Insured therapy in the Netherlands starts with your GP (huisarts). You need a written 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 working inside the GP's own practice, and beyond that the huisarts refers you on to Basis GGZ or Gespecialiseerde GGZ depending on how complex things are.
The basisverzekering pays for treatment of a diagnosed condition, and what it leaves out matters on this page in particular. Relatie- en gezinstherapie, couples and family therapy, is excluded outright. So is sex therapy, so is burnout and work- or study-related stress, and so is aanpassingsstoornis, the adjustment difficulty people have after a separation or a bereavement. Coaching and mindfulness are out too. An aanvullende verzekering, the optional top-up policy, sometimes covers part of it, depending on the insurer.
Insured therapy also counts towards the eigen risico, the compulsory deductible, which is €385 in 2026, so being covered doesn't mean paying nothing. Only huisarts and POH-GGZ sessions are exempt.
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.
Going privately through It's Complicated means no referral, no diagnosis and no queue, and the reason you're going doesn't have to be a condition an insurer recognises. You choose the therapist and arrange it with them directly.
Gezondheidszorgpsycholoog, psychotherapeut, klinisch psycholoog and psychiater are protected titles in the Netherlands, and all four appear in the public BIG-register. Psycholoog isn't, and neither is therapeut, counsellor or coach. Where a therapist on It's Complicated works under one of the protected titles, we check their BIG registration before they appear.
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