We believe you. We understand you. We’re here for you.

Meet our founder

lauren prince-COLE

Founder & CEO

  • I'm not a clinician. I'm a patient who got tired of being one.

    I live with hEDS, POTS, MCAS, and the full constellation of overlapping conditions we treat here—I've been the patient in the waiting room wondering why nobody could connect the dots. My daughter Julia lives with the same conditions I do. She hasn't yet been through the years of being dismissed and misdiagnosed that I was, and I am building this practice in part to make sure she never has to be. I want her to have the care I needed at her age and beyond—and I want that for every patient who walks through our doors.

    Connective Wellness exists because I wanted to build the kind of care that should have always existed for us—coordinated, root-cause-driven, and run by people who actually believe you when you say something is wrong.

    My job here is the architecture: how the care model works, how our providers talk to each other, how a patient moves through our doors and comes out feeling like a human being instead of a chart number. I built this practice around the things I never got as a patient—being heard, being believed, and having a team that treats your whole body instead of the one piece they specialize in.

    I'm also a co-founder of WellnectaDx, where we're building diagnostic tools for the complex chronic illness population—because patients can't find the right providers, providers think these conditions are harder to diagnose than they actually are, and the tools that should bridge that gap don't exist yet. So we're making them.

    When I'm not running CW, I'm baking sourdough with my starter Sylvie (she's very high-maintenance), cooking with my partner, squeezing in room-parent duties at my daughter's school, and being bossed around by our cat, Squeegee. Honestly, most of my waking hours are this business — and I’m good with that.

Patient Experience & Operations

  • emily graves

    DIRECTOR OF PRACTICE OPERATIONS

    As Director of Practice Operations at Connective Wellness, Emily is passionate about creating systems and experiences that make healthcare feel more accessible, organized, and genuinely patient centered. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the practice, supporting both the clinical and administrative teams while helping ensure that every patient feels heard, supported, and cared for throughout their experience.

    Emily is also continuing her education through Southern New Hampshire University, where she is working toward her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus in Healthcare Management. She is passionate about growing her knowledge of healthcare leadership and using that education to help build more efficient, thoughtful, and patient-centered practices.

    Outside of her work at Connective Wellness, Emily enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and finding the occasional opportunity to bring a little chaos and fun into the workday. She believes that healthcare should feel human and that the people behind the scenes play an important role in making that possible.

  • nevaeh theriault

    LEAD FRONT DESK COORDINATOR (REMOTE)

    Nevaeh's own experience navigating chronic illness is what gives much of her work at Connective Wellness its personal meaning. She understands firsthand how frustrating and overwhelming it can be to search for answers, manage complex symptoms, and navigate a healthcare system that doesn't always see the full picture. She is passionate about helping patients feel supported throughout their journey while also finding ways to improve the experience behind the scenes through thoughtful resources, systems, and processes. When she's not working, Nevaeh can usually be found hiking, reading, crocheting, or spending time with animals.

  • makayla aubin

    FRONT DESK COORDINATOR

    Makayla spent four years training in dental assisting, then went on to manage both a restaurant and a retail business before finding her way to Connective Wellness. Now she gets to talk with people every day about hEDS and how we can help—bringing the same people-first instincts from all those years in service industries to the front desk. Outside of work, she's an unapologetic nature lover with a deep, ongoing fascination with the sinking of the Titanic (she can—and will—tell you more than you ever expected to know about it).

  • DENISE HOWE

    FRONT DESK SPECIALIST

    lovely bio coming soon 💜

Coaching, Advocacy, & Wellness

  • DD Travers

    SOMATIC THERAPIST + NURSE PRACTIONER

    With more than 30 years in healthcare and a lifetime of navigating hearing loss since age two, DD understands the barriers to wellbeing—especially for those dealing with chronic stress and pain. Her approach is trauma-informed and person-centered, blending medical expertise with somatic wisdom to guide you toward self-directed healing and resilience. Through her Safety, Ready, Reset, Go, and Soma's Door models, she offers real-time stress-release and trauma-healing tools that help you move from survival mode toward true contentment. Working with DD, you'll discover how to reconnect with your body, regulate stress, and restore vitality through her holistic MindBody coaching and somatic therapies.

  • Yentl Burgos

    LIFESTYLE HEALTH & NUTRITION COACH

    Yentl Burgos is a certified health coach, having earned her certification from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in 2014. Her passion for nutrition began after years of managing an intolerance to animal protein, which eventually developed into a severe allergy. This personal journey inspired her to research and learn how to maintain optimal health using alternative food sources, leading her to become a health coach.

    In addition to her work in nutrition, Yentl is a single mom, a hair stylist, and a business owner. She integrates her nutrition expertise into her everyday life and her work behind the chair, helping her clients by educating them on the foods that promote hair growth and reduce hair loss.

    When she’s not working at Connective Wellness, or her salon, Yentl enjoys being a homebody, indulging her love of books, and embracing the passionate, determined energy of her Scorpio nature.

  • Sabrina Moore

    LIFESTYLE HEALTH & NUTRITION COACH

    Sabrina is a certified holistic health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, working with people who want a more natural, personalized approach to wellness—whether they're navigating stress and burnout or simply want to feel more energized and connected to themselves. Currently double majoring in Psychology and Ethnobotany at Connecticut College, she blends mental health knowledge with a deep respect for food as medicine, drawing on both modern science and traditional healing practices. She's also pursuing advanced certification in herbal medicine to support clients through plant-based, integrative care. Her approach is individualized, intuitive, and compassionate—rooted in the belief that holistic health isn't about perfection, but about building sustainable habits and feeling empowered in your own choices. Outside of work, you'll find her hiking, kayaking, tending her garden, or curled up with a book, yoga, or her knitting.

  • Nicole Sheintul

    MENTAL HEALTH COACH

    Nicole Sheintul is a chronic illness coach and Licensed Master of Social Work (LMSW) based in New York who lives with hypermobile EDS herself—so she's deeply committed to helping others with chronic illness recognize their strengths, build resilience, and create a fulfilling quality of life. With a background in hospital settings, she brings extensive experience in crisis management, emotional support, care coordination, and life transitions, along with a real understanding of both healthcare systems and the emotional weight of living with chronic conditions. Her approach is strengths-based, person-centered, and trauma-informed—focused on resilience, stress reduction, mindfulness, nervous system regulation, and solution-focused care. She works with adolescents, adults, and older adults navigating challenges like chronic pain, diagnosis acceptance, grief, relationship issues, and post-surgical adjustment. Combining professional training with lived experience, Nicole bridges the gap between clinical care and genuine human connection—fostering empowerment, self-compassion, and sustainable growth in everyone she supports.

  • Dr. Desiree Vanasselberg

    DOCTOR OF CHIROPRACTIC

    Born and raised in St. Petersburg, FL, Dr. Desiree found her passion for chiropractic care after earning a degree in elementary education from Southern New Hampshire University. Inspired by a chiropractor to change paths, she pursued her chiropractic education at Northwestern Health Sciences University, training in diverse clinics across sports medicine, pediatrics, and general chiropractic—and a mission trip to Costa Rica showed her the power of quick, effective relief through chiropractic care. Now serving hEDS patients at Connective Wellness, she offers both targeted adjustment and enhanced alignment sessions. With a deep understanding of hypermobility and hEDS, Dr. Desiree combines compassion and knowledge to provide tailored care that helps her patients reclaim their daily lives.

  • Veronica Breen

    PATIENT ADVOCATE

    Veronica Breen, MPH, is an epidemiologist and public health professional with a background in health sciences and a passion for improving healthcare delivery and the patient experience. She earned her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and has experience spanning public health research, health and well-being, patient advocacy, and healthcare education. Her work focuses on making healthcare more accessible, patient-centered, and informed by both research and personal lived experience, particularly for people navigating complex or underdiagnosed conditions. Outside of work, Veronica enjoys going to the gym, gardening, cooking, spending time with her partner and her German Shepherd, and exploring the Dallas–Fort Worth area in search of new foods and restaurants.

Flometrics® Physical Therapy

  • Alison bobala, dpt

    Alli is trained in Flometrics®, neurological dry needling, and the Pediatric EDS ECHO program, and she leads the day-to-day delivery of Flometrics PT at Connective Wellness. She lives with hEDS herself, which means she's not guessing about what it feels like when your body doesn't do what it's supposed to—she knows. Her sessions are structured, specific, and individualized, because "generic PT" is usually exactly what didn't work before you got here. She helps patients build real stability, improve movement control, and break out of the flare-and-crash cycle so many hypermobile bodies get trapped in.

    Outside the clinic, Alli is a Gilmore Girls superfan, former swim coach, and celiac who's usually found coffee in hand exploring somewhere new. And yes—she was at the Eras Tour rain show at Gillette.

  • Amy Kershaw, MPT

    Amy delivers both Flometrics® physical therapy and our pelvic floor PT, helping adults with complex and hypermobile bodies work through pelvic floor dysfunction, pain, and the concerns that come with them, at a pace set by the patient. She comes to this work with more than 20 years as a therapist across a wide range of orthopedic and neurological conditions, always working collaboratively alongside other providers—which is exactly what drew her to Connective Wellness. Her pull toward pelvic care grew as she watched patient after patient struggle to get treated, or feel unheard when they tried to describe what they were going through, and after completing her Herman & Wallace pelvic training two years ago, she hasn't looked back. For Amy, good care is manual therapy, movement, and a lot of education—the kind that helps people understand their own bodies and take an active part in their healing.

Diagnostics + Integrative Care

  • Christina Betences, NP

    Christina is a board-certified nurse practitioner with more than a decade of experience, and she's always stayed open to every modality of care—remembering that no two people are the same. After the birth of her first child, she went searching for a functional medicine practitioner herself, and with the right guidance she felt empowered to take responsibility for her own health and ultimately heal—earning her functional medicine and nutrition certificate soon after. Today, Christina addresses health conditions with a wide lens, moving in and out of different modalities as each patient needs. She provides comprehensive, collaborative care for the complex needs of people navigating hEDS, POTS, MCAS, chronic pain, and the related challenges that come with them.

  • emma winfield, np

    FAMILY NURSE PRACTIONER

    Emma has over 16 years of experience in healthcare spanning emergency medicine, primary care, neurology/memory care, and palliative care, and brings a holistic and compassionate approach to patient care. She believes healing begins with listening—meeting people where they are and honoring each patient’s unique story and journey toward wellness.

    Outside of work, Emma enjoys hiking, gardening, paddleboarding, volunteering with local organizations, and spending time with her family and two rescue dogs.