In short Online therapy in English in Amsterdam: individual and couples sessions over secure video, scheduled across time zones. Psychodynamic depth work with a US-trained therapist. You pay directly, so nothing runs through local insurance or health records. Fees and fit are covered in a free 15-minute call.

The work

The work I do is relational and focused on pattern. I don't run intake checklists. I don't assign homework. I pay attention to what happens in the session. The moments when something shifts or goes flat. The pattern that keeps showing up underneath the problem. Most people already know their own story. They still keep landing in the same place. What's missing is someone watching in real time, someone who can name what you cannot see from inside it. More on how I work, and how I work with couples.

How I fit

I am a US-trained therapist working online, privately, outside the BIG register and the GGZ system. Nothing we do requires a referral, produces a diagnosis, or enters Dutch records. The trade is explicit. No insurance reimbursement, in exchange for starting now, in English, at depth. For medication, assessment, or covered care, the huisarts route is the right one, and fifteen free minutes will tell you which of us you actually need.

What people bring to online therapy

The people I work with in English come for a wide range of reasons: anxiety, depression, stress and burnout, anger management, grief and loss, relationship difficulties, loneliness, self-esteem issues, procrastination, sleep problems, attachment patterns, self-sabotage, perfectionism, identity questions, and existential concerns. Online counseling makes this work possible from wherever you are, whether you need an English-speaking therapist, a virtual counselor, or simply someone who can work in your language at a depth that matters.

How it works

Sessions are online via secure video call. I work with individuals and couples (60 minutes). Before your first session, we have a free 15-minute call to see if this feels like the right fit for you.

In shortOnline psychodynamic therapy in English for internationals in Amsterdam. No referral chain. No GGZ queue. No Dutch records.

Amsterdam's specific weather

The caseload here has its own texture. Internationals in Amsterdam are rarely lonely in the ordinary sense. The city is sociable. The English is universal. The Zuidas and the startup scene supply instant networks. What they describe instead is politeness with no way in. Dutch life is friendly at the surface and fully booked underneath. Agendas planned out for weeks. Friendship circles settled since school. Years in, people have a full calendar and no one who really knows them. Add the flat gray light from October to March. The bluntness that lands as criticism on non-Dutch nervous systems. The dual-career strain of households where one partner's relocation package is the reason everyone is here. That is the standard Amsterdam caseload. Functioning. Well-housed in Zuid or De Pijp. Privately running on empty.

The Dutch staircase, and where it stalls

Therapy through the Dutch system is a sequence: your huisarts first, then usually some sessions with the practice's POH-GGZ counselor, then, if more is needed, a referral into Basis GGZ for short structured treatment or Specialistische GGZ for the complex cases. It is rational on paper and congested in practice. Waits for specialized GGZ care in the Amsterdam region run months, frequently around twenty weeks, your eigen risico applies, and the treatment frame is diagnosis-driven and protocol-shaped. Couples therapy is not covered by the basisverzekering at all. The full mechanics, including the non-contracted reimbursement question and the exact phrase to use with your insurer, are on my Netherlands page.

Private practice is the relief valve, at roughly 80 to 200 euros a session, and Amsterdam genuinely does have English-speaking therapists; this is the easiest major city in continental Europe to be Anglophone in. The constraint is subtler: finding someone who works in English and does open-ended depth work and has room and is not protocol-bound takes longer than the city's reputation implies. A lot of internationals run that search for a few weeks and then widen it to therapists who happen to live elsewhere.

Questions people ask from Amsterdam

How long are GGZ waiting lists in Amsterdam?
For specialized GGZ care, waits around the region commonly run twenty weeks or more, after the huisarts referral and intake triage. Basis GGZ is somewhat faster. Private therapy, 80 to 200 euros a session, starts in days to weeks; my own start time is usually within a week or two.
Do I need a huisarts referral to work with you?
No. The referral chain applies to insured GGZ care. Working with me is a direct private arrangement: no huisarts letter, no diagnosis, no eigen risico interaction, no Dutch paper trail.
Is couples therapy covered in the Netherlands?
Not under the basisverzekering; Dutch couples therapy is essentially always private pay. I work with international couples online, which is the same financial arrangement with a wider choice of therapist.

Selected research on this approach

My work is psychodynamic and depth-oriented. These are some of the studies on the effectiveness of that kind of therapy. They describe research on the method in general, and are not claims about any individual outcome.

  • Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 65(2), 98-109. doi:10.1037/a0018378
  • Steinert, C., Munder, T., Rabung, S., Hoyer, J., & Leichsenring, F. (2017). Psychodynamic therapy: as efficacious as other empirically supported treatments? A meta-analysis testing equivalence of outcomes. American Journal of Psychiatry, 174(10), 943-953. PMID 28541091

The full reading list is on the approach page.

Related Reading

Therapy for trailing spouses
Therapy for expats
Therapy in English in other countries