Our Team

Dr. Areti Vassilopoulos has been the Yale site director for the Comfort Ability Program (CAP) since 2020. She facilitates the youth series within the CAP workshop. She is also the Primary Investigator for research studies within the program, where CAP family feedback is the driving force for work within and outside of Yale.

Alison Fletcher is a third-year Clinical Psychology Doctoral (PsyD) student with a concentration in Health Psychology at Antioch University New England (AUNE). She is completing a year-long practicum training within the Pediatric Psychology track at Yale Child Study Center under the supervision of Dr. Vassilopoulos. Her clinical work includes working with patients and families with headache, chronic pain, functional neurological symptom disorder (FNSD), and a variety of other neurologic disorders. She also assists with clinic coordination and liaison between the medical team, patient, family, and schools. Fletcher is a team member of the Yale Comfort Ability Program (CAP) for pediatric pain as well as the Yale CAP for Sickle Cell Pain. Her current research explores the relationships between anxiety, depression, pain catastrophizing, and functional disability in pediatric pain patients. Her areas of interest lie in working with children, teens, and young adults with chronic health conditions as they navigate the complex intersections of physical and emotional wellbeing. Fletcher has served as a guest lecturer. She is currently a teaching assistant for Quantitative Research Methods & Statistics at AUNE. She is a research assistant exploring lifestyle impacts on psychological wellbeing. Fletcher has also been an ad-hoc reviewer for Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, mentored by Dr. Karen Meteyer, Ph.D.

Lindsey graduated from Smith College in 2022 with an A.B. in Neuroscience and a minor in Applied Statistics. During her time as an undergraduate student, Lindsey worked in neuropsychology and psychophysiology research labs, including an internship at the Human Neurobehavioral Core Service at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). She also completed a senior honors thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Ellen Hanson at BCH, on the relationships between  socioeconomic status and self-injurious behaviors in children with ASD which received a designation of High Honors. Currently, Lindsey is a Sara S. Sparrow Fellow in Clinical Neuroscience in the McPartland Lab. She hopes to pursue a career as a clinical child psychologist with the goal of improving the well-being of children with developmental disabilities and chronic illnesses, and reducing the barriers that these children and their families face.