About Us

Hello and Welcome!

I'm so glad you’ve found your way here.

I'm Anne Lewis, and I am a psychotherapist and the founder of VIVA Therapy. Below you can read a little about us, how we came to be VIVA Therapy, and how we work.

I really enjoy therapy––having it and working with it––from my own personal experience of having therapy I know how impactful it can be.

Having worked for a number of years with special needs children and young people in Bristol, later training and working as a lawyer, I reached a point where I felt life was too short and finally embarked on something I had always thought about doing, and spent a few years retraining as a counsellor, and then setting up my own private practice. And I haven't looked back!

Originally focusing my work around anxiety, I was increasingly seeing clients with ADHD symptoms and autism and, having personal experience of both, I knew how difficult life can be day to day, as well as how hard work life can be, and parenting, and what being neurodivergent can mean for relationships too. I also became increasingly interested in helping couples where neurodivergence is a factor.

So alongside my growing interest in anxiety and its overlap with neurodivergence and relationships, my practice grew too.

As a therapist, there are only so many hours you can ethically work each week to be really present for your clients and avoid burnout, which means that I can only provide therapy for a limited number of clients each week.

And so I dreamed of building something a little bigger, something beyond just me.

Working as a sole practitioner also meant that I didn't get to meet other therapists very often and I was missing that––so building a bigger practice was a win-win for me and for clients.

With the right therapist, I believe that therapy can help build acceptance of who we are and, importantly, help us to navigate the relationships we have with others. This is why I am passionate about providing therapy for the neurodivergent community––It's fair to say, it's become a bit of a mission!

So I knew that the team I brought around me, in what would become VIVA Therapy, had to also be neurodivergent affirming in their work.

I am very lucky to have found some inspiring therapists to work alongside me and who are either neurodivergent themselves or have great experience of working with neurodivergence––they are all supportive of my vision of building a therapy practice that is neurodivergent affirming.

I am also a member of the LGBTQIA community, and so it was also really important to me that we are all LGBTQIA affirmative in our work too, and I'm proud to say that we are! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

And so now we have VIVA Therapy––a therapy practice with a difference––where we proudly support neurodivergent and LGBTQIA individuals and couples––and we work online, so we can support our clients, wherever they are.

I have a team of amazing therapists around me who work with people like you, to support them in exploring their anxiety and empowering them to face all the challenges it brings with it, including low self-esteem, overthinking, people-pleasing, perfectionism and burnout.

How Can We Help You?

If you like the sound of us and think we could be just what you need for your therapy journey, we would love to hear from you and you can email us here 📨

As therapists, we know that the therapist-client relationship is the most important part of therapy––research shows that it is the one thing that makes the biggest difference to the outcomes of therapy for clients. So we know it's important to find the right therapist for you.

We are all fully qualified, down-to-earth therapists, who are passionate about supporting you through life's challenges. And we won’t just sit back and listen, we will be right there with you!––it’s a conversation.

We will work with you to explore what's going on for you, to help you understand and overcome your feelings of anxiety. We will help to empower you to embrace and trust your authentic self, and finally live the life you want and deserve.

Whether you're feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or struggling with ADHD and/or autism, or if you would like to strengthen the communication in your relationship, we want you to know that you’re not alone—there is hope. Why not get in touch today and start your therapy journey with us?

If you need more time, go to our therapists page to find out more about each of our therapists before you get in touch.

If you would like to talk about how we work, or if you're not sure that you're ready for therapy or what it will be like, please get in touch here as I would be really happy to talk it through with you and answer any questions you might have.

I really hope that you find your therapist at VIVA, but if not, then I wish you all the best on your therapy journey.

With warm regards,

Anne