Many women avoid photos of themselves, stand in the back, and look away from the mirror, often after years of surviving. The Rising Phoenix Experience is a full-day, neuroscience-informed experience at the FIORIA studio in Frisco, Texas, led by Me Ra Koh and Brian Tausend. It is designed for women healing from trauma, grief, illness, pain, or sudden life change, and it focuses on healing the brain so a woman can rewire how she sees herself.

Tanisha Travis flew in for hers. This is her story of healing.

Tanisha is the one who shows up for everyone. She leads her church’s Angel Tree, she adds the lemonade bar and the scavenger hunt nobody asked for, and her friends will tell you she is the Cake Lady. When it came to herself, she stood in the back.

For years she avoided photos of herself.

This time, she got on a plane.

Why do so many women avoid photos of themselves?

Many women who come to us avoid the camera, stand in the back, or look away from the mirror.

Tanisha did all three.

Many of them are already doing the inner work and still feel stuck, capable on the outside and uncertain on the inside. In our experience, years of surviving can leave the brain holding an old story about who you are, and seeing yourself can bring that story to the surface. The Rising Phoenix Experience is built to help the brain rewrite it.

What is the Rising Phoenix Experience?

The Rising Phoenix Experience has two parts.

Part One is a full day at the FIORIA studio in Frisco, Texas, focused on healing the brain after trauma, grief, illness, pain, or sudden life change. It is not a photo shoot. There are 14 neuroscience pieces to this day, and taking photos is only one of them.

Women are welcomed warmly, hearing the Words their loved ones shared in their interviews, and move through a day built around specific memories and strengths. Instead of posing, I lead each woman into a unique experience of embodying the qualities most true about who she is, and I photograph as I go. The most anxious hearts that are afraid of the camera often leave saying they never even felt like their photo was being taken because they were fully reliving the memories that shaped the goodness in them. Then at the end of the day, Brian walks each woman through her Best Of photos and asks what she sees in each one. Those photos are chosen for how well they represent who she truly is, not for looking most beautiful.

Part Two begins about a month later, when her wall art arrives. Over the next 9 to 12 months, we follow her with neuroscience-backed exercises, check-ins, Brain Analysis, and more, so what shifted on the day integrates into how she lives, decides, and sees herself.

Why Tanisha Came

Tanisha told me there was a fire inside her waiting to be born.

Her brain needed to see the fire being birthed within her. But instead it struggled to see herself beyond the trauma. Her brain needed new evidence so it could catch up to who she has become, not just what she’s survived.

She used to walk with her head down because she did not want to look at herself in the mirror. For years she felt her voice did not matter. Then her life coach encouraged her to share her story at a conference, and she did, reading from a page she had written out word for word. Afterward, someone told her how warm and powerful her talk was, and that because of it, they knew they were not alone.

That was the moment Tanisha realized her voice mattered.

What the people who love her see

Before a Rising Phoenix day, we ask the people closest to a woman what they see in her. Their answers become her Words, read aloud to her as her hair and makeup begin. Four people answered for Tanisha.

What’s really powerful is that Tanisha chose different words for herself: authentic, warm, honest, down to earth, and someone who gives grace.

But her friends chose words like strength, resilience, and an unbreakable spirit.

Think about that. Sometimes those we love and trust most have a clearer view of who we are than we do. That’s why our team makes these calls to your friends and family. We want to know all the traits of greatness within you so your brain can see it as evidence.

Her sister-in-law Lativa remembers Tanisha holding her ground while planning her grandmother’s 100th birthday party, when some of the elders wanted it to go differently. “This is what we’re doing, whether you like it or not. It’s for Grandmother and nobody else.” In the end, everyone came together and loved it.

Her friend Nore points to the Angel Tree, where Tanisha gives back to families because she has walked that walk herself. Vikki, whose kids call Tanisha auntie, put it this way: “She’s not my sister, but she IS my sister.”

Both lists describe the same woman. One is how she sees herself, and the other is what everyone around her has been seeing all along.

In her own words

When her wall art arrived, Tanisha sent me this text: “OMG they are absolutely gorgeous!!! Thank you for this experience and capturing me. They truly show how beautiful I am.. I have avoided taking pictures for so long. Always standing in the back and never really wanting to see ‘me’. This has definitely been a journey that I have been on.” She added that each portrait has a meaning and shows exactly who she is.

Even before her wall art was officially hung, she took her portraits out of their boxes every day just to look at them. A week later, she wrote:

“…this is what healing and being set free looks like.”

Chapters: The Woman Behind the Pictures

Tanisha celebrated her birthday all month. The highlight was a birthday brunch she named Chapters: The Woman Behind the Pictures. She gathered her friends and displayed her portraits on easels around her living room. “I was able to pour into my friends who sat at the table with me,” she told us. Her event was received so well that it is now her yearly tradition!

This is what integration looks like. She still pours into everyone else, and now her own portraits are in the room.

Where the Fire is Now

I asked Tanisha how she feels about that fire today. Her answer started with “Absolutely! I believe that fire has finally been birthed, but I also believe I’m just getting started!”

She told us she carried something inside her for years without fully understanding it. “I spent so much of my life surviving, healing, and trying to find my own voice.” Then came Chapters. “It was the beginning of me walking in my purpose. For the first time, I wasn’t just telling my story. I was using my story to encourage, empower, and help other women see themselves differently.” That’s a reason to celebrate!

Her faith runs through all of it. “I knew God had placed something in me, but I didn’t know how or when it would come forth.” Now she sees it clearly: “I believe that sometimes God allows us to walk through certain things, not just for our own growth, but so that one day we can reach back and help another woman find her way.”

“I no longer want to just survive what I’ve been through. I want to use what I’ve been through to make a difference in someone else’s life.”

She also told me what she wants Chapters to become: “Not a place where women simply hear my story, but a place where they discover the courage to embrace their own.”

“I’m not standing in front of these women because I have everything figured out. I’m standing beside them as a woman who is still healing, still growing, and still becoming.”

How does a woman start seeing herself differently after trauma?

Tanisha’s path points to four things we see again and again.

1. Hear what the people who love you see. Their words show you what you have been missing.
2. Be guided, not posed. I lead you into the qualities most true about who you are instead of telling you how to stand or angle your body. Instead, I integrate neuroscience-backed methods to guide you into revisiting specific powerful memories that help your brain and body embody the strengths within you.
3. Choose your favorites for truth, not beauty. Brian asks what you see in each one, and in our Brain Analysis the biggest shift shows up after this moment.
4. Live with them. Tanisha took her portraits out of their boxes every day, then gathered her friends around them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I avoid photos of myself? Many women avoid the camera, stand in the back, or look away from the mirror. In our experience, years of surviving can leave the brain holding an old story about who you are. You may be high functioning but there is a neurological gap in how you see yourself and the rest of the world sees you. This experience is about closing the gap.

I still feel stuck after years of inner work. Is this for me? The Rising Phoenix Experience is for women who are already doing the inner work and still feel stuck. It focuses on helping your brain integrate what you’re learning in therapy and coaching so you can actually embody it.

What is the Rising Phoenix Experience?

A two part experience that begins with one full-day, neuroscience-informed experience at the FIORIA studio in Frisco, Texas, for women healing from trauma, grief, illness, pain, or sudden life change. And then the integration continues as we follow you over the next 9 to12 months with neuroscience-backed exercises, check-ins, additional Brain Analysis and more. It focuses on integrating the truth about who you are so you can live from that place.

Who is it for? Women healing from trauma, grief, illness, pain, or sudden life change, including women who have never felt comfortable in front of a camera. It is also a breakthrough experience for those who are leaders but still struggle with Imposter Syndrome. They are performing at a high level but keep hitting a glass ceiling.

What is Brain Analysis? A brief cognitive assessment taken at three points during the day, so we can track changes in areas like brain fog, clarity, reaction time, and decision making. Imagine improving these things 30 to 60%! That is what we’re seeing in our clients!

Imagine your brain fog lifting by 30 to 60%!

That is what we are seeing. Since we began tracking Brain Analysis at three points across the day, our Rising Phoenixes and case study participants are improving 30 to 60% in brain fog, clarity, reaction time, and decision making. Those numbers are holding months later as we keep working together through the year.

Not being able to see who you truly are takes a toll on your everyday life. We have growing data showing what changes when your brain finally can.

Do I need to know how to pose? No. Me Ra leads you into embodying the qualities most true about who you are, and Brian walks you through your Best Of at the end of the day.

When does my wall art arrive? About a month after your day, and sometimes longer for clients on payment plans.

Do I need to live in Frisco? Clients fly in from across the country.

How do I get started? Book a free Rising Phoenix Clarity Call with Me Ra or Brian.

Ready to see your true self?

Exhausted by brain fog and second-guessing every decision? Maybe you are the one who shows up for everyone else and stands in the back of your own life. That is exactly who this experience is for.

If your brain needs breakthrough, book a free clarity call with me or Brian.

Book your free Clarity Call

We have four Rising Phoenix dates left in December. Invest in yourself before this year ends, and let yourself finally experience lasting breakthrough.

with so much love, still we rise

Me Ra

About Me Ra Koh: Me Ra Koh’s story begins in a psychiatric ward, after years of believing her brain was broken. From living out of her car to capturing the beauty of resilience, her work has been featured on Oprah, Live with Kelly & Mark, and her Disney show Capture the Story. She is the co-founder of FIORIA and the FIORIA Institute in Frisco, Texas, where she and her husband Brian created Visual Identity Embodiment, a neuroscience-informed approach with a dramatic impact on people who feel stuck in their healing or their performance. It is the foundation of their Rising Phoenix Experience, a full-day experience with Brain Analysis, followed by a year of guided integration. In 2007, Sony invited her to be one of the first women photographers sponsored by a camera manufacturer. She is the author of six books. A sought-after keynote speaker, she has taken the stage across North America, Europe, and Asia, to audiences as large as 20,000.