Teresa Kaelin

Center Owner 

Teresa Kaelin MSOTR/L has been operating Brain Balance Centers for over 8 years. Teresa found Brain Balance in her own search to help her children succeed. Her son had sensory processing issues, ADHD and other developmental concerns to which she tried traditional methods for 15 years before changing her sons’ life with Brain Balance. Brain Balance had a profound impact on her son and their family. Brain Balance has helped all her children reach their full potential and succeed in their endeavors, not only with developmental concerns but also in football and swimming. Teresa has a Master of Occupational Therapy and a Bachelor of Science in Communication Disorders. She worked for over 25 years as an Occupational Therapist, spending most of her career working with children with disabilities in private practice and educational settings. She conducted various continuing education courses to educators on topics of Sensory Processing, Handwriting, and Executive Functioning. Tereas also has taught Anatomy/Physiology at a local community college for over 10 years. In her free time, Teresa likes to spend time with her family, travel to watch her children play their college sports, and travel to new locations.

Donni Kinghorn

Admissions Director

Donni Kinghorn is the Admissions Director at Brain Balance Des Moines. She's been part of Brain Balance for over four years,  as director for over four years here in Des Moines.

Donni's educational background is in health psychology, the study of how the brain and body work together and shape one another, so Brain Balance's whole-body approach felt like exactly the right fit from day one. She has her BA in Health Psychology and Psychology with a minor in Health and Exercise Science from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. She's always believed people do their best when their brain and body are functioning at their best, and getting to help families reach that every day is what drew her to this work.

A few years into the job, Donni realized something: she was a kid who needed Brain Balance too. Growing up, she was the model student, straight A's, and well-behaved at school, but at home she was having meltdowns almost every day. She'd spent her whole life compensating without ever knowing that's what she was doing. When she went through the program herself as an adult, she felt the difference firsthand, and it changed how she understands this work. She doesn't just run a program she believes in. She's lived the other side of it too, and that's exactly why she loves what we do at Brain Balance everyday.

Tara Spranger

Program Director

Tara Spranger is the Program Director at Brain Balance Des Moines. She began her Brain Balance journey as a coach in August 2025 and was promoted to Program Director in September 2026. Tara earned her Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology, with a minor in Psychology, from Grand View University.

Helping others become their best selves has always been at the heart of what Tara does. Her time as a coach deepened that passion, especially for improving the brain-body connection. She has watched kids move through the program from their first day to their last and has seen firsthand how much their lives can change.

For Tara, the best part of Brain Balance is connection. That includes the brain-body connection at the core of the program and the relationships she builds with the kids and families she works with. Watching kids become more confident and independent is what she loves most, and she is excited to keep supporting that growth in her new role.