“It was like a light bulb went off,” LeAnn, whose practice until then had generally focused on mindset, self-love and cognitive behavioral therapy. After seeing the overwhelming reaction to her tweet, she decided to prioritize helping adults unpack childhood trauma. It’s something you can talk about as a doctor and as a person who has been through childhood trauma.
Here, LeAnn talks about her clinical work, her commitment to helping people build better boundaries after childhood trauma, and how her adverse childhood experiences inform her perspective.
Can you define childhood trauma for us?
LeAnn: Childhood trauma is any type of traumatic experience when you were young that has affected or shaped the way you view life, relations, and yourself. For example, I was bullied at school. That’s a traumatic event that shaped how I view friends and how I view confrontation as an adult.
It seems that even before someone can unpack childhood trauma, they must acknowledge that an event was traumatic in the first place. That’s right?
LeAnn: Yes, but in addition to identifying that something is traumatic, you have to accept the fact that it happened. That’s the hiccup that gives me a lot. Most people think, Oh, my childhood wasn’t that bad. But if you had a period that was traumatic for you, it’s really about saying, “This is what happened, and this is how I fix it,” even if you weren’t being physically abused or anything like that. Most people don’t believe that emotional and verbal abuse is still abuse.
Even as you have started talking about childhood trauma and made this a focus of your practice, have you seen a change in the conversation?
LeAnn: Yes. Especially in the African-American community. Trauma is like a dirty word. You can’t say your parents did something traumatic to you. They raised you. You’re supposed to respect them. But now that the conversation is becoming more relevant, more people are mustering the courage to speak up and become emotionally whole. They can set those boundaries, they can have healthy relationships, and they can heal from the trauma that is affecting them as adults.
How did you become aware of childhood trauma in your own life?
LeAnn: Growing up, I always felt like I had to be more, to get more attention. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that the way I view love and boundaries is tied to my feeling that because of my family situation, I never had a chance to be a kid and was never good enough. . .
Because bullying was also a big part of my childhood trauma, there were a lot of things that played into me to please people, put other people before myself, and not be able to take care of myself properly.
How do you avoid burnout while doing this job?
LeAnn: I have a therapist. That’s a big, big reason why I can do what I do. I have someone with whom I can release whatever is going on. I also do not accept clients on Mondays. Monday is my time of my week after the weekend to reset.
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