An AI that doesn't want to be your therapist: it wants to find you one

Viving, a Spanish platform based on the Costa del Sol, launches Vivi: an assistant that listens to what the patient says in their own words, reads the profiles of every psychologist with an open diary and proposes three, each with a name, a reason and the next available appointment. It does not give therapy, it does not diagnose and, if it detects a crisis, it refers to Spain's 024 helpline. 34 of the platform's psychologists work in English.

Press kit and images Nacional Málaga y Andalucía

Choosing a therapist in a foreign country is hard enough in your own language. In Spain, expats face hundreds of profiles, Spanish acronyms (TCC, EMDR, sistémica), prices that vary widely and one question nobody answers: which of these is right for me? Viving, a platform that brings together 177 psychologists across 19 provinces, has tried something different: let the person tell it in their own words.

This is how Vivi works. The person writes, for example, "since my separation I can't sleep and work is a mess". Vivi may ask up to three questions to narrow it down: whether the help is for them or for a child, online or in person, how much they can spend. It then reads the full profile of every available psychologist (training, approach, who they see, languages, price and diary) and returns three real names. Each comes with a sentence explaining why they fit and their first free slot, so the person can book in two clicks.

It doesn't just answer: it acts

Vivi is what the tech industry calls an agentic assistant. Unlike a chatbot, it does things for the user inside the website: it can filter the list of psychologists, find the earliest appointment across all of them, compare two profiles or take the user to the guide for their city. It is available on every page of viving.es, in a side panel, and on viving.es/en, the English version of the site launched this October.

Artificial intelligence shouldn't play therapist. What it can do very well is read every profile in seconds and take the hardest part of the first step off the patient's hands: deciding who to call.
Juan Navarrofounder of Viving

What Vivi will not do

It does not give therapy or diagnose. It only points the person towards a professional, and says so in every conversation.
If it detects risk, it recommends no one. It shows 024 (Spain's suicide prevention line) and 112, and stops.
The patient has the last word. Vivi proposes three names; the person chooses, or asks for others. Nobody is assigned a psychologist.
It does not store what people write. The conversation lives in the user's browser. Viving only counts, without any text, how many times each professional is proposed.

Why now

In the Barómetro Viving 2026, a survey of 22 psychologists practising in Spain published on 10 October, 95 % said they already see patients who had told an AI about their distress before booking a first session. "If people are already telling an AI what's wrong, the least we can do is make sure that conversation ends with a real professional," says Navarro.

About Viving

Viving is a Spanish platform for finding a psychologist and booking a session, online or in person. Each professional sets and shows their own price; Viving charges psychologists no commission on sessions. It brings together 177 psychologists from 19 provinces, 34 of whom offer therapy in English, and is based in Estepona (Málaga).

End of release

Try Vivi: viving.es/en (button "Find a therapist") or viving.es
Press contact: Juan Navarro · prensa@viving.es
Images and press kit: https://viving.es/prensa/vivi

PRESS RELEASE
Estepona (Málaga), Spain, 19 October 2026

An AI that doesn't want to be your therapist: it wants to find you one

Viving, a Spanish platform based on the Costa del Sol, launches Vivi: an assistant that listens to what the patient says in their own words, reads the profiles of every psychologist with an open diary and proposes three, each with a name, a reason and the next available appointment. It does not give therapy, it does not diagnose and, if it detects a crisis, it refers to Spain's 024 helpline. 34 of the platform's psychologists work in English.

Choosing a therapist in a foreign country is hard enough in your own language. In Spain, expats face hundreds of profiles, Spanish acronyms (TCC, EMDR, sistémica), prices that vary widely and one question nobody answers: which of these is right for me? Viving, a platform that brings together 177 psychologists across 19 provinces, has tried something different: let the person tell it in their own words.

This is how Vivi works. The person writes, for example, "since my separation I can't sleep and work is a mess". Vivi may ask up to three questions to narrow it down: whether the help is for them or for a child, online or in person, how much they can spend. It then reads the full profile of every available psychologist (training, approach, who they see, languages, price and diary) and returns three real names. Each comes with a sentence explaining why they fit and their first free slot, so the person can book in two clicks.

It doesn't just answer: it acts

Vivi is what the tech industry calls an agentic assistant. Unlike a chatbot, it does things for the user inside the website: it can filter the list of psychologists, find the earliest appointment across all of them, compare two profiles or take the user to the guide for their city. It is available on every page of viving.es, in a side panel, and on viving.es/en, the English version of the site launched this October.

«Artificial intelligence shouldn't play therapist. What it can do very well is read every profile in seconds and take the hardest part of the first step off the patient's hands: deciding who to call.», says Juan Navarro, founder of Viving.

What Vivi will not do

- It does not give therapy or diagnose. It only points the person towards a professional, and says so in every conversation.
- If it detects risk, it recommends no one. It shows 024 (Spain's suicide prevention line) and 112, and stops.
- The patient has the last word. Vivi proposes three names; the person chooses, or asks for others. Nobody is assigned a psychologist.
- It does not store what people write. The conversation lives in the user's browser. Viving only counts, without any text, how many times each professional is proposed.

Why now

In the Barómetro Viving 2026, a survey of 22 psychologists practising in Spain published on 10 October, 95 % said they already see patients who had told an AI about their distress before booking a first session. "If people are already telling an AI what's wrong, the least we can do is make sure that conversation ends with a real professional," says Navarro.

About Viving

Viving is a Spanish platform for finding a psychologist and booking a session, online or in person. Each professional sets and shows their own price; Viving charges psychologists no commission on sessions. It brings together 177 psychologists from 19 provinces, 34 of whom offer therapy in English, and is based in Estepona (Málaga).

Try Vivi: viving.es/en (button "Find a therapist") or viving.es
Press contact: Juan Navarro · prensa@viving.es
Images and press kit: https://viving.es/prensa/vivi