About
I’m Gabby.
Founder, The Saltwater Circle (previously, better yew foundation)
I’m an ocean soul. Always have been. It’s where I go when I need to think, and where I end up when I’ve stopped being able to.
I started running wellbeing workshops when I was 19. Five years on, I’ve spoken with thousands of students across Sydney high schools about resilience, responsibility, empathy and gratitude — the things I wish someone had taught me about as a teenager.
I started this because I was frustrated and tired of hearing about mental health struggles in my community and in people so young. Working as a sports coach I’d met thousands of kids, and each year I saw more of them carrying low self-esteem, anxiety, and behavioural challenges.
I’m speak from both the psychological theory and lived experience. Growing up I faced things that challenged me mentally. They were hard, and they made me. I’ve learnt that I’m not perfect, but I am capable, and I am in control of who I become. That’s the message I’m sharing.
Why a circle of women
Schools are where I started, and I still love presenting. But a few years in I noticed something I hadn’t expected: the conversations I was having with fifteen-year-olds were the same conversations missing from my own life, and from the lives of the women around me.
You’re “supposed” to have yourself figured out. Most people don’t. Adult friendships thin out quietly. Nobody schedules the honest conversation.
So I built the one I wanted. Four weeks, a small group of women, an hour on the sand and an hour in the water. Not a lesson, not a retreat, and not a substitute for professional support. A structured conversation, in a place that makes it easier to be honest, with people who will still be there in week four.
The ocean isn’t decoration. It’s harder to perform out there. You’re cold, you’re a beginner, you fall off, and everyone watches you do it. That turns out to be a quick way to get to know yourself and connect with others doing the same.
What I keep coming back to
Responsibility, empathy and gratitude. I use those three in schools, in the water, and in my own life. Responsibility, because you are the one steering. Empathy, because you can’t do this alone and neither can anyone else. Gratitude, because it is the quickest way back to solid ground.
I don’t think wellbeing is a soft subject. I think it’s the one that decides how the rest of it goes.
Come and see
If any of that landed, the next circle is the place to find out. You don’t need to be a surfer. You don’t need to be fit, or sorted, or sure. You just need to be ready.
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