diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 12b79ca1c8..0950576e28 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 ### Fixes
 
+- Load `ios/.xcode.env` and `ios/.xcode.env.local` in the Expo plugin "Upload Debug Symbols to Sentry" phase before it runs Node, so the phase finds Node when Xcode starts from the Dock ([#6861](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/6861))
 - Preserve Hermes internal bytecode frames as non-application frames when rewriting Expo stack traces ([#6848](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/6848))
 - Fix stale `turbo_module.*` tags on Android native crashes ([#6823](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/6823))
 - Forward image attachments to Spotlight instead of stripping them from the envelope ([#6818](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/6818))
diff --git a/packages/core/plugin/src/withSentryIOS.ts b/packages/core/plugin/src/withSentryIOS.ts
index a9947041fe..6301fad754 100644
--- a/packages/core/plugin/src/withSentryIOS.ts
+++ b/packages/core/plugin/src/withSentryIOS.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@ const SENTRY_REACT_NATIVE_XCODE_PATH =
 const SENTRY_REACT_NATIVE_XCODE_DEBUG_FILES_PATH =
   "`${NODE_BINARY:-node} --print \"require('path').dirname(require.resolve('@sentry/react-native/package.json')) + '/scripts/sentry-xcode-debug-files.sh'\"`";
 const SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD_EXPORT = 'export SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=true';
+// Xcode started from the Dock has no node on PATH, so load NODE_BINARY the same way as with-environment.sh.
+const LOAD_XCODE_ENV = `XCODE_ENV_PATH="\${PODFILE_DIR:-$PODS_ROOT/..}/.xcode.env"
+[ -f "$XCODE_ENV_PATH" ] && . "$XCODE_ENV_PATH"
+[ -f "$XCODE_ENV_PATH.local" ] && . "$XCODE_ENV_PATH.local"
+`;
 
 export const withSentryIOS: ConfigPlugin<{
   sentryProperties: string;
@@ -114,7 +119,7 @@ export function getDebugFilesUploadScript(disableAutoUpload: boolean = false): s
   // The resolved script path is wrapped in double quotes so a project path containing spaces is
   // passed to `/bin/sh` as a single argument instead of being word-split. See issue #6583.
   const disableAutoUploadExport = disableAutoUpload ? `${SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD_EXPORT}\n` : '';
-  return `${disableAutoUploadExport}/bin/sh "${SENTRY_REACT_NATIVE_XCODE_DEBUG_FILES_PATH}"`;
+  return `${disableAutoUploadExport}${LOAD_XCODE_ENV}/bin/sh "${SENTRY_REACT_NATIVE_XCODE_DEBUG_FILES_PATH}"`;
 }
 
 export function requoteExistingSentryBundleScript(script: BuildPhase): void {
diff --git a/packages/core/test/expo-plugin/modifyXcodeProject.test.ts b/packages/core/test/expo-plugin/modifyXcodeProject.test.ts
index ce5bc4e97c..96d8c978b5 100644
--- a/packages/core/test/expo-plugin/modifyXcodeProject.test.ts
+++ b/packages/core/test/expo-plugin/modifyXcodeProject.test.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+import { execFileSync } from 'child_process';
+import * as fs from 'fs';
+import * as os from 'os';
+import * as path from 'path';
+
 import { warnOnce } from '../../plugin/src/logger';
 import {
   addDisableAutoUploadToExistingScript,
@@ -470,7 +475,8 @@ describe('overwriteDebugFilesUploadScript: existing phase re-quoted on upgrade (
     overwriteDebugFilesUploadScript(script, true);
     const parsed = JSON.parse(script.shellScript);
     expect(parsed).toBe(getDebugFilesUploadScript(true));
-    expect(parsed).toMatch(/^export SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=true\n\/bin\/sh "`/);
+    expect(parsed).toMatch(/^export SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=true\n/);
+    expect(parsed).toContain('/bin/sh "`');
   });
 
   it('drops a previously injected export when disableAutoUpload is toggled back to false', () => {
@@ -564,8 +570,62 @@ export NODE_BINARY=node
 
   it('quotes the debug files upload script path with disableAutoUpload', () => {
     const result = getDebugFilesUploadScript(true);
-    expect(result).toMatch(/^export SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=true\n\/bin\/sh "`/);
+    expect(result).toMatch(/^export SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=true\n/);
+    expect(result).toContain('/bin/sh "`');
     expect(result).toContain('sentry-xcode-debug-files.sh');
     expect(result).not.toMatch(/\/bin\/sh `/);
   });
 });
+
+describe('Upload Debug Symbols phase loads .xcode.env before it resolves the script (issue #6859)', () => {
+  let projectDir: string;
+  let iosDir: string;
+
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    projectDir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'sentry-expo-phase-'));
+    iosDir = path.join(projectDir, 'ios');
+    const sentryDir = path.join(projectDir, 'node_modules', '@sentry', 'react-native');
+    fs.mkdirSync(path.join(sentryDir, 'scripts'), { recursive: true });
+    fs.mkdirSync(path.join(iosDir, 'Pods'), { recursive: true });
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(sentryDir, 'package.json'), '{"name":"@sentry/react-native"}');
+    fs.writeFileSync(
+      path.join(sentryDir, 'scripts', 'sentry-xcode-debug-files.sh'),
+      'echo "debug files script ran with SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=$SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD"\n',
+    );
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(iosDir, '.xcode.env'), 'export NODE_BINARY=$(command -v node)\n');
+  });
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    fs.rmSync(projectDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  });
+
+  const runPhase = (script: string, env: Record<string, string>): string =>
+    execFileSync('/bin/sh', ['-c', script], {
+      cwd: iosDir,
+      env: { HOME: os.homedir(), PATH: '/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin', ...env },
+      encoding: 'utf8',
+      stdio: 'pipe',
+    });
+
+  it('includes the .xcode.env loading before the script path is resolved', () => {
+    const result = getDebugFilesUploadScript();
+    expect(result.indexOf('.xcode.env')).toBeLessThan(result.indexOf('--print'));
+    expect(result).toContain('. "$XCODE_ENV_PATH.local"');
+  });
+
+  it('uses NODE_BINARY from .xcode.env.local when node is not on PATH', () => {
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(iosDir, '.xcode.env.local'), `export NODE_BINARY="${process.execPath}"\n`);
+
+    const stdout = runPhase(getDebugFilesUploadScript(true), { PODS_ROOT: path.join(iosDir, 'Pods') });
+
+    expect(stdout).toContain('debug files script ran with SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=true');
+  });
+
+  it('uses PODFILE_DIR before PODS_ROOT to find .xcode.env', () => {
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(iosDir, '.xcode.env.local'), `export NODE_BINARY="${process.execPath}"\n`);
+
+    const stdout = runPhase(getDebugFilesUploadScript(), { PODFILE_DIR: iosDir, PODS_ROOT: '/nonexistent' });
+
+    expect(stdout).toContain('debug files script ran');
+  });
+});