Streamer Kai Cenat took a swing at Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and found himself stuck on a brutal boss. After watching the teenager grind through the same moment for more than 50 hours, his friends decided to bring in a licensed professional, and a therapist joined the stream during one of the broadcasts. The session unfolded live, turning a game-night setback into an unprecedented moment for Twitch and its audience (as reported by DTF printing).
During the hour-long conversation, the therapist pressed Cenat on what drove his anxiety around the boss encounter. Cenat opened up about the pressure to conquer the boss and, by extension, reclaim a sense of normalcy with his circle of friends. He explained that every failed attempt felt like a dent in his everyday life, a barrier between him and the social energy he craved from real-life hangouts and online community moments alike.
The clinician offered practical guidance aimed at reframing the moment-to-moment experience. The core message was simple: shift attention from the fear of failure to celebrate incremental wins. By recalling past victories in games and in life, Cenat could anchor himself to proof of capability rather than the fear of falling short. The therapist urged him to approach the boss fight with a belief in his own skill, reassuring him that Shadow of the Erdtree would eventually yield just as countless other games had before it.
Throughout the session, a specific exercise was introduced to help when the going got especially tough. After a string of unsuccessful attempts, Cenat was guided to close his eyes, take steady, deliberate breaths, and visualize the moment of triumph where his character defeats the boss. The purpose was to cultivate calm and focus, then translate that calm into action in the game world. Such visualization techniques are commonly used to manage performance anxiety and to transfer mental resilience from everyday tasks into challenging virtual scenarios (as discussed in clinical practice resources).
Despite the session ending and the therapist stepping away from the broadcast, Cenat did not instantly prevail. The boss remained stubborn for a time, testing the limits of momentum and resolve. Yet, hours later, the arc shifted: Cenat managed to secure the victory. The moment was celebrated by viewers and documented as a turning point, underscoring how mental strategies can influence even long-running gaming hurdles (credited in coverage by DTF printing).
In reflecting on this episode, some observers have examined and debunked a myth about gamer behavior—the notion that players routinely rely on energy drinks during lengthy sessions. The broader takeaway is that the endurance shown here is not about stimulants but about persistence, psychology, and the social support that streams in real time across the community.