Certified Child Life Specialist, Jessica Lewin, talks with friend and CCLS, Allison Messerly, about taking child life to camp!

What happens when you take a child life specialist out of the hospital and place them in a summer camp setting for kids with cancer? Magic, advocacy, and a whole new world of psychological support.

Allison Messerly shares her journey from hospital-based child life to creating a comprehensive support system at a day camp for children with cancer and their siblings. Throughout this deeply insightful conversation, Allison reveals how she's adapted traditional clinical skills to serve children who are either undergoing active cancer treatment or within five years of completing it as well as their siblings.

The camp serves as crucial respite for families financially devastated by cancer treatment costs. For many young campers, this represents their first experience outside the home after diagnosis — a significant transition requiring specialized support. Allison employs diagnosis education not just with children but extensively with teenage staff who may never have worked with medically complex kids before.

Most fascinating is how seamlessly child life skills transfer to this non-traditional setting. From advocating for children with ports to participate safely in gymnastics to creating therapeutic activities that help process emotions, Allison demonstrates that the core expertise remains valuable across environments. Perhaps most touching is her work creating memory books for families who lose children between camp seasons, capturing precious moments parents might never have witnessed during treatment-focused years.

Beyond her direct work with campers, Allison has pioneered a formal child life practicum program that combines counselor responsibilities with supervised skill development. Her students have achieved remarkable success, all securing their next educational opportunity immediately after completing her program.

Ready to expand your view of where child life skills can make an impact? This episode will inspire you to think beyond hospital walls and consider how your expertise might transform children's experiences in entirely new settings.

You can follow Allison on Instagram at @aurora__allison.

Track: Odessa — LiQWYD & Scandinavianz [Audio Library Release]Music provided by Audio Library PlusWatch: https://youtu.be/jNy-Dp3lgcgFree Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/odessa