Who we are…

Lou and Gabi are the directors of Gather Brighton CIC. They quickly found each other, both overlapping as accessible, queer, and social justice focused yoga teachers in Brighton, and began a happy partnership running LGBTQIA+ yoga classes, workshops, and retreats since 2021. They even overlapped in working at the same local LGBTQ mental health charity for a while, and it just always seemed like it was meant to be.

As well as teaching yoga and running Gather, Lou is also an integrative massage therapist and bodyworker. Their approach works both subtly and ‘deeply’ beyond the physical, to recognise the complexity and richness of each whole self. In their spare time they do a lot of lying down with their chihuahua Fanny, touching trees, and being in queer community.

Alongside teaching yoga and running Gather, Gabi is a fertility, birth, and postnatal doula. Her approach is based in consent, empowering you to make informed decisions that align with your intuition. Gabi also supports organisations and businesses as an LGBTQIA+ consultant. Outside of work, Gabi is very involved in the Jewish community and runs regular services in Brighton. Between work, volunteering, and parenting, Gabi loves to cook vegan food and swim in the sea.

What Gather is all about…

At Gather we believe wellbeing should be accessible and welcoming for everyone, whatever your age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, faith, body size, ability or disability. We hope to make a space where people feel not just included but recognised, supported, and celebrated. 

Our work is to meet you where you are. To use these healing practices to sensitively and appropriately care for you through a trauma-informed lens. Through our training, work, and lived experience, we see how supportive these wisdom traditions can be when recovering from trauma, building resilience, and coming home to yourself. This is not a replacement for medical or therapeutic care, and our work is not to pathologise or stigmatise. Our intention is to serve a community by supporting wellbeing, affordably and sustainably. We recognise how inequity and injustice make us all unwell, and our vision of wellbeing centres bodily autonomy and liberation of all people. 

We especially welcome practitioners and groups of the global majority to use the space. As two white practitioners, we are aware of the commodification, sanitisation, and appropriation of traditional practices and the obstacles and discrimination that prevent people of colour from feeling safe and welcomed in wellbeing spaces. 

We know that we will do all of this imperfectly. We welcome feedback and open dialogue. We invite ourselves to be in this messy, reflective, and heartfelt process of continued growth. 

Affordability and fair wages are an integral part of the structure at Gather. We also commit to making our space available for four hours each month to individuals or groups who might otherwise struggle to access the space. Please email gatherbtn@gmail.com to find out more.