If you feel like the topic of trauma—particularly childhood trauma—is popping up more and more on social media, in pop culture, and in conversation, you’re not mistaken. The subject of childhood trauma, as well as its potential to cause long-lasting impact, is getting increasing attention lately, and for good reason.

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report highlighting how devastating childhood trauma can really be and why preventing it is so important for public health. The things that you can count as childhood trauma (also known as adverse childhood experiences or ACEs) are sadly legion.

The CDC’s report includes examples like seeing violence at home, having a family member who attempts or dies by suicide, experiencing physical or emotional neglect, growing up in a household where a parent has substance use problems or mental health issues that impact how well they can support their children, and more. The CDC reports that 63.9 percent of the 17,337 adults surveyed experienced at least one ACE like this, and 12.5 percent of the adults surveyed had been through at least four forms of childhood trauma.

While it’s obvious that growing up with these kinds of experiences can be emotionally wounding, it turns out that childhood trauma can have long-lasting physical consequences too. The CDC’s report drew many sad and sometimes surprising connections between childhood trauma and adult health.

The more ACEs a person experiences, the more at risk they are of developing habits like smoking and heavy drinking, along with conditions like depression, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer, the CDC explains. (In fact, the CDC noted that five of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States were associated with adverse childhood experiences in this way.) Exposure to traumatic events can also increase the risk of life challenges like unemployment and not having health insurance, both of which can impact a person’s mental and physical health in a number of ways.

If you’ve experienced childhood trauma, reading through this information might make you feel like you’re doomed to a less happy, less healthy life through no fault of your own. If you take anything away from this piece, hopefully, it’s the fact that that’s absolutely not true.

So how can adults who have experienced childhood trauma learn to effectively manage their trauma to ensure healthier, more emotionally fulfilling futures? This is exactly what Kelsei LeAnn, Psy.D., a Houston-based therapist and the host of The You Effect podcast, has been grappling with in her clinical practice. It’s also what prompted LeAnn, who specializes in childhood trauma, to use social media as a way of normalizing the discussion around how the things that happen during childhood can impact how we feel and behave as adults.

Back in August, LeAnn tweeted, “your childhood is the reason why you’re the way you are now.” She didn’t expect the response, which included 10.5K retweets and 27.3K likes.

“It was kind of like a light bulb went off,” LeAnn, whose practice had up until then focused generally on mind-set, self-love, and cognitive behavioral therapy, tells SELF. After seeing the immense reaction to her tweet, she decided to prioritize helping adults unpack childhood trauma. It’s something she can speak to as both a clinician and a person who’s been through childhood trauma herself.

Here, LeAnn tells SELF about her clinical work, her commitment to helping people build better boundaries after childhood trauma, and how her own adverse childhood experiences inform her perspective.