How to Become a Successful Woman: Overcoming Limiting Beliefs for Personal and Professional Growth with Dr. Kimberly Walker

Deneen L. Garrett:00:02 00:46
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Women of Color, An Intimate Conversation. Today's guest is someone that we connected a while ago. We don't even remember how long because we've rescheduled multiple times, me having to reschedule multiple times. So I believe things happen when they're supposed to happen. So I am looking forward to this conversation and also introducing you all to the work that she does that may be of, great value to a lot of you. So this week's guest is Dr. Kimberly Walker. She is a seasoned African-American woman with more than 30 years of experience as a psychiatrist. Dr. Kimberly, tell us three things you want the audience to know about you.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:00:48 01:06 Okay, I want the audience to know that I had to make a major pivot, and I'm happy that I was able to do that. I am a Christ follower, I love people, and I am resilient.

Deneen L. Garrett:01:07 01:17 Okay, now that pivot that you had to make, is that what led you to RTT, Robert Transformational Therapy, or has this pivot been more recent?

Dr. Kimberly Walker:01:18 01:24 The pivot that I'm referring to is how I came into knowing about rapid transformational therapy. Yes, indeed.

Deneen L. Garrett:01:24 01:27 OK. Well, let's get into it. Tell us about that. OK.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:01:28 03:18 Well, I got burned out in 2021 at the height of the COVID pandemic working as a psychiatrist. So just day after day of misery really took a toll. And I wasn't sure that I would actually be able to continue to practice psychiatry. And in my search, trying to figure out what I was going to do, I came across Marissa Peer, who was the founder of Rapid Transformational Therapy. I had taken a class, and I had to do some research on different thought leaders. And she was one of the people on the list. So I was researching her, and I saw YouTube videos about Rapid Transformational Therapy. which, and I'm going to just refer to it as RTT, which uses targeted hypnotherapy to go after the root cause of an issue. And using the hypnosis, we are able to identify limiting beliefs and resolve them. And we make a transformation recording, which really involves the positive suggestions that come out of the session. And you end up, you listen to it daily and you rewire your thinking. So it's a very powerful way of making change. And I decided to get certified in this method. and had to undergo it myself, and then discovered these limiting beliefs that I had that I was not aware that I had. So it did cause a major pivot for me, just making the change to provide this service. And I'm still a psychiatrist. I still practice. But I launched a coaching practice using RTT.

Deneen L. Garrett:03:20 03:37 And so you mentioned limiting beliefs and that's something that has come up in several conversations that I've had, right, you know, a lot of them we don't realize that we have and taking the time to find out what those limiting beliefs are. Which belief do you think led to your burnout?

Dr. Kimberly Walker:03:39 04:40 So I think it was a belief that I'm not enough. And the way that I realized that I had that belief was during a session, I reviewed a scene while in hypnosis and I grew up in mostly white suburbs outside of Philadelphia and I had a great life. good education, but the scene is I'm sitting on my bed, I'm about eight or nine, and I'm realizing nobody thinks I'm beautiful. So my black beauty was not celebrated, you know, in where I grew up. And that I felt like I wasn't enough. And I suspect that that led to just working way too hard. And I think that is the, That's at the basis of a lot of folks who overwork. It's never enough. I can never do enough. I'm not enough. So that's one limiting belief that I believe did lead to my burnout.

Deneen L. Garrett:04:41 05:24 Yeah, and so for those who are listening, I'm nodding my head to a lot of what she's saying. So today's conversation is around how to become a successful woman. And so we want to look at the RTT and also something that you mentioned in your bio, and I think it's definitely, I mean, it hasn't gone away. It's still definitely relevant today with today's current situation, and that's growing up Black in America. So, you know, you mentioned that in your bio, you just talked about how you were in a suburb, so you did not see your beauty, your Black beauty celebrated. So let's talk a little bit more about that, growing up Black in America.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:05:24 06:52 Sure. So now we, you know, we get the message, you know, you put your head down and you get it done. So we may receive messages, you've got to do things at least twice as well as anybody else to possibly be recognized at all. So we get these messages that we have to work really hard. And we may pick up messages that we aren't regarded, that we aren't valued. And so sometimes these messages get internalized. and they can affect us. And the thing about the subconscious limiting beliefs, the ones that we aren't aware of, although we're not aware that we're operating with them, they are very powerful in our lives and they can really affect how we operate, how we are in relationships, you know, we may have difficulty trusting, we may have difficulty with boundaries, and a lot of these behaviors that we may not understand, they really may come from limiting beliefs that we have internalized, especially due to oppressive systems that we're dealing with, outright racism, sexism, these experiences can cause us to, it's kind of like putting on armor. Yeah. And some of it we're aware of and some of it we're not.

Deneen L. Garrett:06:53 08:31 Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, again, you started off by talking about how you were burned out. And, you know, Black women, you know, I'm just going to generalize that Black women, we decided to sit this out, right? A lot of Black women after the election, you know, we've been putting in the work, we've been doing the thing, we've been doing the extra, you know, double, triple, everything, you know, raising people's families, our own, others, saving people. And so now we're done. You know, we're planning on sending this out. We're planning on not, we're planning on resting. We're planning on focusing on ourselves and we're planning on focus on community. So when you think about the, and it's not really a shift, I think it's just more of a overt, it's a little bit more overt and, you know, just more obvious and also trying mandates, right? Executive orders and just different things that are being put in place that are really just trying to tell us we're not enough, trying to erase us, trying to just another hurdle for us. So when you think about some of the women that you've had in RTT in your practice, black women in particular, women of color in particular, Is there like a common theme that comes up? Is there something that you've seen across the board that seems to be what a majority of these women are experiencing and is something that can help other Black women and women of color?

Dr. Kimberly Walker:08:33 11:12 So one thing that I saw a lot of was the issues of dealing with years and years of microaggressions. just the slights, the comments. And those things, although they're called microaggressions, I mean, they add up and they can take a huge toll. And I think the microaggressions, they can cause us to internalize feelings of not being enough or feeling like, you know, that's not available to me, feelings of exclusion, just feeling like you're not on the inside. So I think that we need to be aware of what is coming up for us. What are the feelings that are coming up for us? And I think it's important for us to be in community, first of all, because if we have these feelings ourselves and keep them to ourselves, it makes it much bigger than it truly is. I've seen women, I've worked with women who've dealt with a lot of, you know, outright racism, and the racism is not going away, but what RTT can do is help to refute the meaning that one has taken from the racist acts. So one can feel, one can internalize, I'm not enough from those acts. But in the process, you realize that, no, it's not that you are not enough, and because you're dealing with a subconscious mind, you are actually able to erase, refute that feeling. So it's amazing the change that can take place when you know in your heart, yes, this person is treating me poorly, but it's not me. This is not my issue, although someone's trying to make it my issue. So I just think it's important for us to think about how we're feeling, be in community. Sometimes we can think about the feelings that come up for us and can we counter those feelings? Can we you know, use some cognitive behavioral techniques such as challenging the feeling and coming up with something that is more rational, more reasonable. So those are some things I can throw out right now for you.

Deneen L. Garrett:11:12 11:43 Yeah, absolutely. No, so and then, you know, microaggression. So, you know, you're in therapy with your clients and using hypnotherapy, different techniques. When a microaggression appears, do you talk about how we should address that? Or is it more so like, you know, do we say something to the individual or is your practice more on how we internalize it or how we react to it and deal with it?

Dr. Kimberly Walker:11:46 12:41 It really depends. It depends on the situation. The RTT itself is really looking at how has it affected you and how can we change that so that you can move forward and be more effective and feel better. And then in the process of checking in after the session itself, I get information about, OK, so what has happened since then? How has it been for you? And then what I often find is that then people are able to be more confident. Now, whether they choose to address the microaggression, because sometimes you can, and sometimes it's not easy to do that. But how you decide to move in the world that is often what changes. So it varies depending on the situation.

Deneen L. Garrett:12:42 12:53 Okay. And do you kind of feel that it is more important for us to focus on how we move? Like everything, you know, a micro, you know, not all microaggressions even need to be addressed.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:12:55 13:21 Yeah, I think I do believe how we move is the point, because how are we feeling? And sometimes when we move differently, it's amazing how that dynamic changes. And no, you're not gonna stop somebody from being racist, but the transaction between the two people often does change, it often does shift.

Deneen L. Garrett:13:22 14:37 So I asked the questions because it makes you know it makes sense that I would have this experience last night right before our conversation, but I was with two other black women and we were at. an orchestra event. And most of the folks there were white. And so in our row, there happened to be this white man. And he stood up to let a couple, a white couple, come and sit next, in between us. And so he looks over at us, and he was like, oh, yeah, I don't want to hear y'all humming or hemming. I came here to listen to the orchestra. Now, he said it. He didn't say it in a like, he said it kind of in a light manner, but I'm sitting there and like, excuse me? And like, we, you know, and I kind of like looked at the, you know, woman next to me and we just continued our conversation. But I was like, okay, what was that? what just happened, but okay. So yeah, so that definitely, I would say, would you agree that that's a microaggression or?

Dr. Kimberly Walker:14:37 14:40 Yes, yes, I would. At least.

Deneen L. Garrett:14:41 16:02 Yeah, right. And so I want, you know, and I'm glad that it happened as an example for our audience, right, for those who are watching or listening. These are some of the subtle things that Black women women of color happen to experience. And other people, you know, and so you, you know, when you're reading on social media, you know, people, you often see, oh, well, why is everything about race? Because everything is. Like, we're sitting there minding our business, having a conversation, and this man just decides to tell us, you know, he doesn't want to hear us humming. What made you, do you know us? Like, have you been somewhere with us to where we were humming? You know, the audacity, but yeah, we just went on about our business. And I will point this out too, is that the woman next to me, I'm not sure about the other woman, but the woman next to me is highly educated, PhD. You know, I told her, I said, every time we have a conversation, I learn about another life that she's led, right? So many different things, but these are things that we're having to experience regardless of, our education, our experiences, etc. He just saw three Black women and he just felt that it was appropriate to say, hey, you know, I came to hear them.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:16:05 16:12 Yes, and especially after the election, folks do feel more comfortable saying whatever they want.

Deneen L. Garrett:16:13 16:34 Yeah. So I'm all right. All right. So for me, what I've been wondering, so going back to the whole thing that we're talking about is I'm feeling like, is there something, should I have said something? How should I have handled that? Or what do I feel about that now? And what it, what I'm gathering is really, that's his issue has nothing to do with us.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:16:35 16:35 Exactly.

Deneen L. Garrett:16:35 16:56 And it doesn't impact anything. It won't, you know, um, change whether or not I go to another orchestra event or whatnot. It doesn't impact any, it doesn't change my life. It's just something that gave me pause. And again, now I'm bringing it up because we're having this conversation and it's appropriate.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:16:57 17:21 Yes. And you choose, okay. That was ignorant. So do I say anything or not? And, you know, typically, typically we don't because then it can lead to something nasty, you know, if we say something back, you know, and you know in your heart. Okay. Yeah. I know how to act. So. That's his issue. Exactly. It's not mine. So, mm hmm.

Deneen L. Garrett:17:22 17:54 Yes. All right. So let's just talk a little bit more about how we empower high achieving women of color, how your practice and things that you do. How do we, especially now, right? Because this, you know, this conversation was a conversation we were supposed to have months ago, right? And so the dynamics have definitely shifted since November 6th. So how we empower today and moving forward may look differently than how we would have before then. Let me get your thoughts on that.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:17:55 20:13 So it's interesting because so I am, you know, I am still gathering myself and deciding exactly exactly how I am going to move forward. For instance, I have to be on social media as part of my job, but I have to limit, I have to limit being on social media because it, you know, there's definitely been some very upsetting posts that are upsetting and just hearing, oh, he did this, he did that. It can kind of get you stirred up. So I think we have to remain, You know, we have to educate ourselves. So what is truly going to happen? Because things can be signed, but there is still law. And don't get me wrong. I'm not, I'm not naive. And I do realize that a lot of the, the law has been stacked against us. The judiciary has been stacked against us in many aspects. So we have to be mindful, but I think it's important to be as calm as possible because we don't want to enter a firestorm and get ourselves upset. And we don't want to jump into the negativity because I think that's a part of the strategy to get folks upset and negative and feeling beat down. I believe in the Lord. I believe the Lord is for us. And I believe that truth is going to come out and good is eternal. So these are going to be some challenging times. I think we just really need to band together. I'm looking at community. I'm looking at what kind of groups can we galvanize? And in my own work, I'm thinking about what kind of groups may I be able to put together in order to help us to withstand and even to flourish.

Deneen L. Garrett:20:14 20:56 Absolutely. Absolutely, because you know what, we still can, we still will. We've been here before, right? This is nothing new for us. What's happened is nothing new for us. It's just like, okay, here we go. You know, here's here's just some more, right? Okay, you just threw some more salt in, you know, in the womb and whatnot. But okay, we already had the womb. So we're going to just continue is just how do we navigate this now? So I do want to kind of shift. Okay. Yeah. And I want to kind of talk about art. Ed, I know you mentioned before your brother is an artist, and then I believe you mentioned some interest of yours. So let's kind of talk about that.

null:20:57 20:57 OK.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:20:59 21:03 OK. So my brother that I told you about, so he has passed. He's with the Lord.

SPEAKER_00:21:03 21:04 Oh, sorry.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:21:05 22:15 So he was 14 years older than I am. My parents had two sets of children. And he was an amazing multimedia artist, oil paintings and textile. And he would, you know, glue fabric on to paint it. I mean, he was just very, very creative. And happily, I do, you know, my husband and I, we do have some pieces of his art in our home. And I think what's interesting for me is when I went to medical school, I kind of shut down the creative part of me just to kind of get through. And I haven't quite picked it up the way I want to, but art is certainly a way. And just looking at art, thinking about what maybe the artist was saying, those are some activities that I'm really going to lean into a bit more just to This didn't enrich my life because I do have a tendency to work too hard.

Deneen L. Garrett:22:16 23:55 So no, and you know what, and not only that, consider how you can incorporate that into your practice. Right. Cause we have so many different parts of us and a lot of people, they separate it, right. They keep it compartmentalized and whatnot. However, bring it together. Like when I was in corporate America, you know, they talked about work-life balance. For me, it was work-life integration. Like it all was just one thing. I happened to be blessed at the time to, I said that they were paying me to passionately pursue my purpose because I had my dream job. So it all went together. There was no like, okay, well at five o'clock, I shut it off. No, it was none of that. It all went together. And so, ironically enough, ChatGPT helped me to kind of, you know, bring my different pieces, selves together. So my diversity and inclusion work that I did in corporate, with my leadership, with coaching, with the whole art practice, as a curator and whatnot, it helped me to bring all that together and it said, you know what, and I'm like, Yeah, absolutely. I can have these conversations about how to move in the world with all these different pieces. So that's something maybe for you to consider. Yes. As you're picking back up your creative side, like, how can I bring this into RTT? If you don't have art in your office, then you probably want to put up some pieces. And maybe just start thinking about that. Think about how that can definitely enhance your practice. Yes, yes.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:23:56 24:16 And I do encourage some folks to do some creative writing, especially if they are trying to refute some cognitive distortions, some stinking thinking that they may have. So write a story about how they want it to go. Yeah.

Deneen L. Garrett:24:16 24:17 So, yes.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:24:17 24:18 Mm hmm. Yeah.

Deneen L. Garrett:24:18 25:02 Yeah. Yes. And that's another piece of writing. So writing is something that, you know, I'm picking up and I've been submitting articles to publications. And so it's like, oh, and when I was doing that, so how that came about and I'm sharing this to those who are listening and or watching just for you to think about things you're doing in your life and how you can lean more into those to those things. So I volunteer at the Detroit Institute of Art and on one of the committees, we have a newsletter. And so they encouraged us to, you know, submit articles. So I did. And I was like, you know, OK, cool. I happen to write like a total four articles over a course of time. And then something said, you know what? Submit articles to publications.

SPEAKER_00:25:03 25:03 Yes.

Deneen L. Garrett:25:03 26:09 Absolutely. So I started doing that and then something said okay now submit to speak at these events and so started doing that and I'm so excited about it right because it's something different that I can do. It's a shift for me. It's a It's not a pivot as in a total change. It's just part of my journey. It's just the evolution of my journey of how I'm living my dream life. And so I just lean into it. I pay attention to what's happening in life, right? Some of the things that you're teaching and helping your clients to do, just paying attention, like pausing, to pay attention to what's happening around me and how, again, wrote a newsletter. I was like, oh, that can absolutely contribute to actual publications and get paid to do those different things. So that's where I'm at in my journey, part of where I'm at in my journey. That's exciting. Yes.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:26:09 26:13 So just different aspects of your thought leadership. Absolutely.

Deneen L. Garrett:26:13 28:02 Absolutely. And then specifically, you know, you mentioned thought leadership. So I've returned to LinkedIn. And so I am definitely, you know, demonstrating and positioning myself as a thought creator in the art space. And that's something that I enjoy. Like I schedule my article, my posts, and then I'm like, oh my God, I can't wait. It's really exciting for me because I want to see the impact and see the build. So I'm like, I'm paying attention to how it's going in the growth. And then, you know, you may not get, you know, as much engagement right away, but then at some point, like when that one person actually engages to your post and engage in a way that's meaningful, it's like, okay, cool, cool, cool, right? Just continue doing what I'm doing. And then also going back to the social media. So I have been off of everything except for LinkedIn and YouTube since the 18th, late on the 18th, because there's a week blackout, if you will, of meta. So anything meta related. And so I have been off of that. And so like you were talking about having to be on it for business and whatnot. I was even thinking, okay, so do I want threads as I plan on returning the threads because I miss my sister girls. So I miss the women that I was connecting with on threads. However, the others, not as important, right? Or thinking about how do I wanna use it going forward or just paying attention to the value because there is value in that, right? It's a way to keep us connected. So it's just thinking about that, just being a little bit more intentional on how I use and how we use social media.

SPEAKER_00:28:02 28:04 mm hmm.

Deneen L. Garrett:28:04 28:14 yeah yeah what else would you like to share. hmm. You have the floor.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:28:17 29:43 Well, you know, I want to share that one thing that I am doing. So as I think about my money mindset, especially as a business owner, I decided I definitely needed to work on that a bit more and think a bit more expansively. So I have offered a few money mindset hypnosis groups virtually just to help people to begin to think about if they have any money mindset blocks. So that's something I've done. I've done two. I'm doing a few more. So that's it's pretty interesting just to begin to, you know, you get in a very relaxed state and just begin to think about what are the messages that I may have picked up about money. And it's, you know, it's often from family of origin or, you know, people that you spend time with, you know, how many of us have heard money doesn't grow on trees. And so there's, you know, it's easy to get into a scarcity mindset. So that's one thing that I'm doing that I'm finding very interesting. So I encourage folks to think about that. Think about where have you picked up certain ideas. And sometimes it's pretty obvious, and sometimes it's not.

Deneen L. Garrett:29:45 31:45 No, I mean, it's a valuable conversation, especially now, right? Especially, especially, especially now, today, to have these conversations. Like me, my focus is on wealth and generational wealth, right? And so, you know, RTT can help to raise those limiting beliefs and the things that are getting in the way of us being wealthy. and leading to generational wealth, I think it's definitely something that's needed. So when I share the show notes, I do have your website, I have your Facebook, I have your LinkedIn. So if there's anything else you want me to share, we can do that as well. But I do want people to know more about the work that you're doing, about the finance piece of it, right? Because we have to, like we may be pushed, a lot of people are being pushed out of jobs. You know, we were talking about DEI and a lot of the people who are in DEI are black. You know, so there's that as well, right? And, you know, with the federal government and really they sent all the DEI people paid leave, but they're out of a job in essence. So they really need to find another job. And so you may start seeing a lot of this, right? And you are kind of seeing some shifts in other companies to whereas I know the woman who was the chief diversity officer of Facebook, She's not that any longer, she's still with company, but they moved her over to I think more something like impact community. Right. And so when, luckily for her she still has a job, other people may not be as lucky so. The finance and our wealth and money is extremely important for us to get a handle on it and to get a better understanding and relationship with it. I appreciate that you're leaning into this.

Dr. Kimberly Walker:31:47 31:51 So I'm also now a little bit on Instagram. So I'll give you that information too.

Deneen L. Garrett:31:52 32:13 Yeah, yeah, definitely. I want them to have ways to reach out to you. So, you know, the podcast again is about empowering women of color. It's also about empowering women of color, Black women to live dream lives. So are you living your dream lifestyle? And if so, how are you living your dream lifestyle?

Dr. Kimberly Walker:32:14 33:01 So I am approaching my dream lifestyle. Let me put it that way. I mean, I enjoy doing RTT with folks. I'm enjoying the ability to make the pivot. I'm going to be honest, still need to find more clients. And that's part of my expansive money mindset, just knowing that It's out there, folks are out there and building a business that is legacy, legacy bearing. That is part of my dream life and it's happening. It's just, it takes time.

Deneen L. Garrett:33:02 33:34 Absolutely right it's a journey and it's a journey and it's even one that you it continues to evolve right so whatever you're thinking of as your dream today can be expanded upon can change and it's all of it is okay right we're in control of how we want to live and it's okay if we. You know, if we're on a journey to get there, it's okay if we change some things because it's all about our life and us being filled with joy and us living the way that we want to live. So before we wrap, what would you like to leave the audience with?

Dr. Kimberly Walker:33:36 34:39 I would like to say that I believe it's important to start the day grounded. Maybe not be so quick to pick up your phone. You know, whether you meditate, whether you make a cup of tea, whether you pray, start the day grounded in order to just kind of calm yourself down instead of getting self agitated by picking up on whatever is going on around you. I think that as long as you're breathing, you can always make a pivot. And any small change in the right direction is a good thing. So don't fall into any all or nothing thinking. We are all going to fail because that's how we learn. Nobody comes out of the womb being able to do everything. So take your chances, give yourself grace, and just continue to take steps forward.

Deneen L. Garrett:34:41 34:53 I love it. I really appreciate that. So Dr. Kimberly Walker, thank you so much for lending your voice on women of color and intimate conversation and enjoy the rest of your day. You too. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.