Counsellor, Psychologist, POH-GGZ or GGZ? Understanding Your Options in the Netherlands

You have decided that you would like some support.

Then you start searching.

One website mentions a psychologist. Another says GZ-psycholoog. Your huisarts suggests the POH-GGZ. Someone tells you they see a counsellor. Another person says they were referred to the GGZ.

At some point, you may reasonably wonder:

Are these all different names for basically the same thing?

They are not.

And if you did not grow up with the Dutch healthcare system, the differences are not always obvious.

Part of the confusion is that some words describe professions, some describe roles within healthcare, and one of the most common terms, GGZ, does not describe a person at all.

So rather than asking which option is “best,” it is more useful to understand what each one is for.

First, GGZ is not a profession

Let's clear up one of the easiest misunderstandings first.

GGZ stands for geestelijke gezondheidszorg, or mental healthcare.

It is not the title of the person treating you.

If someone says:

“My huisarts referred me to the GGZ,” they generally mean they have been referred into mental-healthcare services.

That might eventually involve a psychologist, psychotherapist, psychiatrist, nurse or another qualified professional, depending on the person's needs and the organisation providing care.

Thuisarts explains that after referral, the GGZ organisation first assesses whether it can provide appropriate help. If it can, conversations and sometimes questionnaires are used to understand the person's difficulties before suitable treatment options are discussed.¹

So think of GGZ as a part of the healthcare system, rather than as one particular professional.

The huisarts: often the gateway into mental healthcare

Before discussing the other roles, it helps to remember where the huisarts fits.

Your huisarts, or GP, is often the first healthcare professional to speak with when you are experiencing psychological symptoms and are unsure what level of care you need.

The huisarts can discuss your complaints, how they affect daily life and what support may fit.

For relatively mild or emerging psychological complaints, help may remain within the GP practice. When more specialised mental healthcare appears necessary, the huisarts can refer you onward.

Zorginstituut Nederland confirms that the huisarts can treat psychological complaints, usually together with a POH-GGZ. This is considered huisartsenzorg and is covered through the basic health-insurance package without the mandatory eigen risico.²

That brings us to a role many internationals have never encountered before arriving here.

What is a POH-GGZ?

POH-GGZ stands for praktijkondersteuner huisarts geestelijke gezondheidszorg.

The title sounds complicated. The role is easier to understand.

A POH-GGZ works within or in connection with the huisarts practice and supports people experiencing psychological difficulties.

After speaking with your huisarts, you may be referred internally to the POH-GGZ.

Thuisarts describes the role as helping clarify psychological problems and providing short-term treatment or support. The POH-GGZ also communicates with the huisarts about how things are going.³

You might speak about stress, low mood, anxiety, coping with difficult circumstances or another psychological concern.

The POH-GGZ can therefore be a useful first level of mental-health support without immediately entering specialist GGZ.

Is a POH-GGZ a psychologist?

Not necessarily.

POH-GGZ describes a role, not one single underlying profession.

People working as POH-GGZ can have different professional backgrounds and additional training.

This is an important distinction because titles sometimes tell you where someone works or what function they perform, but not necessarily their original profession.

If knowing someone's qualifications matters to you, it is completely reasonable to ask.

Then what does “psychologist” mean?

This is where things become more complicated.

In everyday conversation, people often say psychologist as though it describes one standard professional qualification.

In the Netherlands, the situation is more specific.

There are psychologists with university-level psychology education working in many settings, including mental healthcare, research, organisations, education and other areas.

But psycholoog and GZ-psycholoog should not automatically be treated as interchangeable titles.

The BIG-register identifies gezondheidszorgpsycholoog (GZ-psycholoog) as a legally regulated healthcare profession. A GZ-psycholoog must be registered in the BIG-register to use that protected professional title.⁴

This registration brings legal professional requirements and disciplinary accountability under the Wet BIG.

That is why simply seeing the word psychologist on a website does not tell you everything about someone's professional status.

What is a GZ-psycholoog?

A GZ-psycholoog, or gezondheidszorgpsycholoog, is a psychologist who has completed the required postgraduate professional training for this regulated healthcare profession and holds BIG registration.

GZ-psychologists work with psychological problems and mental disorders in healthcare settings and may be involved in assessment and treatment.

As of September 2026, the BIG-register records more than 21,000 registrations within the GZ-psychologist professional group, including GZ-psychologists who also hold recognised specialisations.⁵

For a client, however, the important part is not the number.

It is that GZ-psycholoog is a legally protected healthcare title that can be checked in the BIG-register.

If someone presents themselves as a GZ-psycholoog, their registration can therefore be independently verified.

And what is a clinical psychologist?

Another title you may encounter is klinisch psycholoog, or clinical psychologist.

In the Dutch BIG system, clinical psychology is a recognised specialisation of the GZ-psychologist profession.

The BIG-register currently distinguishes GZ-psychologists from the recognised specialisms clinical psychology and clinical neuropsychology.⁵

Clinical psychologists generally work with more complex psychological assessment and treatment and have undertaken further specialist training beyond qualification as a GZ-psychologist.

This is one reason translations between countries can become confusing.

The phrase clinical psychologist may mean something somewhat different depending on the country's education, licensing and healthcare system.

When looking for care in the Netherlands, the Dutch registration attached to a professional title matters more than assuming that an English-language title works exactly as it does elsewhere.

What about a psychotherapist or psychiatrist?

Although they are not in the title of this article, you may encounter both within the GGZ.

A psychotherapist is also a regulated BIG profession in the Netherlands. Psychotherapists provide psychotherapeutic treatment for psychological difficulties and disorders.

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who has specialised in psychiatry. Because psychiatrists are physicians, their role can include medical assessment and prescribing medication as well as other aspects of psychiatric treatment.

Thuisarts lists psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists among professionals people may encounter when more mental-health treatment is needed.⁶

Again, these professions overlap in some areas but are not interchangeable.

The professional involved depends partly on what kind of assessment or treatment is required.

So where does a counsellor fit?

A counsellor occupies a different space.

Counselling can focus on emotional wellbeing, coping, relationships, identity, adjustment, communication, boundaries and difficult life transitions.

Someone may seek counselling while navigating migration, motherhood, relationship problems, separation, stress or recovery after a difficult period.

In this context, the work may be preventive and psychosocial rather than clinical mental-health treatment.

This distinction matters.

A counsellor should not imply that counselling is equivalent to specialist GGZ treatment simply because both involve conversations about emotional wellbeing.

Likewise, someone does not necessarily need a mental disorder before they are allowed to seek meaningful support.

There is a large human territory between:

“Everything is fine.”

and

“I need specialist mental-health treatment.”

Preventive psychosocial support can exist within that space.

But is “counsellor” a protected healthcare title?

This is something clients should understand clearly.

Unlike regulated BIG professions such as GZ-psycholoog and psychotherapeut, counselling does not have the same statutory professional-title protection under the Wet BIG.

That makes transparency particularly important.

If you are considering a counsellor, it can be useful to look beyond the title itself and ask:

What education and training does this person have?

What professional organisation are they affiliated with?

What ethical or complaints framework applies?

What type of clients and difficulties do they work with?

How do they handle confidentiality and records?

What happens when someone's needs fall outside their competence?

Do they clearly explain what their service is, and what it is not?

A responsible practitioner should not be uncomfortable answering these questions.

Professional credibility should come from more than a title on a website.

Does seeing a counsellor mean you cannot also see your huisarts?

No.

Support does not always have to fit into one exclusive box.

For example, someone may be receiving medical support from their huisarts while also working with a counsellor on relationship patterns or migration adjustment.

Another person may begin with counselling and later develop symptoms that warrant clinical assessment.

Someone receiving GGZ treatment might also use community or practical support where appropriate, provided the roles are clear and the different forms of care do not conflict.

What matters is understanding the purpose and boundaries of each form of support.

Good care sometimes involves recognising that one professional cannot and should not do everything.

How do you know which professional you need?

You may not know.

That is normal.

You do not need to become an expert in Dutch professional titles before asking for help.

A useful starting point is to consider what is happening.

If you are experiencing significant or worsening psychological symptoms, struggling substantially with daily functioning, wondering whether you may have a mental disorder or are unsure how serious your symptoms are, speaking with your huisarts is a sensible first step.

Thuisarts currently advises people experiencing psychological complaints to begin with the huisarts. Together you can discuss the symptoms, their impact on daily life and whether support within the GP practice or referral into GGZ is appropriate.⁶

If your main concern is a life transition, relationship difficulty, migration stress, identity, boundaries or emotional wellbeing and you are otherwise functioning reasonably well, preventive counselling may be one option.

If the main problem is practical or social rather than psychological, another service may fit better altogether.

And if you are already working with someone but your symptoms are becoming more severe, tell them.

The right professional is not simply the person with the most impressive title.

It is the professional whose training, role and scope fit what you actually need.

For internationals, language and cultural understanding matter too

Qualifications matter.

So does being able to communicate.

You may find an appropriately qualified professional and still struggle to express yourself in the language of the consultation.

Thuisarts specifically advises people who are relatively new to the Netherlands that they can ask about an interpreter when Dutch is not sufficient for a healthcare conversation. It also encourages patients to tell their healthcare professional about experiences, family, culture, habits or religion when these are relevant to their care.⁷

That is important because psychological experiences do not occur outside culture.

Ideas about family, independence, marriage, parenting, grief, mental illness, privacy and asking for help can vary considerably between people and communities.

Culturally responsive support does not mean assuming that someone's background explains everything about them.

It means being curious enough to ask.

Titles matter, but the relationship matters too

Professional qualifications tell you something important.

They tell you about education, regulation, competence and scope.

But they cannot tell you everything about what it will feel like to sit in a room with someone.

You may also want to know:

Do I feel listened to?

Can I ask questions?

Does this person explain things clearly?

Can I disagree?

Do they understand what I am trying to say rather than simply fitting me into an assumption?

Do I understand what we are working toward?

For regulated treatment, professional competence and appropriate clinical care remain essential.

Within that framework, feeling able to participate in the conversation matters too.

Mental-health support is not something that should simply happen to you.

You should be able to understand the role of the person sitting across from you and why that form of support has been suggested.

Perhaps the simplest way to remember the difference

The Dutch system contains many titles, but you do not need to memorise an organisational chart.

Think of it this way:

Huisarts - Often your first healthcare contact when psychological symptoms need attention or you are unsure what care you need.

POH-GGZ - Mental-health support connected to the huisarts practice, often for clarification and relatively short-term support.

Psychologist - A broad term. Look at the person's specific qualifications, role and registration rather than assuming every psychologist has the same professional status.

GZ-psycholoog - A legally regulated, BIG-registered healthcare psychologist.

Clinical psychologist - A recognised specialist within the GZ-psychologist profession.

GGZ - The mental-healthcare system or services, not a professional title.

Counsellor - May provide preventive psychosocial support for emotional, relational and life-transition concerns, but is not equivalent to a regulated BIG mental-health profession simply because the work involves psychological wellbeing.

None of these descriptions tells you that one option is universally better than another.

They answer different needs.

And understanding that difference makes navigating support a little less mysterious.

A note about Astramía Counselling

Astramía provides preventive, psychosocial and non-clinical counselling for adults and couples.

The work can include migration stress, cultural adjustment, relationships, motherhood, boundaries, identity, life transitions and emotional recovery.

Astramía does not present counselling as psychological assessment, psychiatric care or specialist GGZ treatment and does not replace the huisarts or regulated mental-health services when those forms of care are needed.

Clear professional boundaries are not a limitation of good support.

They are part of what makes support responsible.

Explore Astramía Counselling →

If you need urgent help

If you are in immediate danger or experiencing an acute psychological crisis, do not rely on routine counselling or wait for a standard appointment.

Contact your huisarts during practice hours or the huisartsenpost outside those hours if urgent psychological help is needed and you are not already receiving GGZ treatment. If you are already under GGZ care, follow the crisis instructions provided by your treating service.¹

Call 112 when immediate emergency assistance is required.

If you are thinking about suicide, you can also contact 113 Zelfmoordpreventie.

Sources & further reading

1. Thuisarts.nl. Ik ben aangemeld bij de ggz. Hoe gaat het verder?Patient information about what happens following referral into GGZ, including initial assessment, treatment planning and urgent-care instructions.

2. Zorginstituut Nederland. Geneeskundige ggz (Zvw).Official information about huisarts and POH-GGZ care, referral into geneeskundige GGZ and coverage through Dutch basic health insurance.

3. Thuisarts.nl. Met wie krijg je te maken bij de huisartsenpraktijk?Information about professionals working in general practice, including the POH-GGZ and its role in clarifying psychological problems and providing short-term support.

4. BIG-register. Wet- en regelgeving.Official information about professions regulated under the Wet BIG, including gezondheidszorgpsycholoog and psychotherapist, protected professional titles and registration requirements.

5. BIG-register. Basisberoep en specialisme.Current registration information distinguishing GZ-psychologists from recognised specialisms including clinical psychology and clinical neuropsychology.

6. Thuisarts.nl. Ik heb psychische klachten. Van wie krijg ik hulp?Information about starting with the huisarts and the different professionals who may provide support within general practice and GGZ.

7. Thuisarts.nl. Ik heb psychische klachten en woon pas kort in Nederland. Van wie krijg ik hulp?Information specifically developed for people relatively new to the Netherlands, including language support and discussing cultural, family and personal context with healthcare professionals.

Professional regulations and healthcare arrangements can change. This article reflects publicly available Dutch information checked in September 2026 and provides general educational information rather than individual medical or psychological advice.