Adina Levitan Helps Children and Families
Adina Levitan, 33, learned to combine her love of children and medicine through the field of child life. Now, she brings her energy to the Baltimore community.
After growing up in Rochester, Levitan moved to Baltimore right before starting high school.
She then attended Bais Yaakov of Baltimore and went on to receive a master’s degree from Towson University in child life.
After working for hospitals and other organizations, Levitan decided to start a private practice as a child life specialist to serve the Baltimore community.
Illuminate Child Life provides child life and psychosocial services to children and families facing medical experiences and navigating grief and bereavement.
Through this work, Levitan hopes to ease the stress of children experiencing hardships in medicine.
Levitan lives in Pikesville and belongs to Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim.
How did you get into this work?
I worked at Children’s National Hospital in their surgery center for a little over a year and then I worked at Sinai Hospital for a little over four years, primarily supporting children with cancer and other blood disorders on the inpatient and outpatient units. I wanted to support children and I noticed that there was really a need for it more in the community.
What’s your favorite part about your job?
My favorite part about my job is when kids have that light bulb moment where they realize that they’re able to do difficult things. I’m able to be a part of supporting them and helping kids overcome their medical trauma. I get to help them be successful at whatever challenges they’re having.
How did you get into this work?
I was a staff member at Camp Simcha for a few years and I really enjoyed working in that environment with children navigating illness, but really in more of a playful environment. I thought about being a doctor and a nurse and a social worker. Then I came upon child life and felt like that was the perfect blend of being in a medical environment but really supporting kids emotionally through play.
In the eight years you’ve been doing this work, how have you seen the field change?
When I initially started, it was definitely smaller and less recognized. It’s obviously grown a lot in the past few years with social media. From a Jewish perspective, we have a group of Orthodox Jewish child life students and child life specialists. We started with a group of four in a WhatsApp chat. We now have over 50 professionals in training. So, it’s been very cool to see from that perspective how the field has grown and changed.
Where do you find your clients?
My clients are from all over. I’ve definitely done a lot of networking and outreach in the Jewish community, but I also work with children and families across the Baltimore area.
What is it like having your own children and working with these children?
I use a lot of my skills to support my own kids for whatever doctor visits they have, but really to also educate them about their bodies and staying healthy. I’ve definitely learned to compartmentalize the children that I work with and my own children so that there isn’t really a crossover of emotions.
What are some things that you do for fun?
I love hanging out with my kids. I love exploring new playgrounds and play places in Baltimore with them. I’m also a photographer, so that’s kind of something that keeps me creative.
How did you get into photography?
I was in Camp Simcha making their camp videos. When I came home, I transferred that skill set into photography and started doing family portraits and small events. I’ve been doing that for probably 10 years at this point.
I love being a part of special moments. I love capturing family milestones and really creating memories and photos that families can cherish. I always run into clients and they’ll tell me “we love looking at the album from the photos that you took” or “we have your pictures hanging up on the wall.” I think for a lot of people it really helps them hold on to those moments.
What’s something that someone would be surprised to learn about your profession?
I think people would be surprised to learn that my profession is something that all children can benefit from. Child life is not just reserved for kids with serious diagnosis but for all kids navigating a medical experience like getting blood drawn or getting an X-ray.
Child life specialists can be helpful in all of those aspects. It doesn’t have to sound like a scary encounter, but really, we help to support kids and reduce their stress anytime they might be having a medical intervention.
Shira Kramer is a freelance writer.
