James Mayfield Smith

Somatic BreakThrough Facilitator with 3 decades of experience. Book a low-cost $100 intro session with me:

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

Wow, Jonathan’s review of his Somatic BreakThrough Dialogue Journey session provides an accessible blueprint for somatic-based, inner parts work-fueled emotional healing.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

Jonathan provides a beautifully detailed description of how his current goals are impacted by a young energy within him that wants to be liked...and what to do about it. He demonstrates how to listen & hold space for it in ways that shift the dynamic. Thanks, Jonathan!

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

@ManofGold88 @vividvoid This is a good place to start this conversation.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

@neats29 Just reading this list raises my EQ.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

@ElodesNL Nice accidental marketing, Elodes!

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

@basilYam I can also confirm this as true.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

@ElodesNL Elodes, My parents are currently both in the hospital and struggling with dementia and a host of serious health and mobility issues. I’ve already been processing loss around this and anticipate using these tools myself again soon.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

During a time of deep grief in my life, I was recommended the Grief Recovery Handbook. It emphasized working with a witness to read a series of writings about the past losses, current losses and future losses (i.e. we’ll never get to do xyz that we had planned). It was immensely helpful for me and now I use it with clients going through grief with much success. Grief operates on its own timeline and there are definitely things we can do to foster completion of different stages of grief. Blessings 🙏🏽

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

The body knows how to close a wound. Emotional healing may follow a similar principle.
Maybe our role isn't to manufacture transformation. Maybe it's to cultivate the conditions where the body and psyche can return to what they already know how to do.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

Three years ago I wrote that the body knows how to heal physically and emotionally. Today I'd probably say it differently.
If I cut my hand, I don't heal it. I clean it. Maybe stitch it if necessary. Mostly, I try not to interfere with what the body already knows how to do.
I wonder whether emotional healing may work in a similar way.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

@EthanReeder Bodies know how to heal physically & emotionally, if we get out of the way. We store unmetabolized trauma until we're ready to release it. We can feel & work with these energies easier in expanded states (I use breathwork), coupled w/somatic & inner parts emotional healing work.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

That realization has gradually shifted the focus of my work.
Less toward trying to make change happen. More toward creating the conditions where protective strategies can relax enough for change to emerge on its own.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

@LORWEN108 I agree that insight alone rarely brings lasting change.  I find that people often try to change from a nervous system state that limits whats possible. As our state shifts, more becomes available for change.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

Thanks for sharing this. I initially bristled at the name "Rapid Resolution Therapy" because I've seen what happens when people try to move faster than their nervous system is ready for. But your description points toward something different. It sounds less like revisiting traumatic details and more like changing our relationship to what's still alive in us now.
One of the things I continue to find fascinating is that transformation often comes less from revisiting every detail of the past and more from changing how we relate to the signals that continue to protect us from anticipated threats.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

Maybe listening isn't only how we gather information.
What if it’s one of the conditions that allows change to happen?

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

One thing I often notice
is that anxiety often begins to soften before the problem has even been solved.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

The first shift comes from being heard.
The second comes from knowing the concern actually influenced what happened next.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

I wonder if many of the capacities we think are missing were never lost.
Maybe they've simply been waiting for an old adaptation to realize its job is finally done.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

Much of the suffering I see comes from protective adaptations that once served us remarkably well.
They worked so well...
they kept protecting long after our lives had changed.

[James Mayfield Smith @JamesMayfield_]

That moment fascinates me.
Not because someone finally understood something intellectually.
Because a protective strategy seems to realize its job is no longer necessary.