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About us

The Brighton Natural Health Centre (BNHC) is a registered charity founded by Infinity Foods in 1981. At our centre in the North Laine we offer a wide variety of  activities to support physical and mental health and wellbeing. 

We try to run classes that are accessible for everyone. Our classes include yoga, meditation, Pilates, Tai Chi and lots more. We also arrange free community talks on human and planetary health and run a low cost/free to access range of classes, including classes for refugees. 

In the almost four decades since BNHC was established, access to many of the disciplines we offer has become widespread. Yet our long experience, dedication to seeking the best and most qualified teachers, commitment to community, and the vibrant and happy energy of the centre, has meant that we have been able to consistently set the highest standards in the fulfilment of our aims. 

our mission and vision

We have a vision for a happy and healthy Brighton and Hove – with a community of students and teachers who work together for the benefit of our minds, bodies and spirits.

Our charitable aims

  • To help people learn how to better look after themselves and support their minds, bodies and spirits;
  • To help build a healthy and happy community and contribute to a peaceful and sustainable world.
Get to know us

The teachers

we are proud to bring you some of the best teachers in Brighton and the UK.

Each has been chosen because of their commitment, experience and ability in their chosen field. Several of our teachers have in turn inspired and trained others to become teachers.

Andy Roughton

Iyengar yoga

Andy Roughton

yoga
profile

Anna Pearce

Pilates

Anna Pearce

Pilates
profile

Anna Sugarman

yoga

Anna Sugarman

yoga
profile

Brydie Rowan

yoga

Brydie Rowan

yoga
profile

Caroline Horlock

Pilates

Caroline Horlock

Pilates
profile

Charlie Plunkett

ballet

Charlie Plunkett

ballet
profile

Charlotte Watts

yoga, meditation

Charlotte Watts

yoga
profile

Chris Barratt

tai chi

Chris Barratt

tai chi
profile

Crystal Skinner

yoga

Crystal Skinner

yoga
profile

Emma Cservenka

yoga

Emma Cservenka

yoga
profile

Emma Knight

yoga

Emma Knight

yoga
profile

Emmeline Cresswell

dance

Emmeline Cresswell

dance
profile

Ginny Clarke

yoga

Ginny Clarke

yoga
profile

James Powell

Pilates

James Powell

Pilates
profile

Jen Henwood

yoga

Jen Henwood

yoga
profile

Jenny Oates

yoga

Jenny Oates

yoga
profile

Kathryn Broadribb

yoga

kathryn broadribb

yoga
profile

Katy Bateman

yoga

Katy Bateman

yoga
profile

Keri Lummis

Pilates

Keri Lummis

Pilates
profile

Laurie Booth

movement for health

Laurie Booth

movement for health
profile

Leonie Taylor

yoga

Leonie Taylor

yoga
profile

Lisa McRory

Feldenkrais, yoga

Lisa McRory

Feldenkrais, yoga
profile

Lucy Deere

yoga

Lucy Deere

yoga
profile

Mark Burton

seiki

Mark Burton

seiki
profile

Mary-Rose Dias

Yoga, Meditation

Mary-Rose Dias

yoga, meditation
profile

Pablo Wilson

yoga

Pablo Wilson

yoga
profile

Peter Deadman

qigong

Peter Deadman

qigong
profile

Randall Evans

yoga

Randall Evans

yoga
profile

Roger Horlock

Pilates

Roger Horlock

Pilates
profile

Sarah Lloyd

Pilates

Sarah Lloyd

Pilates
profile

Sarah Miles

yoga

Sarah Miles

yoga
profile

Sarah Pailthorpe

yoga, meditation

Sarah Pailthorpe

yoga
profile

Suzy Titford

Pilates

Suzy Titford

Pilates
profile

guest/cover teachers - join them in class or at our weekend workshops

Amy Hunter

anatomy lecturer

Amy Hunter

anatomy lecturer
profile

Cathy Rogers Evans

yoga

Cathy Rogers Evans

yoga
profile

Deborah Brown

TRE

Deborah Brown

TRE
profile

Galit Mersand

belly dance

Galit Mersand

belly dance
profile

Jo Mondy

hula hooping

Jo Mondy

hula hooping
profile

Jane Manze

yoga

Jane Manze

yoga
profile

Mim King

butoh dance

Mim King

butoh dance
profile

Nicky Crabb

yoga

Nicky Crabb

profile

Rebecca Haroutunian

core restore, pilates

Rebecca Haroutunian

core restore, pilates
profile

Ruth Summers

sound therapy

Ruth Summers

sound therapy
profile

The trustees

Caroline Townsend - Coles

Caroline Townsend-Coles

profile

Christine MacFie

Christine MacFie

profile

Georgina Collins

Georgina Collins

profile

Helen Brewer

Helen Brewer

profile

Ivanka Majic

Ivanka Majic

profile

Robin Bines

Robin Bines

profile

Rowena Price

Rowena Price

profile

Peter Deadman

Peter Deadman

profile
keep updated with the bnhc

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about bnhc

The Brighton Natural Health Centre is a charity founded in 1981. At our centre in the North Laine you can do activities to support your health and mental wellbeing. We run classes for everyone. We offer: yoga, dance, pilates, meditation, tai chi, movement for health and more. We also arrange talks and workshops. Join us.

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what we do

Andy Roughton

Andy is a certified Iyengar® yoga teacher who continues to train with national and international Senior and Advanced Iyengar teachers. He is an active member of the Sussex Iyengar yoga organisation (IIYS), the Iyengar Yoga Association IYA (UK) and has helped create the new International Iyengar Yoga Association.

Anna Pearce

Having come to Pilates through contemporary dance training and a period of rehabilitation from illness, Anna finds endless inspiration in sharing this technique with others and working with them to explore their physicality, and to find ease, understanding and enjoyment in movement.
 
For Anna, Pilates is fundamentally about humans and their relationship to both themselves and their physical environment. She is fascinated by the moving body, and constantly curious about the connections that are to be found between movement and all aspects of life.

Anna Sugarman

Anna desired adventure and knowledge, so for 7 years she travelled the earth focusing on humanitarianism; en route, practising and teaching yoga classes, workshops, festivals and teacher training. Nearly 100 of her graduates are currently teaching worldwide.

Anna’s love for playful motion and holistic well-being is her offering – she aims to assist others in discovering and nurturing their ethos. She believes it is deep rooted passion which sparks the joy that will maintain a strong self-practice, peace of mind, a happy life, and the ability and authenticity to share it with others.

E-RYT 500 (500 Hour Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher)
RYS 200 (Registered Yoga School, certifying 200 Hour Teachers)
Reiki Practitioner.

Brydie Rowan

With a dedicated practice spanning 17 years and various disciplines, Brydie has been teaching yoga for over 5 years and is known for leading joyful, creative classes in a deep, slow flowing style that gives students space to listen and respond to their bodies’ needs.

A focus on intelligent sequencing, functional alignment and modification for the individual invites both beginners and seasoned practitioners to be present and explore their edges – building strength and openness in a safe, gradual, authentic way.

Caroline Horlock

Caroline is a Pilates teacher, sports therapist & postural specialist. she has been teaching Pilates for over 15 years and aims to offer you the tools you need to improve your overall health with better strength, flexibility and increased stamina. her classes are fun and friendly and with time and consistency will give you a thorough understanding of how your own body works and how to be as fit and healthy as you can.

Charlie Plunkett

As a student, Charlie attended The Urdang Academy of Ballet and Performing Arts in Covent Garden. She taught Cecchetti Ballet at Hurst Lodge School in Berkshire and then became the principal teacher of the Tramshed Performing Arts Centre in Greenwich, London where she taught ballet, tap, modern, jazz, street dance and drama.

Charlotte Watts

Charlotte attended her first yoga class in 1996 and immediately knew that it would be a large part of the route to overcoming her stress-related issues. She trained at the Vajrasati Yoga School in Brighton (500 hour Yoga Alliance training) founded by Jim Tarran who is influenced by Buddhism and brought a natural mindfulness aspect to practising yoga. This was the beginning of a relationship with yoga focusing on taking time and finding space to feel subtleties of the experience, energetics and responses within the practice and create full body awareness within postures.

Charlotte then went on to train in teaching yoga for people with ME and Chronic Fatigue with Fiona Agombar and teaching for chronic pain with Heather Mason, continuing her interest in yoga as therapy for anxiety, depression and stress states. She deepened her mindfulness practice as a result of a specific mindfulness course for yoga teachers with Cathy-Mae Karelse. She continues to study with teachers Tias Little and Joanne Avison as they combine her love of mindful, somatic practice, yoga as meditation, the contemporary anatomy of biotensegrity and an explorative and compassionate attitude – alongside attention to alignment with respect to the individual needs of students.

Charlotte is an author with many published books, including Yoga Therapy for Digestive Health (Singing Dragon 2018), Good Mood Food (Nourish 2018) and The De-Stress Effect (2015). She is also an award-winning nutritionist, practising since 2000 and specialising in stress-related and fatigue conditions and burnout, and digestive issues.
Charlotte teaches classes in Brighton and London, workshops, UK yoga weekends and retreats abroad. She also runs courses and retreats specifically for yoga teachers to attend to their own self-care so they have the resources to support others. She also teaches for Yogacampus and The Minded Institute.

Crystal Skinner

Crystal’s journey with yoga started over 15 years ago, where ashtanga yoga was used as a strengthening exercise for her dance training, at the time. An accident one year later, left her living with chronic hip inflammation, where she became convinced that she wouldn’t be able to move freely again but yet it was the beginning of her inner journey of freedom.

It was on a trip to Bali 10 years later, that Crystal discovered “yin yoga”. In just one hour she was so impressed by the pain relief benefits, that she was driven into understanding the true meaning of yoga.

Crystal then went to study yin yoga and myofascial release with Jo Phee – the primary assistant to yin yoga founder Paul Grilley in 2017.She had the blessing of being taught Surya Kriya yoga by one of the final directly trained yogis of the famous Sadhguru: Prithvi Mauhau. In Indonesia Crystal completed her 200hour RYT hatha/vinyasa with peace activist Silvia Mordini, alongside an additional swing yoga course with Peewee Sanchez in 2018 and most recently completed a kundalini, meditation, pranayama and tantra course with Vishu Singh at The Shiva Shakti School of Yoga in India.

Crystal enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. Her aim is to help every individual understand the importance of yin and yang in their lives. Her teaching aims to recentre and revitalise, bringing people mentally and physically back to balance.

Emma Cservenka

A thoughtful and gentle spirit with a personal practice spanning over twenty years and more than ten years teaching experience, Emma’s classes offer a respite from daily life and much more. Emma will help and encourage you to become a skilled practitioner as you move deeper into your yoga practise.
 
A design graduate from London’s St Martins School of Art and The Royal College of Art, Emma has this ability to cultivate an energy of raw beauty and grace that is felt amongst all her students. Emma has studied with some of the greatest teachers in the ashtanga yoga lineage and yin styles and integrates years of experience into her nurturing, informative and alignment-based teaching style. At the core of her teaching is the idea that we can heal, transform and grow stronger mentally, physically and spiritually.

Emma Knight

Emma teaches Scaravelli-inspired yoga which is a gentle form of Hatha yoga. Her classes focus on releasing tension in the body by working with the breath and gravity to find freedom of movement. These fun and friendly classes are both supportive and nurturing. Emma holds a British Wheel of Yoga (BWY) Teacher Training Diploma (500hr) and has been teaching since 2010.

Emmeline Cresswell

Emmeline is a contemporary dance artist and yoga teacher (Certified Ashtanga Vinyasa 200 hours). She began training at The Italia Conti Arts Centre, before gaining a BA Honours in Drama and Theatre studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. Following this she went on to train at The Arts Educational School, London, gaining an MA in Acting before consolidating training at LABAN studying contemporary dance techniques, ballet, choreographic practice, choreological studies, teaching styles and strategies amongst many more amazing practices.
 
Since graduating in 2008 she has danced for various companies and choreographers including White-Space Theatre, Rosie Whitney-Fish, Saffron Dodds-Smith, Robbie Synge and Riccardo Buscarini, alongside teaching contemporary dance, choreography and repertory to students at various schools and colleges throughout London. In early 2012 she travelled to India to teach workshops and technique at The Choreotheque Dance Studio in New Delhi, run by choreographer Anish Popli.

Ginny Clarke

Ginny has been practising yoga since 2000 and teaching since 2007. A few years after completing her inaugural teaching qualification in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, she then studied Yin Yoga & Anatomy with Paul Grilley.
 
Currently, Ginny is undertaking her advanced teacher training with Tiffany Cruikshank to gain her qualification as a Yoga Medicine® Therapeutic Teacher. The modules that she has completed to date include in depth anatomy & bio-mechanics, Traditional Chinese Medicine and self myofascial release. Her passion in these fields, alongside her belief that yoga is accessible to all, is reflected in her teaching style.
 
Ginny is committed in sharing her knowledge and personal experience of how a mindfully approached practice creates a deeper connection to oneself and others. And, that a healthy and balanced body/mind can allow one to navigate life with greater enjoyment and ease.

Jen Henwood

Jen has been practising Iyengar Yoga for more than 20 years. After a two-year training course, she qualified to teach as an Introductory Iyengar Yoga teacher in 2005 and started teaching at BNHC in 2006. Jen has continued her training, completing the Intermediate Junior teaching certificate in 2012. Jen continues to develop and deepen her understanding of the subject of yoga, through daily personal practice and study, attending regular classes with local senior teachers, and workshops with senior teachers from elsewhere in the UK, and abroad. In 2012, Jen was awarded an ITEC Diploma in Anatomy. Physiology and Pathology.

Jen’s teaching is supportive and friendly. Students are encouraged to work according to their own ability, in order to realise their full potential and to experience the many benefits of yoga.

Amy Hunter

Amy has a first class anatomy degree from Edinburgh University and until 2017, lectured in anatomy to the undergraduate medical students at the European School of Osteopathy. She demonstrates anatomy to other Osteopaths and manual therapists at Brighton and Sussex Medical School every now and then and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy She graduated from the British School of Osteopathy with distinction.

She has worked in a clinic specialising in care for HIV positive patients and also has a sports massage diploma. In her spare time she enjoys walking the dog, swimming, hillwalking in Scotland and Wales and camping with her family! She also has the odd printmaking exhibition every now and then.

Cathy Rogers Evans

Cathy Rogers Evans has been teaching Iyengar® Yoga for over 25 years in several countries. For the past 11 years she has been certified to teach at Senior Intermediate Level III and is also an approved Iyengar® teacher trainer and assessor training new teachers across the UK, USA and Mexico.

Caroline Townsend-Coles

Caroline has a long standing connection with BNHC, having worked at Infinity Foods Cooperative for 30 years. She has also taught English as a foreign language, run play schemes for children with learning disabilities, and been involved with campaigning on environmental issues.

Working next door to the centre has enabled her to enjoy a huge variety of classes, and she is able to offer practical help, especially at community events and talks.

Christine MacFie

Christine is a licensed Acupuncture practitioner. Her previous public sector career in health and social care involved working in senior managerial roles locally and in London. She changed career direction to follow her interest in helping people improve their health and wellbeing holistically through Chinese Medicine. She trained full-time at the International College of Oriental Medicine in East Grinstead and is a member of the British Acupuncture Council and Federation of Holistic Therapists.

As well as being a BNHC Director and Trustee, Christine practices acupuncture at
several local clinics, which she enjoys greatly. She also volunteers as a complementary acupuncture therapist for the MacMillan Horizon Centre in Brighton, helping many cancer patients during and after their Western Medicine treatments.

A Brighton resident for many years, she enthusiastically supports the aims and work of BNHC.

Georgina Collins

Currently Independent Visitor Coordinator for Brighton and Hove City Council Children’s Services, Georgina has worked in the voluntary and community sector in Brighton, her home town, for most of her working life.

She is passionate about wellbeing and yoga and as such, hopes that her skills and experience might make some small contribution to the ongoing work of Brighton Natural Health Centre.

Helen Brewer

Helen is a qualified Health and Wellness Coach having studied with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York.

She retrained following an international career in finance where she worked for HSBC, Barclays and latterly Blackstone and so appreciates the benefits of wellbeing and balance.

In her spare time Helen enjoys cooking, hiking and Pilates and is a trustee of London based YMCA St Paul’s Group. She has a BSc in Banking, Finance and Management and a Diploma in Professional Studies from Loughborough University.

Ivanka Majic

Ivanka is a user researcher, service designer and service manager. As a Service Manager at the Government Digital Service she set the strategy for the Digital Marketplace which has continued to deliver savings for the UK government and has seen £4 billion in sales, with 45% going to SMEs.

Previously, Ivanka was Creative Strategy Lead / Head of Design at Ubuntu, leading its brand and product transformation from open source project to consumer product, and Head of User Research at LBi. She has extensive experience in the public and private sector and has completed design and research projects for the likes of Wellcome Trust, the UK Labour Party, and the FT. She is an Associate at The University of Sussex, and enjoys working on restaurantsbrighton.co.uk which she co-founded.

Robin Bines

Robin is a co-founder of both Infinity Foods and BNHC, and has spent his working life in the natural and organic products and environment sectors. He also founded the Organic Food Company to expand the range of organic foods in the UK and launch them into supermarkets.

His company Full Moon published Green Magazine and launched Natural Products News and Natural  Organic Products Europe, still the UK’s leading trade magazine and exhibition for the sector. In the 80s Robin introduced Ecover environmental cleaning products into the UK and US, marketing the range through campaigns to raise standards and reduce consumption in the mainstream detergents industry.

He has run the All-Party Parliamentary Environment Group at Westminster since 1993 and continues to campaign actively on environmental issues.
In 2019 he completed the self-build of a low-carbon eco house as his home in Brighton.

Rowena Price

Co-Chair Rowena is a communications consultant and coach, with over 15 years’ experience working in the creative industries. She originally trained as a dancer and teacher at the Royal Academy of Dance in London before making the leap into arts management and marketing.

As well as being a Director and Trustee at BNHC, Rowena runs her own consultancy business, is a mentor for The Girls’ Network, and an accredited Relational Dynamics 1st Coach. She grew up in rural Sussex, has lived in Brighton & Hove for many years and is passionately committed to contributing to the well-being of the local community.

Photo: James Gilyead. 

Peter Deadman

Chair of Trustees, Peter, has worked in the field of natural medicine and health cultivation for 50 years. He is co-founder of Infinity Foods and BNHC and had a long career practising and teaching Chinese medicine.

He is the founder-publisher of The Journal of Chinese Medicine, co-author of the primary acupuncture points book A Manual of Acupuncture and author of Live Well Live Long: Teachings from the Chinese Nourishment of Life Tradition. He is a dedicated practitioner and teacher of qigong – a traditional Chinese self cultivation tradition.