In the Netherlands, every resident is obligated to purchase basic health insurance. This health insurance entitles you to receive medical care without additional costs. Healthcare institutions like hospitals or mental health organisations have contracts with health insurance companies and can invoice all their provided care to these insurers. However, to be able to do this, there are certain rules the medical care provider must comply with. For example, psychologists need specific diplomas and experience.

It is possible for foreign psychologists to work in a Dutch mental health organization, but only if you can prove that you have the necessary educational background and diplomas. If not, the care you provide cannot be invoiced to the health insurance companies. That is why not every foreign psychologist can work within a clinical setting in the Netherlands.

As a client, to be able to get (insured) psychological therapy, you first need to visit your family doctor (GP) or the POH-GGZ (mental health assistant that works in a GP practice). They have to write you a referral letter that grants you access to specialized therapy. More about the process for clients can be found here.

If you are a Ukrainian displaced person residing in the Netherlands, you are allowed to work. You do need to get your status as ‘temporarily displaced’ recognized by the IND (the Immigration and Naturalization Service). When you do, you will receive a sticker in your passport, or the so-called O-form. If you don’t have this sticker or form, you can contact the IND to obtain it: https://ind.nl/en/ukraine

To work as a basic psychologist in the Netherlands, you need four prerequisites:

1. You need to have a valid work permit.
2. You need to have a relevant validated diploma on the so-called WO Master level. This is the highest education level in the Netherlands. Your diploma has to be officially validated by the IDW, the International Credential Evaluation. This process takes about 8 weeks and costs €148,83. More information can be found here
3. You need to speak English and/or Dutch at at least B2 level.
4. You need a BIZ or a LOGO-declaration. This is a fairly new rule, it came into effect on the first of January 2024.The statements indicate that WO psychologists have the appropriate prior training and demonstrated content-related conditions. Psychologists who were educated abroad and now want to work as psychologists in the Netherlands need to have either one of those to be able to work under the Healthcare Performance Model (ZPM) and register billable consultations.A LOGO-verklaring is a declaration from the National Consultation of Mental Health Education Institutions (Landelijk Overleg Geestelijke Gezondheidszorg Opleidingsintellingen – LOGO). It was designed initially to determine whether a psychologist met the legal admission requirements for the Health Psychologist (GZ-psycholoog) training program. However, a recent change in the law has made the LOGO-verklaring (or the BIZ) obligatory for all psychologists who want to get their care insured.

    

   You might also hear the term BIZ. The BIZ is the ‘Bestuursverklaring Inzetbaarheid Zorgprestatiemodel (BIZ) op basis van ‘opleiding’’. This is a declaration, signed by your employer, that states that you have the relevant capabilities, based on your education, to get your hours insured.

   A temporary derogation authority applies for Ukrainian Mental Health Professionals, until March 31, 2027. This means that Ukrainian basic psychologists in curative mental health care can still work and invoice their hours. This derogation authority does not apply to non-Ukrainian Mental Health Professionals with a foreign diploma.

   You can find more information about the LOGO declaration here and about the BIZ here

If you comply with these prerequisites, you can work as a basic psychologist in a Dutch mental health organisation. This still means you have to work under the supervision of a senior psychologist. To be able to become a (senior) health psychologist (GZ-psycholoog in Dutch) yourself, you need to be admitted to the two-year postmaster education, for which there are strict requirements, like the LOGO-declaration and a C1 level of Dutch. Once you have successfully completed this course, you will be included in the BIG register and will be able to work independently as a GZ-psychologist in the Dutch GGZ. Read more about this in the next question: 

It is good to be aware of the different registrations Dutch psychologists can have. After a minimum of 4 years at university, a student can get a Master of Psychology. This master is at WO-level, “wetenschappelijk onderwijs”, the highest level of education. After completing the masters, most psychologists that want to specialize themselves in clinical practice, try to apply for a Health Psychologist (GZ-psycholoog) training program. This is a fulltime two-year postmaster education (on the job plus one day a week class). There are fewer positions than candidates, so it can take some time to be admitted to this program. If you ‘graduate’ as GZ-psycholoog you get your BIG registration, which means you can work independently in basic mental health care.

After this, if you want to specialize more in clinical work, you can apply for the training program to become a psychotherapist or clinical psychologist. This requires another 3 to 4 years of education. These two disciplines will probably be merged soon, but for now the psychotherapist is mostly focused on complex psychotherapies, whereas the clinical psychologist is also trained in management, research, and diagnostics.

For psychologists that did not get their diploma in the Netherlands, it is rather difficult to get selected for the postmaster to become GZ-psycholoog. However, that does not mean it is impossible. More about the process can be found here.

Since January 1, 2024, every psychologist working within a Dutch mental health organisation, needs a “LOGO-verklaring”. The declaration from the National Consultation of Mental Health Education Institutions (Landelijk Overleg Geestelijke Gezondheidszorg Opleidingsintellingen – LOGO) was designed initially to determine whether a psychologist met the legal admission requirements for the Health Psychologist (GZ-psycholoog) training program. However, a recent change in the law has made LOGO-verklaring obligatory for all psychologists who need to declare their hours for covered care delivery.

A temporary derogation authority applies for Ukrainian mental health professionals, until March 31, 2027. This means that Ukrainian basic psychologists in curative mental health care can still work and invoice their hours. This derogation authority does not apply to non-Ukrainian mental health professionals with a foreign diploma.

This prerequisite does not hold for GGZ-professionals that work within municipalities, local health authorities or GP practices.

Part of the training programs that PsyGlobal offers are developed together with the Ministry of Justice and Safety (JenV) and are aimed at a specific target group. Professionals that belong to that certain target group and that comply with certain criteria can get invited to these training programs. If you are interested to join these training programs (including intervision etc), we recommend you to let us know via the interest form. If we receive sufficient interest, we will try to organise extra sessions that are open to other target groups as well.