WITH Global Strengths Change Institute

27/04/2026

Can we find the answers to the world's most pressing problems in silos ...
.. the most urgent problems we face aren’t siloed, so why are our solutions?

Siloed thinking produces siloed answers, and the world’s problems don’t come neatly packaged by each discipline.

This thesis explores why we need a shift toward multidisciplinary thinking that breaks down boundaries between fields, arguing that such an approach is a global necessity, not an option.

I've been researching alternative causalities of putative "mental illness" and new narratives, away from the polarity of psychiatry, for 15yrs, towards alternative futures.

For anyone who is interested, heres my latest article:

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail” Abraham H. Maslow.

13/03/2026

Its been a long time since i've posted here. However, with Shame so prevalent in our world today, and shaping our futures, and the behaviours of both individuals and leaders alike, I thought you might like to read my latest post:

Are you quietly carrying Shame?

Shame is something many of us carry far more quietly than we realise. I’m especially aware of how many men are battling this behind the scenes, often feeling like they have to deal with this alone. Shame has a way of convincing us that we’re the only one struggling, when in reality it’s one of the most full bodied human experiences there is.

If this resonates with you, I hope part 1 of this three part series on Shame, Forgiveness and Healing offers a little perspective and lots of hope that you are not alone in your feelings. Shame doesn’t have to have the final word. When we bring things into the light, through honesty, conversation, and grace, it can begin to lose its power.

Let's make this a conversation - looking forward to hear from you,

Samantha 🫶

“Hands are not so much about my life as they are about my own country. I drew hands as they are powerful & can hurt or heal, punish or uplift, be bound. A quest for righteousness can never be repressed. In time we broke lose the shackles of injustice we joined hands across social divides & nationa...

08/01/2025

After 14 years of my research and advocating against mental illness labels (the topic of my thesis) the psychologists are standing up against psychiatry.

What are your thoughts?

British Psychological Society to launch attack on rival profession, casting doubt on biomedical model of mental illness

06/12/2024

Are your children struggling?

We’ve latched onto the phrase ‘mental illness’ and our children are either labelled, medicated, or both.

Yesterday listening to Joe Tudor’s talk on depression https://lnkd.in/eKZ27hY2 and considering the falsities of the serotonin “story” governments, MDs, societies have latched onto in our Neo-liberalist capitalism world, I’m gobbling-smacked that we allow the atrocities of this world ‘get away with murder’ as su***de rates rise by the day.

The world “we’ve” created has much to answer for - we created this future

Our children are born perfect in God’s image of their uniqueness, yet from the moment we were born, the falsities and conditioning of false value metrics begins, metrics we can NEVER live up to because we were born to be ourselves, not a false identity that has us moving so far away from our own authenticity that we label and medicate the manifestations of our disequilibrium.

We have to move back to who we are beautifully & authentically born to be, and yes, we need help from others to get there, so they can hold us accountable and ‘sing our song back to us, to remind us of who we intrinsically are’ 🙏🏼

Preventative is assisting our youth to “know thy self”

If your children are struggling isn’t it time you started enquiring who they truly are at their core?

“helping individuals and collective flourish”

https://www.with-humanity.co.uk/self-awareness-for-young-learners

At WITH we are passionate about assisting young people, from the time they are making their important subject choices, to deciding which tertiary education or career they want to move into. Most parents and children are at a loss at this time in their children's lives.

18/11/2024

If I became a Fisherman

If I gave up my dreams of owning trawlers
Would it calm your storms
Would being a simple fisherman
Fit better with your norms?

Have my desires, hopes and dreams
Led to your demise
As you ride the relentless seas of strife
That capitalism requires

A double edge sword she cries
The fight between godliness & greeds
Keeping up with the Joneses
Whilst striving towards good deeds

The pressures ever bubbling
All Eyes on deck
Temptations, lust, desire, power
Just one kiss, what the heck

The rising shame, humiliation, guilt,
Pitted against sweetly sick control,
I’m a man, I’m success, I’m made
Yet hostage to my whole

What happens to love,
Where is god,
Why is humanity so illusive?
Why’s my soul become so obtrusive?

The fisherman is calm,
Grateful for his catch
A simple man with a simple heart
With a community that he feels a part

The simple things in life are free
The simple things that belong to all
A consciousness to authentic ways
Rejecting worldly’s shiny call

Who am I in a world of demanding?
Am I valuable if I fail?
Help pull me from my drowning deeds,
My sick striving to curtail

I hear you Lord,
I feel your presence beyond the screams of doubt
If I a fisherman can return
I’ll never do without 🙏🏼
Sammy McDonald

“Helping Individuals Flourish”

www.with-humanity.co.uk/individuals

Artist: Yiota Ioannidou

11/10/2024

https://www.with-humanity.co.uk/post/what-if-today-10-oct-was-world-authenticity-day

Our language around ourselves and our optimal wellbeing has to change. Forget the terms mental health for a moment- instead let’s talk about what’s “right” with you …We are all suffering, of that there is no question. We are trying to survive a world that puts the un-natural before the nat...

07/10/2024

Have we been wrong about “so called” mental illness all along?

Of course - the medical fraternity has long held a position of power, pushing patients and their “lived experiences” to dependency, at the mercy of a linear system that does not have all the answers, as they strive for concrete empirical evidence, yet has NEVER been humble enough to admit “they don’t know” leaving a monstrosity of hurt in its wake.

14 yrs ago I began to see ‘weak signals’ pointing to more and more individuals with illnesses of unknown aitology - often blamed by MDs as it being “all in your head” - these poor individuals left to battle it out in a sea of dispair.

So began my research …

EXTERNALLY into what I could see was an underreseached virosphere and the spread of infectious agents from globalisation.

INTERNALLY our psychosocial stressors were provoking our internal “virome” and causing a domino effect cascading into a cytokine storm flooding the Central Nervous System (CNS) and impacting both body and brain.

Not many people are aware that, besides our microbiome, it is estimated that there are over 380 trillion viruses that reside inside of us, collectively known as the human virome.

When these enter the CNS a whole host of anomalous behaviours can emanate, behaviours historically termed “mental illness” - yet mental illness has been a fallacy created by a system that actually had no idea what was causing these changes.

Many yrs ago I connected with one of the largest “psychiatric” hospitals, where staff separate patients, as they too had a suspicion antibodies were penetrating the brain, via spinal fluid, and were the cause of anomalous behaviours.

This is nothing new. In the 1800’s there was a similar suspicion except the advancement in technology was only to come later including the discovery as recently as the 1950’s that the Blood/Brain barrier (BBB) was in fact permeable - prior to this it was considered a closed unit.

The future will disprove psychiatry and we will begin to understand that just because we cannot see or “prove” it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

30/09/2024

Transferable Value

I found this old cutting recently from when I was the owner of an Antique Shop, in the beautiful countryside of Nottingham Road, deep within the rolling hills of Natal, South Africa.

It was a dream Id held in my heart for many years, one shunned by friends at an art college id attended, because, at the time, I didn’t have the same aspirations as theirs, to attend university and claim my degree.

Looking back, I’m reminded of how many times I’ve reinvented myself and proof that our intrinsic talents and motivations are immutable - in this case for myself, a visionary, with the intrinsic ability to make manifest the ideas I visualise.

Today I visualise a world where talent becomes the new Universal Value Metric (UVM) and Interdependent Rules of Engagement, our new Social System.

Our intrinsic talents and motivations are our Transferable Value, so wherever you go in the world, your value goes with you.

How about you? How have you used your talents as transferable value?

www.with-humanity.co.uk/futuristic

30/09/2024

Brain Care

If you’re in the Edgebaston 🇬🇧 area today join a group of change-makers, individuals from across the UK, who have lived experience of life-impacting conditions, coming together to build the credibility of lifestyle changes as a standard first-line approach to excellence in mental health & wellbeing.

All are welcome

https://lnkd.in/eZX5n-Jy

30/08/2024

What’s Homeostasis I hear you say?

Its the state of steady internal physical and chemical conditions necessary for the optimal functioning of a human being - this is why a balanced ‘Wheel of Life’ is pivotal in maintaining a quality of life because without it, we can easily become dysregulated …

One of the first steps to ensuring physical and mental wellbeing is ensuring your ‘Wheel of Life’ (WOL) is balanced.

No one’s WOL will be identical because we think, feel, and behave totally different to each other, measured by our intrinsic talents and shaped by environmental stimuli.

An eg is a workaholic who’s work takes up the entire WOL and the rest of the quadrants go wanting. (Talents such as Achiever®️(https://lnkd.in/dkRgtYyi) Responsibility®️ (https://lnkd.in/dzzDzJth) in patterns of over use are especially at risk, though all talents have triggers, under/over use patterns).

There are biochemical reactions that take place in our biological systems when we go out of balance that can impact both our bodies and brains.

For eg: what has historically been termed mental illness, is in actual fact a combination of external traumas, including stressors from overwork, creating a domino effect on our internal biology that may pe*****te the blood/brain barrier into the brain, manifesting in anomalous behaviours and/or physical issues.

Then there’s the impact and unintended consequences on self and others and our greater environments which become problematic, including strained relationships with family; friends; colleagues; communities etc

So one of the best gifts we can offer ourselves and others is ensuring our WOL is balanced, leading to homeostasis and better physical and mental wellbeing.

“We're in the business of helping individuals flourish”

https://www.with-humanity.co.uk/