty was a fraud. Yall love platforming a scammer while hating the actual credentialed people,” one critic wrote on X.
Licensed psychotherapist and social media personality Dr. Raquel Martin also weighed in on Threads, writing:
“Just a heads up, any person who graduated from Argosy University can request their official transcripts and will receive them. But be mindful that you can’t make official transcripts say something that isn’t true.”
But not everyone was ready to throw Bryant under the bus. Some supporters argued that, doctorate or not, she still holds legitimate credentials through her master’s degree and years of experience helping clients.
“I don’t like how y’all all dog piling on Dr. Cheyenne Bryant. Even if she is lying about her doctorate, she does have her masters and is only an online life coach. Now Dr. Umar who is actually allegedly scamming the community and doing actual harm yall give a pass?” one supporter wrote online.
Notably, during her 2025 interview with Shannon Sharpe, Bryant detailed her professional background and explained the difference between being a therapist and a life coach. She shared that she originally worked as a marriage, family, and child therapist for a nonprofit organization under supervision, where she diagnosed clients, completed progress notes, billed insurance companies, and worked with court-ordered families connected to child and family services.
Bryant explained that while therapists diagnose and treat clients, life coaches focus more on offering guidance, resources, and personal development tools without handling diagnoses or insurance billing.
“My modality is a hybrid modality because I started off as a therapist and my approach was cognitive behavioral therapy and psychonamic. And because that’s my foundation, I use a lot of those tools still in my life coaching. And to blend it all together,” she shared at the time.
What do you think about the ongoing CAP and gown grumblings about Dr. Cheyenne Bryant’s doctorate degree? Thoughts?
