A new approach to analyze H-2 spin-lattice relaxation times in tilted smectic phases in terms of dynamic parameters for individual molecular and internal motions is reported. Such analysis, commonly applied to uniaxial phases, could not be extended so far to chiral smectic phases for both experimental and theoretical reasons. These problems have been here overcome neglecting the dependence of spectral densities on the azimuthal angle phi, and adopting a global target approach. In this way, the existing diffusional models can be used to determine dynamic parameters in chiral smectic C phases. An application to the ferroelectric mesogen 8BEF5 is reported. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.