This year, in 2025, the Complex Trauma Institute is pleased to be one of the York Festival of Ideas partners alongside the University of York (free events).
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Title: Reflections on Fear and Love -
This is the second event in Michael's contribution to the York Festival of Ideas series. We recommend watching his first event here:
Psychotherapist and CTI Trainer Michael Guilding examines fear and love through the lens of human biology and reflects on how we can shift the balance between these powerful forces.
Date: Thursday 12 June 2025,
Time: 7.00 - 8.30 pm
Venue: Online (Zoom Webinar)
Booking Link: Click Here to Book your Free ticket
Please watch Part 1 - "Reflections on Fear, Anxiety and Depression" here:
Fear and love are the two great forces that shape our lives as human beings. They are not abstract ideas, but powerful biological systems, constantly altering our body’s metabolism, our thoughts and our behaviour. Our fear responses are necessary for our self-defence, but we can get stuck in “fear-mode”, and this shuts down the biological systems which enable us to relate to and cooperate with others – undermining our capacity to love.
Recently we have seen levels of fear and hostility rise throughout the world and a decrease in tolerance, and compassion. When fear is the dominant force in our lives, we lose our ability to be sociable and we live in misery. When love is the dominant force, we feel a sense of connection to others and can experience joy and contentment. Michael Guilding, examines fear and love from the perspective of human biology, and reflects on what each of us might do to shift the balance between these forces.
This event will take place live on Zoom Webinar. Upon completing the registration
process, you will immediately receive a link to join the event. Additionally, reminders
will be sent to you 1 day and 1 hour before the event begins to ensure you have the
information readily available. During the event, you can ask questions via a Q&A
function, but audience cameras and microphones will remain muted throughout.
About the speaker:
Michael Guilding
Michael Guilding worked as a therapist for 30 years including over a decade in the NHS, where he was Head of Primary Care Counselling within the York and Selby NHS trust. He has had a long-standing interest in our biological fear-system and its impact on our patterns of relating to others.
Michael has written several papers for the Complex Trauma Institute’s Journal on the theory of complex trauma (which he sees as a biological fear-system disorder) and on the practical applications of this theory for psychotherapy. He runs workshops for the Complex Trauma Institute’s C-PTSD Practitioner course, on understanding and working with the therapist's fear system, and he is currently writing a "survival guide" for working with complex trauma entitled "Fear in the Therapy Room". Or you can book his workshops without enrolling in the full course here.
There will also be an in-person presentation of this talk on Saturday 7 June at 2.00pm at the Quaker Meeting House, Friargate, York, YO1 9RL. Tickets for this can be booked yorkfestivalofideas.com once the brochure for the 2025 festival is available (will not be live until a couple of months before the festival)