In short Online therapy in English in Rotterdam: 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.

Why people in Rotterdam work with me

Three reasons. Speed, first: the GGZ average is around twenty-four weeks, and I have room now, with no referral needed. Fit, second: my whole practice is people living outside their home country, so being an international in Rotterdam needs no explaining, and the mix I see from here, port and trading firms, Erasmus, consulting, medicine, is familiar ground. Privacy, third: I work entirely outside the Dutch system, so there is no GGZ dossier and nothing on any record your insurer or huisarts can reach. In a city that talks straight, some things you still want off every ledger. And if what you need is GGZ care, a BIG-registered clinician, or someone in the room with you, I will say so and point you there.

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 people in Rotterdam. Fully private. Paid directly. No GGZ waitlist. Nothing on a Dutch record.

The Rotterdam patterns

Rotterdam is a port before it is anything else. The port sets the tone. People here work in logistics, shipping, and commodity trading. And in the offices that serve them. Add the physicians and researchers of Erasmus MC. Add the economists and engineers the university turns out. The war left no old town to hide in, so the city rebuilt itself in concrete and glass and made that a point of pride. The culture matches the skyline. Direct. Unsentimental. Allergic to fuss.

That directness is why many internationals love it here. It is also the trap. A culture that trades in banter and straight talk has few words for the things that are neither. The professional who can close a charter deal in a second language. The same person cannot say, in any language, that the flatness has been there for a year. The doctor at Erasmus who spends all day on other people's emergencies. Her own inner life gets treated as a rounding error. The partner who moved for the port job or the residency. What they found is a city that respects competence. And has no idea what to do with loneliness. Maritime rotations and on-call schedules that quietly grind a marriage down. The high-functioning person whose week is full and whose evenings have gone silent.

Rotterdam's no-nonsense character can make slowing down to look inward feel like an indulgence, almost a betrayal of the local code. The work here is to take the same directness the city prizes and point it at what is actually going on.

Therapy in Rotterdam: a working city, a half-year public wait

Dutch public mental healthcare runs through the GGZ: your huisarts refers you, basic insurance pays, and then you wait, on average around twenty-four weeks, often for care delivered in Dutch. Relationship therapy is not covered at all, anywhere in the country. Private English-speaking depth therapists exist but are scarce and heavily booked, with individual sessions typically running 90 to 150 euros and couples more. Rotterdam sharpens the problem: a city built on getting things done, asking its large international workforce to stand in line for half a year to talk to someone in their own language. This is private depth work in English, paid directly, outside the GGZ entirely.

Questions people ask from Rotterdam

Will my Dutch insurance or the GGZ cover therapy with you?
No. Public care runs through the GGZ on a huisarts referral, and basic insurance covers it, but waiting lists now average around twenty-four weeks and the work is often in Dutch, while relationship therapy is not covered at all. I work privately and directly, in English, outside the GGZ, for people who want to start now without months on a list.
Do I need a huisarts referral to start?
No. A referral is only for the GGZ route. Private work needs none and has no waitlist beyond my own availability, so we can usually begin within days.
Are you a BIG-registered psycholoog in the Netherlands?
No. The Dutch clinical titles, GZ-psycholoog and klinisch psycholoog, are protected through the BIG register, which I do not hold. I am US-trained (MA, Counseling) and work privately online, outside the Dutch registers. For a BIG-registered clinician, GGZ care, or medication, I will point you toward it.
Why is it hard to find an English-speaking therapist in Rotterdam?
Not because the city lacks therapists, but because the overlap that matters, clinicians doing sustained depth work in fluent English, is small and mostly full, and Amsterdam absorbs much of the national English-language supply. Working online widens the pool well past whoever happens to have a free hour in South Holland.

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