Real Love Has Accountability
In late April of 2026, Dr. Cheyenne Bryant appeared on the Joe Budden Podcast (JBP), one of the most influential platforms in Black media, and said something that should have stopped the conversation cold.
She is not licensed.
Bryant holds a doctorate in psychology from Argosy University, an institution whose programs lost accreditation before the school shuttered entirely. She has chosen not to pursue licensure, and on the podcast, she explained why: licensure exists to bill insurance, and without it, she is free to practice without the constraints of ethics boards. She also noted she makes more money this way, treating clients who pay out of pocket.
Read that again. No license. No board accountability. Higher fees. And a platform of millions.
This is not a technicality. This is a patient safety issue.
What licensure actually does
Let me be direct about something that gets lost in these debates: licensure is not a credential flex. It is consumer protection.
When a clinician is licensed, they are legally accountable to a governing body. If they cause harm, give dangerous advice, or violate ethical standards, including confidentiality, dual relationships, and conflicts of interest, a patient can file a formal complaint. That complaint can cost the provider their license to practice. That accountability is the point.
Without it, your only recourse is a civil lawsuit. Good luck.
The distinction between coaching and therapy is not semantic. Licensed mental health professionals can legally diagnose and treat conditions, such as depression, PTSD, and suicidal ideation. Coaches cannot, and should not. Calling yourself a therapist without a license is not just ethically problematic. In most states, it is illegal.
On the Budden podcast, Bryant used the word “therapist” repeatedly. She is not one, legally speaking.
This matters acutely in the Black community, where PTSD is chronically underdiagnosed, where mental health stigma remains a barrier to care, and where trust in any provider is hard-won. Someone in crisis who believes they are in therapy and is not can be seriously harmed. And because Bryant operates without professional liability coverage (most malpractice carriers won’t touch unlicensed providers), she carries real risk too.
Dr. Raquel Martin, a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in Black mental health, said it plainly: real love has accountability.
She’s right.
The bigger problem
The Bryant controversy did not emerge in a vacuum. It surfaced in a cultural moment where credentials are increasingly treated as optional, useful for some, irrelevant for others, and apparently negotiable based on who holds them.
I keep noticing something: I have never heard so many people argue that licenses and degrees have no value until Black people started accumulating them.
That pattern is worth sitting with.
Earning a doctorate takes years of work. That work deserves its title. But credentials also carry obligations. The title is not a costume. When you invite a community to trust you with their mental health, particularly a community that has every historical reason to distrust healthcare, you owe them accountability. You owe them a license.
Bryant says she wants to help the Black community. She may well believe that. But a system designed to protect patients from exactly this kind of harm is not a constraint on good work. It is the floor beneath it.
What you can do
If you are seeking mental health support:
- Verify your provider’s license through your state’s licensing board. This is public information and takes minutes.
- Understand the difference between a licensed therapist, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a life coach. They are not interchangeable.
- Ask directly: are you licensed, and with which board?
The proliferation of unlicensed wellness practitioners on social media and podcasts is not a trend we can afford to celebrate or ignore, not when the stakes are this high, and not in communities where access to legitimate care is already scarce.
Yes, I am the doctor.
— Audrey C. Durrant, MD