SLBMI
Headache and Pain Management Services>>
Headache
and Pain Management Services Team>>
Hermann
Witte, PhD
 Hermann
Witte, PhD
Since
receiving his doctoral in clinical psychology from the
University of Alabama in 1972, Dr. Witte has worked
extensively in the area of medical psychology. Prior
to his joining the Behavioral Medicine and Chronic Pain
Management programs at SLBMI in 1998, he held positions
as Psychological Director of Preventive and Stress Medicine
at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha,
NE and St. Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield, MO. His
clinical experience encompasses working with patients
individually and in groups presenting with a broad range
of medical problems including heart disease, cancer,
gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases as well as
chronic pain disorders such as migraines, chronic daily headaches and fibromyalgia.
Given the nature of his therapeutic approach (as noted
below), Dr. Witte also treats a broad variety of non-medical
disorders. These include psychological problems (e.g.
lack of motivation and procrastination); emotional problems
(e.g. anxiety, depression and anger); behavioral problems
(e.g. unassertiveness); and relationship problems (e.g.
marital or parent-child conflicts).
Dr.
Witte's therapeutic approach comprises two general components:
education and coping skills training. In the educational
component, he spends substantial time explaining the
known or likely physical and psychological causes of
the patient's symptoms or other problems they confront
(such as other people's conflict behavior), as the unanswered
"Why?" is a great source of stress. The fundamental
coping skills he teaches his patients (and has taught
in hundreds of workshops) are embodied in his Becoming
Thicker-Skinned cognitive-therapy program. This
program teaches strategies for controlling one's emotions
in dealing with chronic pain or any other kind of problem;
additional strategies for learning emotional control
as well as improving one's physical health consist of
biofeedback-aided relaxation strategies and healing
imagery. Other coping skills include successful behavioral
strategies for changing someone else's conflict behavior.
In order to maximize benefit from their therapy, Dr.
Witte provides his patients with extensive written materials
and affords them the opportunity to tape record all
the sessions.
Dr. Witte also cites in his article, High-Refined Carbohydrate Diet (HRCD), (HI) and Relative Hypoglycemia (rHG): Known but rarely Addressed Critical Etiologies in Migraine. A Synthesis of Old and New Evidence, that there are seven categories of evidence that point to HRCD, HI and rHG as critical factors in migraine pathogenesis.
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