When a Title Becomes a Mirror: Learning to Embody Doctora

I earned my PhD at 25, but nobody taught me what it was actually going to change about my life, how I saw myself, how I saw the world.

For my first five years in corporate America, I worked in places where my doctorate mattered—as a behavioral research scientist at Northrop Grumman, then as a talent consultant at IBM.

These roles required my PhD, and I felt the weight of that credential in how I was positioned and utilized.

The shift came when I started working at Deloitte. I was among the first people I knew in my community to work there, and I didn't know what a PhD looked like in an organization like that.

Deloitte was never a firm I'd considered when learning about career paths for someone with a doctorate in I-O Psychology.

I entered thinking I would still be revered for my academic achievement, but instead found myself systematically underutilized because people didn't know what to do with my training.

It wasn't until my final year there—when I became a key person running a massive leadership development study where we interviewed 100 leaders, analyzed survey data, and synthesized vast amounts of qualitative information—that I began to realize how much capacity I actually had.

It wasn't until I started reading 135 books in one year, then 72 the next, that I understood how much complexity I could hold.

This became the foundation for everything I now teach about embodied liberation and creative sovereignty.

Before I continue with my own journey, I want to acknowledge the breadth of doctoral achievement this conversation encompasses.

When I say ‘doctorate,’ I’m including PhDs like mine, but also EdDs (Doctor of Education), JDs (Juris Doctor), PsyDs (Doctor of Psychology), DNPs (Doctor of Nursing Practice), DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery), PharmDs, and numerous other terminal degrees across disciplines.

Each represents years of rigorous study, original research or applied practice, and specialized expertise.

Yet we all navigate similar challenges around recognition and embodiment.

Medical doctors, dentists, and pharmacists are immediately understood and respected.

The rest of us exist in various degrees of explanation and justification.

I’ve been called a ‘fake doctor’ because only medical doctors are "real Doctors."

JD holders often don’t use ‘Doctor’ professionally despite their terminal degree.

EdD and PsyD holders face questions about ‘real’ versus ‘applied’ doctorates.

The hierarchy of doctoral recognition reflects not the rigor of our training, but cultural assumptions about whose knowledge matters most. 

This conversation is for all of us who’ve earned the title Doctor—regardless of our field, regardless of whether we use it publicly, and regardless of how others perceive the legitimacy of our particular path to it.

Awakening to Capacity Through Creative Liberation

Nobody taught me that earning a doctorate was going to fundamentally transform how I could navigate complexity in every area of my life.

I only knew it was required for certain jobs.

I didn't understand that I could use this capacity for holding multiple variables to explore the coexistence of shadow and light in my relationships, to understand my psyche and observe myself, to work with my energy and branch into spirituality, quantum physics, and astrophysics in ways that made sense for me.

It wasn't until I had my creative awakening through The Artist's Way that I realized the true scope of my capacity for complexity—and that exploring those edges was the entire point.

That recognition led me to create Dr. García Brands as a Creative Liberation Leadership Studio, designed for those of us learning to be all of ourselves without fragmentation.

I exist at the intersection of being Dominican; a mixed-race, immigrant, Latina, woman, a marriage-free, child-free, financially independent from men, and someone who lost her father in her early twenties.

These intersections create a unique perspective on what doctorate means—not just as individual achievement, but as responsibility to express complexity that exists nowhere else.

But here's what I've observed in conversations throughout communities of educated professionals: many of us, especially Latinas with doctorates, rarely use Doctora in our titles or digital personas, yet we collect numerous other certifications and accolades.

This begs the question—who are we trying to impress, and to do what? Why do we diminish our highest academic achievement while accumulating lesser credentials?

There's something about academic doctorates that makes us feel like we can't claim other levels of expertise, can't be creative in new ways, can't be beginners because we have this threshold of competence to maintain. We've embodied impostor syndrome despite holding the highest academic credential possible.

Queen Mindset Leadership® emerged from recognizing this pattern—my own framework that synthesizes doctoral-level capacity for complexity with embodied wisdom, cultural knowledge, and creative liberation.

It demonstrates that we can use our analytical rigor not to limit ourselves to traditional academic boxes, but to create entirely new paradigms that serve collective healing.

The Revolutionary Recognition: Systemic Change Makers

What I've come to understand is that those of us with doctorates aren't just trained to be individual contributors—we're trained and positioned in our communities to create systemic change.

We have massive capacity for structural transformation, but we have to realize we can put all of our complexity into one delicious, nourishing meal that feeds far more people than just ourselves.

We're taught that our doctorate only matters when we're physically present, when we're exchanging time for money in one-on-one interactions.

But our real value lies in how we think, how we feel, and how we interpret the world.

If we took the time to make space in our lives, we would discover how much richer our experiences can actually be when we're not just running ourselves into productivity without giving ourselves the opportunity to coexist with how much complexity we can hold.

This realization led me to embody Doctora not as individual achievement, but as integrated wisdom that serves collective liberation.

When I introduce myself as Dra. CarolLaine M. García, Ph.D., I'm not just claiming an academic credential—I'm demonstrating that we can be doctoral-level thinkers AND cosmic healers, AND creative practitioners, AND beginners in new fields simultaneously.

My Creative Liberation Leadership Studio exists for this integration—showing that we can honor all parts of ourselves without hierarchy, use our capacity for complexity to explore multiple domains, and be both excellent and beginner simultaneously.

Queen Mindset Leadership® emerged as proof that we can synthesize our analytical rigor with embodied wisdom to create entirely new paradigms.

The women who modeled authentic authority showed me that being Doctora isn't about superiority—it's about stewardship.

It's about recognizing that our training in holding complexity, synthesizing information, and creating frameworks can serve liberation rather than domination, collective healing rather than individual advancement.

The Revolutionary Act of Integrated Wisdom

What makes Doctor(a) identity revolutionary isn't the degree itself, but how we choose to embody it without fragmentation. When we refuse to separate our intellectual capacity from spiritual wisdom, our academic training from cultural knowledge, our analytical skills from creative vision, we model possibilities that traditional academia couldn't imagine.

My journey from hiding my doctorate to performing credibility to finally embodying Doctora as integrated practice has taught me that titles become meaningful only when they serve something larger than individual recognition.

The value isn't in the credential—it's in how we use that credential to create frameworks, hold complexity, and facilitate transformation in ways that honor both rigor and liberation.

When Iuse both Dra. and Ph.D. around my name I'm not just claiming an academic achievement.

I'm embodying a practice of integrated wisdom that bridges intellectual rigor with embodied knowing, individual expertise with collective healing, and traditional scholarship with decolonial innovation.

 This integration is what my Creative Liberation Leadership Studio teaches—how to honor all parts of yourself without hierarchy, how to use your capacity for complexity to explore multiple domains, how to be both excellent and beginner simultaneously.

Reflection for You

Take a moment with these questions specifically designed for those of us who hold doctorates:

• How have your specific intersections of identity created a unique lens that only you can offer? What perspectives emerge from your particular combination of academic training, cultural background, and life experiences?
• Where do you notice yourself collecting additional credentials or certifications while downplaying your doctorate? What fears or impostor syndrome might be driving this pattern of credential accumulation?
• In what areas of your life have you avoided being a beginner because you felt pressure to maintain doctoral-level competence? How might your capacity for complexity actually enhance rather than restrict your ability to explore new domains?
• How could you use your doctoral training—your ability to synthesize information, hold complexity, and create frameworks—in service of creative liberation rather than just traditional academic or professional advancement?
• Where are you fragmenting different aspects of your knowledge and experience instead of integrating them into something uniquely powerful? What would it look like to embody your doctorate as integrated wisdom rather than isolated expertise?

Learning to embody Doctora isn't just about claiming a title; it's about recognizing that our capacity for complexity can serve creative liberation, that we can be both rigorous and experimental, both expert and beginner, both individually accomplished and collectively committed.

When we integrate all aspects of our knowing and being, we don't just hold degrees—we become architects of collective transformation in our communities and beyond.