Areti Vassilopoulos, PhD

Dr. Areti Vassilopoulos is a Pediatric Health Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics & Child Psychology at Yale School of Medicine. Following her PhD, she completed her doctoral internship specializing in Pediatric Psychology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine & Kennedy Krieger Institute, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship within the Psychiatry Consultation Service and Pediatric Transplant Service at Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Vassilopoulos provides services through Yale Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH). She is fully embedded within Pediatric Neurology to provide integrated behavioral health care and pediatric health psychology follow-up services. She works with children, teens, and young adults with a variety of conditions, including chronic pain, headaches/migraines, functional neurological symptom disorder (FNSD), muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Vassilopoulos is the site director for Comfort Ability Program in partnership with Boston Children's Hospital, which is an internationally disseminated workshop for pediatric pain and somatic symptom management.

Dr. Vassilopoulos is involved in training Yale Child Study Center fellows within the Pediatric Psychology track. She also works closely with residents in Pediatric Neurology, and provides lectures in comprehensive pediatric pain management for the Medical Clerkship series through Yale School of Medicine. She leads an advanced pediatric psychology externship, that accepts one student a year.

With regards to research, Dr. Vassilopoulos focuses on quality improvement initiatives, outcomes of clinical interventions, the relationship between health and behavior in multidisciplinary clinics, and mental health screening and referrals within pediatric medical ambulatory clinics. Her current ongoing research focuses on pediatric chronic pain, FNSD symptoms, transition from pediatric to adult medical care, and pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis. She also values community outreach, often collaborating with non-profit organizations for community presentations and online workshops.