A EMDR Therapy Session with Tish CyrusA EMDR Therapy Session with Tish Cyrus
The Brain Warrior's Way Podcast
Tish Cyrus participates in an EMDR therapy session with Dr Daniel Amen, tracing intense travel and health anxiety back to distressing teenage experiences caring for her ill parents. The conversation focuses on reprocessing trauma, showing compassion to her younger self, and using faith‑based ideas to support calmer, more hopeful thinking.
17:17•4 Aug 2026
EMDR in Action: Tish Cyrus Confronts Health Anxiety and Past Trauma
Episode Overview
- Traumatic experiences can become physically stuck in the brain, influencing anxiety for years until they are reprocessed.
- EMDR uses eye movements or other bilateral stimulation to help the brain revisit and reinterpret old memories from an adult viewpoint.
- Linking present fears, such as travel anxiety, to past health crises can clarify where intense worry is coming from.
- Speaking to a younger version of oneself can build compassion and recognise strength in how past situations were handled.
- Choosing which “wolf” to feed with your thoughts — fear or peace — is a practical way to challenge anxiety, supported by faith‑based reflections.
“But you've been feeding the scary wolf… and these anxiety thoughts are not God's good, perfect, and pleasing will.”
Curious about how someone works through long‑standing anxiety and trauma in real time? This episode follows Tish Cyrus as she takes part in an EMDR therapy session with psychiatrist Dr Daniel Amen, giving you a front‑row seat to how this method can ease intense fear and health anxiety.
You’ll hear Dr Amen explain EMDR as “eye movement, desensitization, and reprocess”, describing how trauma can get physically “locked” in the brain through images, sounds and smells, and why bilateral stimulation helps the brain reprocess those memories from an adult perspective. Tish begins with her terror around travelling and the thought, “If I travel, I'm going to die, I'm going to be embarrassed,” then traces it back to deeply distressing experiences caring for her seriously ill parents as a teenager.
She talks about being an only child, seeing her dad’s cancer treatment and her mum’s sudden arterial nose bleed, and feeling “completely overwhelmed” but still holding everything together. Dr Amen repeatedly brings her adult self into those memories, asking what she’d say to her 17‑year‑old self and helping her recognise what “an amazing daughter” she was. The session moves towards reframing her story: from someone who fears losing control to someone who has “been through freaking a lot” and survived.
A standout moment comes when Dr Amen shares the two wolves story and says, “But you've been feeding the scary wolf… and these anxiety thoughts are not God's good, perfect, and pleasing will.” Biblical references and talk of “abundant life” sit alongside very practical exercises, like visualising being calm on a train.
If you’re interested in how trauma, health anxiety and faith can intersect in therapy, this candid session offers a raw yet hopeful look at how EMDR might help shift long‑held fears. What part of your own story might be ready for a kinder, more compassionate retelling?
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