Abundant Practice Podcast

Episode #721: Before the Breakdown: Helping Professionals and the Myth of Endless Strength
Host: Allison Puryear
Guest: Dr. Cecily Moore
Date: January 7, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the unique pressures faced by helping professionals—especially therapists—around the cultural and personal expectation of “endless strength.” Host Allison Puryear and guest Dr. Cecily Moore, a clinician, educator, and researcher, explore how these expectations fuel burnout, self-abandonment, and unsustainable work practices. They unpack the problematic conditioning around over-responsibility and discuss healthier approaches, including nuanced views of rest and self-care that go far beyond surface-level solutions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin and Impact of the “Endless Strength” Narrative

• Dr. Moore’s Personal & Academic Connection (02:23 – 04:19)
  • Dr. Moore has been passionate about counseling since childhood, seeing her work as a calling.
  • Her research focuses on the "strong Black woman" narrative and its intersection with the lived experiences of Black women in helping professions.
  • Noted widespread overlap between cultural expectations of strength and professional burnout.
    • “I kept seeing… a lot of overlap between this narrative and… Black women being helping professionals… we're having to perform strength in these ways. Like, I'm having to completely self abandon and not show up as my full self. And I feel undercompensated and overwhelmed.” — Dr. Cecily Moore (03:25)

2. Professional Conditioning into Over-Responsibility

• Cultural and Systemic Factors (04:27 – 05:37)
  • Helping professionals are conditioned to tie their worth to how much they can “carry.”
  • Overlap of cultural, familial, and professional expectations: the need to be “endlessly available and endlessly competent.”
    • “We're literally conditioning folks to walk into a profession of burnout.” — Dr. Cecily Moore (06:11)
• Educational System Failures
  • The field and education lag behind, not properly preparing clinicians for sustainability.

3. Generational and Systemic Pressures

• Changing Attitudes Across Generations (07:36 – 08:09)
  • Allison recalls Gen X messaging (“suck it up and do the thing”) vs. how younger generations are raised today.
  • The challenge: finding a middle ground between resilience and managing discomfort without glorifying suffering.
• Gatekeeping vs. Neglect (08:43 – 11:19)
  • Dr. Moore questions whether the “trial by fire” approach in training is fair or simply throwing people to the wolves without adequate support.

4. Self-Care Beyond the Clichés

• What Self-Care Really Means (11:19 – 12:11)
  • The reality of self-care is rarely a Pinterest dream: it’s often about boundaries, hard conversations, and systems.
  • “Self care is so rarely what we see on Pinterest... like maybe baths don't do anything.” — Allison Puryear (11:25)
• Differentiating Between Hygiene and Self-Care
  • “We confuse self care with hygiene a lot.” — Dr. Cecily Moore (12:04)

5. Rethinking Rest: More Than Just Sleep

• The Seven Types of Rest (12:39 – 16:11)
  • Dr. Moore introduces the concept: rest is multifaceted (physical, mental, sensory, emotional, social, creative, spiritual).
    • “When we oversimplify it to just sleep, we are missing out on creative rest, spiritual... we're missing out on a whole gamut of other forms.” — Dr. Cecily Moore (13:25)
  • She credits thought leaders like Tricia Hersey (“Rest is Resistance”) and Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith.
  • “If we don't become responsible parties to rest, our body will do it for us. It will shut this thing down.” — Dr. Cecily Moore (14:37)

6. Listening to the Body and Accessing Authentic Rest

• Learning to Recognize What You Need (16:54 – 18:41)
  • Body awareness is key: “listening to the language of your body” to determine which kind of rest is most needed.
  • Not all rest feels safe when someone has been conditioned to overperform.
    • “Does this type of rest even feel safe for me?” — Dr. Cecily Moore (15:56)
  • Resources recommended: Rest is Resistance (Tricia Hersey), Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s work.

7. Transforming Insight into Action

• Therapists Love to Learn—But Must Also Do (18:41 – 19:11)
  • Reading and learning about rest is a start, but it needs to lead to integrating real changes.
  • Many Black women Dr. Moore interviewed started unlearning harmful narratives by reading about these concepts first.

8. Personal Rest Practices, Boundaries, and Spiral of Burnout

• Rest Must Fit the Individual (21:18 – 22:36)
  • Neither rest nor self-care are “one size fits all”; they must be tailored to personal needs and preferences.
  • “Maybe it’s creative rest. Maybe it’s sensory rest. …This isn’t a one size fits all, you know, concept and we all need different things.” — Dr. Cecily Moore (21:25)
• Boundaries, Overwhelm, and the Downward Spiral (23:01 – 23:58)
  • The more depleted, the more likely to say “yes” to things, feeding a downward spiral.
    • “The more depleted I am, the more likely I am to say yes to things…” — Allison Puryear (23:32)

9. Training the Next Generation: Preventing Breakdown Before It Starts

• Micro-rest and Boundary “Rehearsals” for Students (24:07 – 25:17)
  • Dr. Moore teaches students to practice “micro-rests,” practice setting boundaries, release the fixer identity, and choose work that matches capacity—decoupling worth from productivity.
    • “Release the fixer identity, and try to choose work that matches our capacity and then separate self worth from productivity.” — Dr. Cecily Moore (25:05)
  • Allison expresses admiration, wishing she’d had this guidance earlier.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Over-Responsibility:
  “This over responsibility doesn’t equal great clinical care in the way we fool ourselves into believing.”
  — Allison Puryear (05:20)

• On Systemic and Personal Burnout:
  “We’re literally conditioning folks to walk into a profession of burnout, but also they’re getting burnt out prior to even becoming independently licensed.”
  — Dr. Cecily Moore (06:11)

• On Rest as Radical Resistance:
  “If we don’t become responsible parties to rest, our body will do it for us. It will shut this thing down. And you’re either going to do it by force or by choice, right?”
  — Dr. Cecily Moore (14:37)

• On Individualized Rest:
  “When we make space for our identities and our full humanity. Right. We're able to access and integrate these things better.”
  — Dr. Cecily Moore (22:16)

• On Decoupling Worth from Productivity:
  “We try to choose work that matches our capacity and then separate self worth from productivity.”
  — Dr. Cecily Moore (25:05)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:23] — Dr. Moore’s introduction and personal academic journey
• [04:27] — How professionals are conditioned into endless strength
• [06:11] — Burnout starting before licensure
• [11:19] — Self-care beyond clichés; boundaries and systems
• [12:39] — Rest is more than sleep: Seven types of rest explained
• [14:37] — Rest as resistance and necessity
• [16:54] — Learning body awareness and which rest you need
• [18:41] — Reading as the first step to unlearning
• [21:18] — Rest is not one-size-fits-all; knowing your needs
• [23:32] — The spiral of depletion and weak boundaries
• [24:07] — Preventative strategies for students: micro-rest, boundaries, releasing fixer identity, self-worth separation

Tone & Closing Thoughts

This conversation is authentic, reflective, and supportive, centering the lived reality (and projected reality) of therapists and helping professionals. Both Allison and Dr. Moore candidly share their struggles and insights, blending vulnerability with expert guidance. The episode is especially affirming for listeners who have internalized the myth of “endless strength,” providing validation, practical strategies, and hope for a more sustainable future in the field.

For additional resources and trainings discussed in the episode, Allison invites listeners to check out her Abundance Party membership and various free tools available at abundancepracticebuilding.com.