You can probably shear the arborvitae fairlly hard w/out them dying. Just don't cut back to where you see the browning foliage inside. If they're truly overgrown, try to prune them to their natural sharp (eg. globe or pyramid) and explain that 1 - proper pruning/shearing leads to new growth and 2 - the more they are kept sheared, the more dense the shrub will be and healthier so that future pruning will not leave the shrub as sparse as the first pruing probably will.
You can only cut back any evergreen branch enough to leave enough green leaves on it to survive. If you cut all the green off a branch, that branch will die. EXCEPTION: yews can take severe cutting back; have even seen yews cut off at ground level that sprouted new growth.
If shearing, you cannot easily judge how far to cut back, especially on upper branches.
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