Shevantika Nanda – Co-Founder & COO Mimblu, Online Counselling and Therapy App
Mental health apps are challenging our limits in terms of what we may have thought mental health care could look like. Today you can carry your therapist in your pocket which allows individuals to receive quality mental health support whenever and wherever they need it. They remove certain barriers such as stigma, price, confidentiality that also make mental health more accessible to a larger population.
Previous research has demonstrated that in the case of mild to moderate depression mental health apps that offer self management tools have been successful in significantly reducing symptoms of depression. As our world becomes more and more digital, these apps offer a way to provide for quality mental health support to go digital without compromising on quality of treatment and support. Connecting with a therapist can come with a lot of challenges and apprehensions, this allows you to have the help and support you need right at your fingertips, and is far less scary!
Shevantika Nanda is the Co-founder and the COO of Mimblu – India’s first text- based app that enables affordable and accessible mental health care viatexting, sharing voice notes or scheduling video calls with the right professional therapist as per convenience.
A trained psychologist with diverse experience in the mental healthcare space for over 9 years now, Shevantika has pursued her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of St Andrews in the UK before completing her Master’s in Psychology from the University of Delhi.
While she took her first few steps in the industry as a research intern at the University of St Andrews, it was her internship stint at VIMHANS in Delhi that truly opened her eyes to the pervasiveness of mental health struggles amongst people from all walks of life.Over the years, she has worked at a variety of institutes, including Medanta – the Medicity. Not just that, but she also has been running her private practice for six years now. Shevantika describes her professional journey as having its own ups and downs. She remarks that although difficult and emotionally burdensome at first, she learnt how to survive in this profession over time by developing boundaries, a thick skin and taking care of her own mental health.
The cause of mental well-being has always been close to Shevantika’s heart.Being a therapist herself, she genuinely believes in what Mimblu stands for and shares its philosophy of making quality mental healthcare accessible to all. Her role at Mimblu sees her streamlining mental health practices and bringing uniformity for the app’s users while also providing the therapists with the right kind of support. She personally envisions helping build and grow Mimblu into an app synonymous with accessible mental healthcare.
Shevantika has also contributed a chapter in the book – Covid-19 biopsychosocial perspectives. Additionally, she regularly contributes to articles in notable publications like The Hindu, Times of India and Mint Lounge, amongst others.
Furthermore, having internalised the importance of hard work and perseverance from her mother, Shevantika firmly believes that working hard is essential to achieving your goals. She loves nature and the outdoors. When at leisure, she likes to birdwatch, go on safaris as well as ski. She also likes to unwind by solving jigsaw puzzles, sudoku or building model cars.
