Okay, so the other day I was watching daytime TV, and Dr. Phil came on. It got me thinking, “Is this guy actually a doctor?” I mean, he gives out all this advice, but what are his credentials? So, I decided to do some digging.
My Little Investigation
First, I jumped onto Google. That’s my go-to for pretty much everything, right? I typed in “Dr. Phil credentials” and hit enter. I skimmed through a bunch of search results, some news articles, some fan pages, and then, bingo, Wikipedia!
Wikipedia can be a mixed bag, but it usually gives a decent overview. I learned that his full name is Phillip Calvin McGraw, and he does have a Ph.D. in psychology. So, technically, he is a doctor, just not the medical kind.
I dug a little bit deep,He earned his Ph.D. from the University of North Texas back in 1979. Pretty impressive!
But here’s the thing I found out: he’s not a licensed therapist anymore. I saw that his license to practice psychology was in Texas, and he retired it years ago when he moved into the whole TV personality thing.
Putting it All Together
So, what’s the verdict? Well, Dr. Phil is a doctor in the sense that he has a doctorate. He studied psychology and earned that Ph.D. But, and this is a big but, he’s not actively practicing psychology and doesn’t hold a current license. He’s more of an entertainer and advisor these days. So it seems like this title of doctor is a tool he uses to give himself some authority.
