About Me

Hi! I’m Chaitni

I’m also a third-culture kid.

I was born in India, spent some of my childhood there, moved to the United States and spent the majority of my life there, and eventually moved back to India a few years ago to be closer to my family.

So, in some ways, I’ve spent my life between worlds.

And I’ve learned that sometimes you can get very good at adapting to the world around you while becoming a little disconnected from yourself.

I learned pretty early how to be the person who held things together.

I grew up in a dysfunctional home where I learned to hide a lot of things:

Shame. Fear. Perfectionism. The parts of myself that felt too much, too sensitive or simply inconvenient.

I became the fixer. The carer. The person who tried to make things okay. I became an adult too soon.

And for a long time, I thought being responsible meant being able to handle everything without needing much from anyone else.

Turns out, that particular strategy has a few side effects.

Eventually, my body and mind had something to say about it.

In my late twenties, I was diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety. At the time, I didn’t necessarily understand how much everything was connected.

The emotional eating. The drinking. The isolating. The sugar. The negative self-talk. The constant feeling that I should be doing better.

I knew plenty about what I was “supposed” to do. Knowing, however, wasn’t the same as being able to do it.

Sound familiar?

My healing didn’t happen because I finally learnt discipline.

It happened slowly, and imperfectly. Through self-compassion. Through connection. Through learning to be with myself rather than constantly trying to improve myself. Through understanding my patterns instead of treating them as evidence that something was wrong with me.

Through healthier behaviors, yes. But also through learning that behavior is only one part of the story.

And that healing isn’t something you complete and then receive a certificate for. It keeps changing as you do.

It’s learning how to understand yourself well enough to make different choices when life gets hard.

And that’s the heart of the work I now do with others

You don’t need to fix yourself. You need to understand yourself.

I work with people who are capable, self-aware and often already know what they should be doing but struggle to turn that knowledge into something that actually works in real life.

Together, we look at the behaviors, thoughts, habits and patterns that may be keeping you stuck.

Not through another rigid plan. Not through shame. And definitely not through trying to become a completely different person.

Instead, we notice what’s happening, understand what’s underneath it, experiment with what might work better, and build from there.

Because lasting change isn’t about becoming perfect. It’s about becoming more yourself.

And if you’ve spent a long time taking care of everyone else, holding everything together, or trying to fix yourself into being “better” you don’t have to do that here.

You can start by understanding yourself. If that sounds like something you need right now, I’d love to talk.

What my clients say...

C. Desai - Mumbai, India

I have had an excellent experience with Chaitni’s guidance as a health coach. She helped me frame a Purpose Statement, which acts as a constant reminder on my chosen track. Through the online meetings, she advised me on a number of practical, effective but still simple tips on various challenges I faced in motivating myself on making headway from my initial inertia and thereafter in implementing “walking the talk.” Chaitni’s professionalism, attention to detail, meticulously enlisted notes capturing the points to be worked on following each session is truly brilliant. I lost 10 kgs in overall weight, and 9% of body fat during her consultancy. I would strongly recommend Chaitni to anybody who wants to work on getting their mindset attuned to a healthy lifestyle and follow it up with action; her value addition is immense!