Yoga Therapy
- Certified Yoga Therapist
- 1000 Hour Yoga Therapy Diploma
- Krishnamacharya Tradition
Yoga Therapy · Ayurveda · Yoga Nidra
Your Midlife Is Not Breaking Down. It's Waking Up.
The exhaustion, the restless nights, the sense of being a stranger in your own body — these are not signs that something has gone wrong. They are an invitation to listen differently.
I'm Poonam Diksha Mahtani — my students call me Diksha — a certified Yoga Therapist and founder of Sakshi Sangha. I help women meet this passage with awareness, steadiness and self-trust.
- Teaching since 2018
- International Teaching Experience
- India 🇮🇳
- Canada 🇨🇦
- Certified Yoga Therapist
- Ayurveda Practitioner
C-IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist & Ayurveda Practitioner
About
I'm Poonam Diksha Mahtani
Founder of Sakshi Sangha · C-IAYT Yoga Therapist · Ayurveda Practitioner · Known to students as Diksha
Hi, I'm Poonam Diksha Mahtani. Most of my students simply know me as Diksha. Since 2018, I have dedicated my life to helping women reconnect with themselves through Yoga Therapy, Ayurveda, Yoga Nidra, Breathwork and mindful awareness. My work has been shaped by years of study in India's classical healing traditions together with practical experience supporting women in both India and Canada. I believe midlife is not a problem to solve — it is an invitation to awaken to a healthier, calmer and more meaningful way of living.
For years now I have worked one-to-one with women navigating perimenopause, menopause, chronic stress and the quiet grief of a changing identity. My work draws on classical yoga therapy, Ayurvedic living, breath and Yoga Nidra — always adapted to the person in front of me, never to a template.
I do not believe midlife is a decline to be managed. I believe it is a threshold, and that women who cross it with awareness arrive somewhere genuinely new.
East meets West
Ancient Wisdom. Modern Living.
My work is deeply rooted in India's traditional healing systems while being shaped through years of teaching women internationally.
I have studied within the Krishnamacharya tradition, learnt Yoga Chikitsa from Dr. Anand Balayogi Bhavanani, and trained in Ayurveda, Yoga Nidra, Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Myofascial Release and Nervous System Regulation.
Teaching women in Canada gave me the opportunity to translate these timeless teachings into practical tools that support modern lifestyles. Today I bring together Eastern wisdom and Western understanding to offer personalised therapeutic care.
My Learning & Lineage
Where the work comes from
Ayurveda
- Diploma in Ayurveda & Panchakarma
- Women's Wellness
- Lifestyle Medicine
Therapeutic Specialisations
- Yoga Nidra
- Restorative Yoga
- Yin Yoga
- Myofascial Release
- Somatic Healing
- Breathwork
- Nervous System Regulation
- Meditation
- Mantra
- Yoga Philosophy
International Teaching
- Teaching since 2018
- India 🇮🇳
- Canada 🇨🇦
- Private Therapy
- Studio Classes
- Women's Wellness
- Teacher Training
Who I Help
You may recognise yourself here
Women in Perimenopause & Menopause
Sleep that won't settle, heat that arrives unannounced, moods that feel unfamiliar. You want to understand your body rather than fight it.
Women Carrying Chronic Stress
You have held everyone together for years. Your nervous system has been running on alert for so long that rest no longer feels available.
Women Seeking Something Deeper
You have tried the plans and the protocols. What you are really looking for is awareness, meaning and a way of living that feels like yours.
How I Help
Four ways we can work together
One-to-One Yoga Therapy
A personalised therapeutic programme built around your body, your history and your season of life — never a generic class plan.
Yoga Nidra & Deep Rest
Guided conscious rest that lets an over-worked nervous system finally down-regulate. Often the first place real change becomes noticeable.
Ayurvedic Lifestyle Guidance
Daily rhythms, food principles and seasonal routines that fit an actual life — practical, gentle and sustainable.
Group Programmes & Sangha
Learning and practising alongside other women, because transformation holds far better inside a community than in isolation.
Featured Client Story
A Journey Through Perimenopause
Client: Archana
Eight weeks of therapeutic work, documented step by step — from first assessment to a practice she now carries herself. This is one client's personal experience.
Watch Archana's Journey
Archana shares her experience in her own words.
Assessment
A full intake across body, breath, sleep, digestion and emotional history. We mapped a nervous system that had been running on alert for years, plus disrupted sleep and persistent tension through the neck, jaw and lower back.
Week One
We began with regulation rather than effort: slow diaphragmatic breathing, a short evening Yoga Nidra, and one Ayurvedic change — a consistent wind-down hour. Nothing strenuous, nothing to achieve.
Week Four
Gentle therapeutic movement was layered in — spinal mobility, hip release and supported restorative shapes. Sleep began holding for longer stretches and the 3am waking became occasional rather than nightly.
Week Eight
A practice she now owned: fifteen minutes most mornings, Yoga Nidra on hard days, and seasonal Ayurvedic adjustments. Energy steadier through the afternoon, reactivity noticeably lower.
Outcomes
Sleeping through most nights, calmer mood, reduced physical tension and — in her own words — no longer at war with her body. The practice continues without me needing to hold it for her.
"I came in exhausted and sceptical. What changed wasn't just my sleep — it was how I relate to my own body."
Individual experiences vary. This story reflects one client's personal experience and is not a guarantee of results.
In Their Words
Women I have walked beside
From India to Canada, women and students have experienced my teaching across different stages of life and learning.
29
documented client feedback forms
5/5
average session rating
100%
felt safe and supported
Long-term students, workshop participants and yoga therapy clients in India.
I was experiencing brain fog, anxiety and recurring thoughts about death. Diksha did a complete screening of my physical, mental and emotional body, then built a plan around my root chakra — mantra, breathwork and asana. After about 15 classes I feel like a new person. I don't get anxious anymore, and my breath is slow and deep.
A tutor who believes in one thing strongly — know your edge with respect to your body. That has stayed with me from the very beginning and helped me achieve clear focus with an extremely calm mind. Through pregnancy, the pandemic and work from home, yoga was my go-to thing to keep me calm and at peace.
Each class is so calming and different. The physical as well as mental change in me can easily be noticed by people around. I breathe deeper and move easier. After two years of regular practice I feel physically, mentally and spiritually in a very good place — I was even active and energetic till the last phase of my pregnancy.
I tried other yoga classes but somehow the connection was missing. Your class captures the philosophy and presence of movement that calms my mind and keeps my body healthy and strong. I learnt the meaning of being healthy not just from outside but within.
I have been attending Diksha's classes for over a year now and I feel absolutely wonderful after every class. Was it the breathing? The sun salutations? The twists? The pranayama? The instruction? Perhaps… the whole experience. I feel mentally in a very good place.
From the Room
A moment captured during a Somatic Release workshop.
In Practice
Teaching, training, resting
Yoga Nidra
The rest your nervous system has been asking for
Yoga Nidra is conscious rest — a guided practice in which the body sleeps while awareness stays awake. For women whose systems have been on alert for years, it is often the first experience of genuine rest in a very long time.
Nothing is required of you but to lie down and listen. In that stillness the breath slows, the mind loosens its grip, and the body remembers how to repair.
Join a Yoga Nidra SessionCredentials & Training
Depth of training, years of practice
Rooted in traditional Yoga and Ayurveda, informed by years of teaching and continued study.
Yoga Therapy
Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Vancouver School of Healing Arts — 800-hour IAYT-accredited programme
Gitananda Yoga Chikitsa
ICYER, Ananda Ashram — Dr. Anand Balayogi Bhavanani
Ayurveda
Diploma in Ayurveda & Panchakarma
School of Ayurveda & Panchakarma, Kerala — one year, Grade A
Yoga Nidra
Sannidhi Yoga Nidraa Programme
Sannidhi, Pondicherry — guided conscious rest
Traditional Yoga Lineage
500-Hour Viniyoga® Teacher
Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation · CYA International
Somatic, Nervous System & Emotional Wellbeing
Yin, Restorative & Myofascial Release
Therapeutic rest, long-hold and fascia-based release training
Somatic Healing, Nervous-System Regulation & EFT
Breath, somatic awareness and emotional-release training
Continuing Education
Ongoing professional development
Continued study in yoga philosophy, mantra, meditation and women's wellness
East & West
Traditional Wisdom, Modern Understanding
My foundation is deeply rooted in the traditional teachings of Yoga, Ayurveda and the Krishnamacharya lineage. My learning has also been shaped by teachers and training in India, including my studies with Anand Balayogi, alongside my experience teaching and learning in Vancouver.
This allows me to bridge traditional Indian wisdom with contemporary approaches to breath, nervous-system regulation, somatic awareness and emotional wellbeing.
Teaching Across India & Canada
I have been teaching since 2018 and have worked with students in India and internationally, including Vancouver.
My international teaching brings the essence of Indian Yoga to students through traditional practices such as breathwork, mantra, Yoga philosophy, awareness and therapeutic application.
My Approach
How the work unfolds
Step One
Listening
We begin with your whole story — sleep, stress, cycles, digestion, history, grief, joy. Nothing is dismissed as unrelated.
Step Two
Understanding
Together we map what your symptoms are pointing towards, so the body stops feeling like an opponent and starts making sense.
Step Three
Practice
A therapeutic practice is shaped for you: movement, breath, rest and Ayurvedic rhythm, sized to the life you actually live.
Step Four
Integration
We refine over time until the practice belongs to you and awareness becomes the way you meet whatever comes next.
Why Sakshi Sangha
The witness and the circle
Sakshi means witness
The practice is not about forcing change. It begins with the capacity to observe yourself clearly and kindly.
Sangha means community
Women heal faster in the company of other women who understand the terrain without explanation.
Therapy, not performance
No flexibility required, no aesthetic to chase. Only what serves your body in this season.
Begin Where You Are
You do not need to arrive rested, flexible or certain. You only need to be willing to pay attention. Everything else, we build together.