Michael Guilding Author

Michael Guilding worked as a counsellor and psychotherapist for 30 years including for more than a decade in the NHS, where he was Head of Primary Care Counselling within the York and Selby NHS Trust. For many years he has had a deep interest in our biological fear-system responses and how these affect the way we relate to others, having been introduced to this framework of thinking by his clinical supervisor, Dr Una McCluskey, of the University of York. Michael has written a number of papers for the Complex Trauma Institute’s Journal on the theory of complex trauma, and its implications for psychotherapy. This book has grown out of these papers and his ‘Fear and the Therapist’ workshops which help therapists to become more aware of their fear-system responses and to use this awareness in their work. Having retired from clinical work in 2023, his focus is now on writing about the fear-system for the general public, and his 2024 York Festival of Ideas talk, ‘Reflections on Fear, Anxiety and Depression’ was broadcast nationally in Australia.