EN
Dr med. Gunnar Birke (Dr. med. Gunnar Birke) is Medical Head of Psychotherapeutic Neurology at the Gailingen site of Kliniken Schmieder. Patients come to him when a neurological illness — a stroke, multiple sclerosis, a brain injury — is accompanied by anxiety, depression or difficulty coming to terms with the diagnosis, and with functional neurological disorders and chronic pain.
Where the doctor practises and what they do
Dr Birke heads the department of psychotherapeutic neurology at Kliniken Schmieder in Gailingen on Lake Constance. His is an unusual combination: he is a certified specialist both in neurology and in psychiatry and psychotherapy, so he sees the whole patient — the damage to the nervous system and the way the person is coping with it. Patients are referred to his department for rehabilitation when a neurological disease comes with an adjustment disorder (a prolonged reaction to a serious event), anxiety or depression, and standard neurological rehabilitation without psychotherapy does not get results.
A separate field of his work is functional neurological disorders: conditions with real symptoms — weakness, seizures, gait problems — whose cause lies not in damage to the brain but in a fault in how it works. He also treats organic affective disorders (mood changes caused by brain damage), somatoform disorders (physical complaints without an organic cause) and chronic pain syndromes. The department further deals with the neurological and psychosomatic after-effects of coronavirus infection and with rehabilitation after stroke and in multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, brain tumours and Parkinson’s disease when anxiety and depression have set in.
What they are known for
Gunnar Birke is first author of the concept of «psychotherapeutic neurology», published in the journal Neurologie & Rehabilitation in 2025 — an approach in which psychotherapy is built into neurological rehabilitation rather than running alongside it. His research interests are psychotherapy in neurological disease, functional neurological disorders, rehabilitation in post-Covid syndrome and motor recovery after stroke. He is a member of the German Society of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (DGPPN), the German Society of Neurology (DGN), the German Society for Neurorehabilitation (DGNR) and the working group on functional neurological disorders (AG FNS).
How we arrange an appointment
AlenMed arranges consultations and rehabilitation with Dr Birke at Kliniken Schmieder. Send us your medical reports via the request form; we translate them into German, forward them to the doctor and agree a date for the consultation or admission. During your stay you are accompanied by a medical interpreter, and we help with the visa, airport transfer and accommodation for relatives near the clinic. You pay for diagnostics and treatment directly to the clinic at its official tariffs.
This material is provided for informational purposes only and does not replace a doctor’s consultation. The possibility and results of treatment are determined after an in-person examination.