Headaches and Brain Injury from a Biopsychosocial Perspective: A Practical Psychotherapy Guide

About Birgit Gurr

Dr Birgit Gurr works as clinical neuropsychologist in Poole Dorset UK where she is employed by Dorset HealthCare University Foundation Trust runs a small private practice and lectures at Bournemouth University. The focus of her clinical work are patients with complex neurological disorders including brain injury stroke dementia Multiple Sclerosis epilepsy addiction and other problems. Apart from trying to help her patients to understand their condition through the use of neuropsychological assessments she is also developing specific treatment programmes to guide their adjustment and recovery.The work with patients who experience chronic post-concussion problems post-traumatic headaches in particular has been one of her key interests. She developed a cognitive-behaviour therapy approach by combining knowledge and experience about brain injury headaches and the psychological difficulties associated with overcoming a traumatic event. The psychological headache treatment was implemented and tested in her service and was found to be very helpful for her patients. The publication of the research on this topic and presentation at the British Psychology Conference and the International Headache Conference caught the interest of colleagues in the field so that her approach is now used by a number of brain injury and headache services nationally and internationally.