Trauma Therapy — At Your Pace, Not the Trauma’s
Trauma therapy helps you work through past experiences in a safe, supportive space using evidence-based approaches, so you can release what’s been holding you back and move forward with clarity and strength. At Tea Time Therapy, Paulina Brunelle, Nicole Thomas-Amaral, and Allie Bulger are available for trauma work — with Paulina specializing in veterans, first responders, and first- and second-generation Americans. Virtual sessions across Massachusetts.
Signs
- Your body reacts before your brain gets a vote
- You’re fine, until a sound or a smell says otherwise
- You’ve organized your life around not-thinking-about-it
- Hypervigilance that reads as "responsible" from the outside
- You minimize it — other people had it worse
This is why "I already know what happened, so why am I still like this?" is such a common frustration. Understanding an event intellectually doesn’t reach the part of your nervous system that’s still bracing. Trauma work has to reach that part.
Good trauma therapy does not start by excavating the worst day of your life. It starts with stability — resourcing, regulation, and enough safety in the room that the work is survivable. Paulina combines therapy, mindfulness, and outdoor practices in her approach to this.
You set the pace. You’re never forced to tell anything before you’re ready, and nothing about this work requires you to relive it to heal from it.
Paulina specializes in anxiety, trauma, and stress management, working with first/second-generation Americans, veterans, and first responders — people who often carry the expectation that they should be able to handle it. She’s committed to making therapy feel collaborative and supportive, knowing that starting can be intimidating.
Do I have to talk about what happened?
Not before you’re ready, and not in more detail than is useful. A great deal of trauma work happens through the present-day nervous system rather than through retelling. You stay in control of what you share.
Does it count as trauma if it wasn’t "that bad"?
If it’s still shaping how you move through the world, it counts. Trauma is about what an experience did to your nervous system, not about whether it ranks against someone else’s.
Do you work with veterans and first responders?
Yes — Paulina Brunelle, LMHC works specifically with veterans and first responders, alongside first- and second-generation Americans. She sees clients Tuesday through Friday.