In the Netherlands the route to insured therapy always starts with your GP (huisarts). You need a referral (verwijzing), dated before your first session and stating a suspected diagnosis. Many people are seen first by the POH-GGZ, a mental health practitioner inside the GP's own practice, which counts as GP care and costs nothing extra. Beyond that, the huisarts refers you on to Basis GGZ for milder difficulties or Gespecialiseerde GGZ for more complex ones.
All insured therapy counts towards your eigen risico, the deductible, which is €385 in 2026 and higher if you chose a voluntary increase. Only huisarts and POH-GGZ sessions are exempt, so if you haven't used other healthcare this year, the first few sessions come out of your own pocket either way.
The basisverzekering covers treatment of a diagnosed condition, and it won't pay at all for burnout and work- or study-related stress, couples and family therapy, sex therapy, adjustment difficulties after a separation or a bereavement, mindfulness or coaching. Those are among the most common reasons people look for a therapist. Cover also depends on the diagnosis: for the insurer to pay for Basis or Gespecialiseerde GGZ, you have to be given one at your intake. An aanvullende verzekering, the optional top-up, sometimes covers part of it, but that varies by insurer.
The nationally agreed maximum wait, the Treeknorm, is four weeks from enquiry to intake and fourteen weeks in total before treatment begins. Around half of people wait longer than that.
If you go privately through It's Complicated, there's no referral, no diagnosis and no queue. You contact the therapist directly, agree a time between you, and what you see on the profile is what you pay.
Psycholoog isn't a protected title in the Netherlands, and neither is therapeut, counsellor or coach. The protected ones are gezondheidszorgpsycholoog, psychotherapeut, klinisch psycholoog and psychiater, all listed in the public BIG-register. Where a therapist on It's Complicated works under one of those titles, we check their BIG registration before they appear.
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