Who am I?
I’m Samele A. Mayfield, PhD, LCSW, a Bay Area native, licensed clinical social worker, trauma therapist, facilitator, and educator. I earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Psychology–Addiction and Recovery and Psychology–Biblical Counseling from Liberty University, a Master of Social Work with a clinical concentration from Walden University, and, most recently, my PhD in Social Work from Walden University.
My doctoral research explored how growing up with parental substance abuse shapes Black women’s interpersonal relationships in adulthood, with particular attention to attachment, boundaries, over-responsibility, and the ways we learn to navigate relationships when our earliest experiences with connection were complicated.
My professional experience has taken me through faith-based leadership, county behavioral health, domestic violence services, and trauma recovery. Currently, I work as a trauma therapist, helping individuals impacted by violence and other traumatic experiences move beyond simply surviving and begin reconnecting with their own capacity for healing. My clinical approach is trauma-informed, relational, and integrative, drawing from modalities including EMDR, IFS, ACT, DBT, and CBT.
At the heart of my work is a belief I keep coming back to: we often already carry more internal resources than we realize. Healing is not always about becoming someone new; sometimes it is about reconnecting with the parts of ourselves that life, trauma, responsibility, and survival taught us to overlook. This idea continues to shape how I think about therapy, resilience, personal growth, and the work I hope to create beyond the therapy room.
I also believe healing can make room for the whole person. For those who desire it, mental health and faith can coexist. Rest matters. Boundaries matter. Self-care is not a luxury…and I will probably remind you of that more than once.
Professionally, I’m continuing to expand beyond individual clinical work through facilitation, speaking, clinical supervision, and education, with a long-term vision of building a thriving group practice and helping shape the next generation of clinicians.
Outside of work, I’m a proud mom to three amazing adults, who will probably always be my “littles”, and a very proud grandmother. When I’m not working, teaching, or finding another project to start, you might find me crafting, baking for Sugah B Confections (a business I swear I’m retired from), spending time with family, or serving and celebrating sisterhood with my fellow members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®.
How’d I get to the therapy space?
Life was lifing long before I ever thought about becoming a therapist.
I was always smart and knew I was capable, but as a teenager and young adult, discipline and direction weren’t exactly my strong suits. I went to college after high school and dropped out after my first year. I tried going back a few times, but by 22, I had a child to support, and life required me to work.
So I did what a lot of people do…I kept living.
Marriage. Two more children. Work. Responsibilities. Somewhere along the way, I went to school for baking and pastry because I had built a cake business. And while I loved creating, life eventually took another turn.
During a difficult season in my marriage, I was working as a receptionist at my church and beginning to do some healing of my own. What started as healing from what was happening in my adult life eventually led me back to wounds I had carried since childhood.
And somewhere in that process, I remembered something: I used to have dreams.
With encouragement from a mentor, I decided to try college one more time. Nothing too ambitious…just an associate degree. I had dropped out before, and I wasn't trying to set myself up for failure.
Except this time, something clicked.
I discovered that I was deeply interested in mental health and in understanding why people do what they do, how our experiences shape us, and what helps us heal. I also knew I wanted to eventually work in a college setting, supporting students whose lives may have gotten complicated before they ever had a chance to figure out who they wanted to become.
Then I discovered social work. I learned it was so much more than what I thought social workers did. It was clinical. It was community-based. It was advocacy, systems, relationships, trauma, and healing. It gave me room to do all the things I cared about.
My internships confirmed that therapy was one of the spaces where I belonged. And my first clinical supervisor gave me one of the most important lessons of my career: permission to bring my whole self into the therapy room.
I didn't have to become some stiff, clinical version of myself to be effective. I could be warm. I could laugh. I could be direct. I could honor faith when it mattered to the person sitting across from me. I could understand trauma clinically while still remembering there was a human being in front of me.
One of my very first clients as an intern told me, “I wasn’t really thinking about this therapy thing—I just came because my partner gave me an ultimatum. But this stuff works!”
I never forgot that.
What started as me returning to school for “just an AA” eventually became two bachelor’s degrees, a master’s degree, clinical licensure, years of trauma work—and a PhD in Social Work.
Turns out,
