LGBTQ+ therapy app founder hopes to help the community ‘thrive’ not just ‘survive’

“We know that long wait times worsen symptoms, so that is the gap we were trying to address: to provide immediate access to affirming clinical therapy,” says Daniel Botcherby, the chief executive and co-founder of LGBTQ+ therapy app Kalda.

Kalda, created during the COVID-19 pandemic, offers digital therapy courses for an annual fee of £35 ($47).

Botcherby, who grew up witnessing his queer friends trying to overcome mental-health barriers, hopes the app will offer solutions.

Analysis of NHS data has revealed that eight times as many people wait more than 18 months for mental-health treatment than for care for physical-health problems, and studies have shown that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience poor mental health.

The app is available worldwide on iOS and Android, and since the launch of its new programme in June, which targets forms of anxiety and depression, more than 3,000 new users have engaged with a therapy session, demonstrating the demand for LGBTQ-specific mental-health services.

Cutting funding of LGBTQ+ support will ‘worsen state of mental health’

“Too many of my friends in the community were constantly met with closed doors when accessing support,” Botcherby said, and admitted experiencing the “stigma around asking for help”, having struggled with anxiety, identity and self-understanding himself.

“Meeting a closed door like that is deafening.”

He also mentioned president Donald Trump’s decision to shut down an LGBTQ+-specific suicide prevention line, a move which, he warned, would “worsen the state of mental health for us in the community”, adding: “It’s like we’re being made invisible again.

“We will see, within a year’s time, just how big the impact is on anxiety, depression and, more seriously, on self-harm,” he warned.

‘Kalda offers affirming clinical therapy to help build your own mental-health toolkit’

Referring to a survey for The Trevor Project last year, Botcherby pointed out that in the previous 12 months, out of 9,600 LGBTQ+ respondents aged between 13 and 24, 70 per cent reported symptoms of anxiety, 62 per cent said they had suffered from depression and an average of almost six in every 10 had self-harmed.

“I hope Kalda and other services like us can be a form of help,” he said.

“Funding for LGBTQIA+ mental-health services is critical for our youth, particularly those in crisis. When funding is cut, we don’t stop needing help, we just stop getting safe and effective care. My ask would be for policymakers to restore and ring-fence funding, support outcome measurements and bring community providers into the process.

“If you’re looking for support that is queer-led and created by experts who get it, Kalda offers an affirming clinical therapy course to help build your own mental-health toolkit to navigate symptoms of anxiety and depression. Our vision is for people to not only survive, but [to] thrive in life.”

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