Who we are
Dr. Karen Leavitt is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist with 15 years of experience in Psychiatry. She is a member of the Michigan State Medical Society and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and holds licenses to practice medicine in Michigan, Florida, and Montana. She has been fortunate to work in many arenas of mental health, which has deepened her practical knowledge of helping children. Dr. Leavitt graduated from St. George’s University School of Medicine and completed her Psychiatry residency at Loyola University Medical Center and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship at Rush University Medical Center, both in Chicago. During her time in training, she served as chief resident and chief fellow in those institutions. She most recently worked at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she served as Chief of Pediatric Services for Hospital and Residential Services from 2021 through 2025. She has worked extensively in adolescent partial hospitalization and eating disorder partial hospitalization programs, an area of particular interest to her.
Dr. Leavitt has come to understand over her years of clinical experience, that children function in systems, not independently. Consequently, she finds clinical importance in understanding and validating a child’s point of view, but also in being intentional in including the family in a patient’s care. Parents should be involved in a child’s treatment, and it is possible to include them while being mindful of the special nature of the therapeutic relationship.
On a personal note, Dr. Leavitt grew up in Orlando, Florida (yes, she did spend a lot of her childhood at Disney!) but now resides in Caledonia, Michigan, where she enjoys spending time with her family and chickens, reading, knitting, and traveling; with a special interest in exploring our National Parks. She is a practicing Catholic, and firmly believes that we are all perfectly and wonderfully made, just as we are.
