From Burnout to Balance
If you feel trapped in cycles of stress, you don’t need more logic—you need more connection.
by Dr. Danielle Moore, LPC, LBS
February 28, 2025
Success Shouldn’t Cost You Your Well-Being
You wake up already feeling behind. Your mind races before your feet hit the floor, tallying unchecked boxes on your never-ending to-do list. Your chest feels tight, your stomach clenches, and your jaw aches from grinding your teeth through the night.
People admire your work ethic, your ability to juggle everything—but they don’t see the exhaustion that sits like a weight on your shoulders, pressing you forward even when you just want to stop.
At some point, the success that once fueled you starts to feel like a burden. You’ve lost the ability to slow down, to breathe deeply, to simply be.
You don’t have to keep pushing through burnout alone. At Take Heart Counseling & Equine Assisted Therapy, Dr. Danielle Moore offers group and individual equine-assisted therapy to help high-achieving women restore balance, reconnect to themselves, and heal through experiential, body-based work
Why High-Achieving Women Struggle with Connection
✔ Your Nervous System is Always “On”
If you feel like you can never fully relax, it’s not just in your head—it’s in your nervous system. Your brain has learned to equate success with safety, keeping you in a constant state of fight-or-flight.
Physically, this feels like: A tight chest, breath that only reaches the top of your lungs, a pit in your stomach that never really goes away. Your shoulders creep up toward your ears, your hands stay curled into tense fists, and your jaw pulses with an ache you don’t remember starting.
Emotionally, this shows up as: A low hum of anxiety vibrating through your ribs, frustration that snaps out of you before you can stop it, or a sense of emotional numbness, like you’re watching your life happen but not really feeling it.
✔ The Illusion of Control
You’ve learned that if you work hard enough, plan enough, and anticipate every possible outcome, you can stay ahead of failure. But control is an illusion—and it’s exhausting to maintain.
Horses don’t respond to control; they respond to connection. Working with horses shows you how to let go, trust, and find balance between structure and flow.
Physically, this feels like: The relentless urge to keep moving, even when you’re exhausted. A knot of tension sitting between your shoulder blades. A sensation of gripping—your phone, the steering wheel, the plan you mapped out in your head—all in an effort to keep things from falling apart.
Emotionally, this shows up as: The inability to delegate, because no one else will do it “right.” The silent frustration of always having to be the responsible one. The nagging sense that if you pause, you’ll lose everything you’ve worked so hard for.
✔ You’ve Lost Connection with Your Own Body
In the rush to achieve, you’ve been living from the neck up—thinking, problem-solving, and strategizing your way through life. But true healing starts in the body.
Physically, this feels like: A constant state of tension, as if your muscles have forgotten how to relax. A stomach that twists and knots with stress, a throat that tightens when you try to express what you need. A persistent headache, like a dull pressure pushing against your temples.
Emotionally, this shows up as: The inability to name what you’re feeling, only knowing that something is off. Feeling detached, like you’re watching yourself from the outside rather than actually living in your body. Rationalizing away exhaustion because “it’s just how life is.”
Why Equine Therapy Works: The Neurosequential Model of Healing
Your brain processes stress, trauma, and connection from the bottom up; you can’t think your way out of stress, you have to feel your way through it.
At Take Heart, equine assisted therapy is designed to help you regulate your nervous system in a safe, experiential way.
- Brainstem (Survival & Sensory Regulation):
Your brainstem controls basic survival functions and regulates all five senses. If your nervous system is dysregulated, your sensory perception can become hypersensitive or dulled. You might find yourself easily startled by noises, struggling to focus in busy environments, or feeling disconnected from your surroundings.- In equine therapy: Walking beside a horse, feeling its warmth, and noticing its rhythmic movement engages the brainstem, promoting regulation and a sense of grounding.
- Body sensations: Uneven breathing, hypersensitivity to noise or touch, feeling “checked out” or dissociated from your body.
- Diencephalon (Movement & Sensory Integration):
The diencephalon processes movement and sensory experiences. When disconnected from this part of the brain, you may struggle with body awareness or misinterpret physical sensations.- In equine therapy: Engaging in intentional movement with the horse reawakens body awareness, helping you tune into your physical and emotional state.
- Body sensations: A vague, heavy fatigue in your limbs, tension in your hands and feet, trouble recognizing hunger or fatigue cues.
3. Limbic System (Emotional Response & Relationship Patterns):
Horses are highly sensitive to human emotions, responding to the energy, tension, and patterns we bring into the relationship. This makes them powerful partners in helping regulate the limbic system, which governs emotional processing and attachment patterns.
Horses are highly sensitive to human emotions, responding to the energy, tension, and patterns we bring into the relationship. This makes them powerful partners in helping regulate the limbic system, which governs emotional processing and attachment patterns.
- In equine therapy: Noticing how a horse reacts to your presence offers real-time feedback on how your nervous system is engaging in the moment.
- Body sensations: A deep ache in the chest, an unsettled stomach, tightness in the throat when emotions surface.
4. Neocortex (Thinking & Meaning):
This is the part of the brain responsible for reflection, decision-making, and self-awareness. When the lower brain is dysregulated, the neocortex struggles to function, making it difficult to think clearly or feel a sense of purpose.
- In equine therapy: Once the lower parts of the brain are regulated, the mind naturally begins to process, reflect, and create meaning from experiences.
- Body sensations: Pressure in the forehead, mental fog, tension behind the eyes from overthinking.
If you feel trapped in cycles of stress, you don’t need more logic—you need more connection.
Join Dr. Danielle for Individual or Group Equine Therapy at Take Heart
Take Heart offers equine-assisted therapy for high-achieving women who are ready to:
✔ Break free from burnout and exhaustion
✔ Reconnect with themselves, their bodies, and their emotions
✔ Experience a new way of healing that isn’t just talk therapy
✔ Learn how to regulate their nervous system for long-term balance
✔ Break free from burnout and exhaustion
✔ Reconnect with themselves, their bodies, and their emotions
✔ Experience a new way of healing that isn’t just talk therapy
✔ Learn how to regulate their nervous system for long-term balance
Choose the Right Fit for You:
🔹 Individual Equine Therapy Sessions
- Work one-on-one with Dr. Danielle and a horse to explore your personal journey of healing.
- Sessions focus on nervous system regulation, relational connection, and experiential learning.
🔹 Small Group Therapy for High-Achieving Women
- Connect with other women who understand the pressure of always being “on.”
- Experience guided equine-assisted activities designed to help you slow down, regulate, and reconnect.
- Build a community of support, while working through themes of perfectionism, control, emotional regulation, and balance.
Experiential Exercise: Try This at Home
🔥 “The Five-Minute Sensory Reset”
(A Simple Practice to Reconnect & Regulate)
(A Simple Practice to Reconnect & Regulate)
- Find a quiet space. Step outside or sit somewhere comfortable. Feel your feet pressing into the ground.
- Breathe deeply. Inhale through your nose, feeling the cool air move in. Exhale slowly, releasing tension from your chest.
- Engage your senses:
- What do you see? Pick out five colors around you. Let your eyes soften.
- What do you hear? Listen for three different sounds—birds, wind, your own breath.
- What do you feel? Notice the temperature on your skin, the fabric of your clothing, the rise and fall of your belly.
- Name your body’s sensation. Do you feel warm? Heavy? Tingly? Tight? Simply notice.
- End with gratitude. Whisper (or think): I am here. My body is listening. I am safe.
🌀 What You’ll Learn: Your body holds wisdom. When you slow down and listen, you begin to rewire your nervous system for connection and safety.
Are You Ready to Reconnect?
✨ Join Dr. Danielle at Take Heart for Individual Therapy OR:
✨ Join her for From Burnout to Balance, a 6-week equine-assisted therapy group designed specifically for high-achieving women who are ready to:
Break free from burnout and exhaustion
Reconnect with themselves, their bodies, and their emotions
Experience a new way of healing that isn’t just talk therapy
Learn how to regulate their nervous system for long-term balance.
Tuesday evenings 6-7:30pm; June 17-July 22
Ready to start your
life changing journey?
Wherever you are at on your journey, we are here for you. Our human and equine team will walk alongside you so you can find hope, healing, and wholeness in your life. You are worth it. Don't hesitate, reach out to us today.