Mental Health Licensing & Regulation in the Netherlands: 2026 Guide

If you are seeing a psychiatrist, health psychologist or psychotherapist in the Netherlands, or choosing one for yourself or a family member, it helps to know who is officially registered and how to check that a person is entitled to practise. This guide sets out what the Dutch healthcare register does, which mental-health professionals it covers, what registration entitles them to, and the one step that lets you verify a practitioner.

How practitioners are regulated in the Netherlands, in short

The main system is the BIG-register. It is a legal, online and public register for Professions in Individual Health Care, in Dutch Beroepen in de Individuele Gezondheidszorg, which is what BIG stands for. The register arises from the Individual Healthcare Professions Act, in Dutch the Wet op de beroepen in de individuele gezondheidszorg, also known as the BIG Act. Registration in the BIG-register is obligatory for eleven healthcare professions.¹

The register exists to give clarity about a care provider's qualifications and their entitlement to practise.² In plain terms, it is the official record that a professional is properly qualified and allowed to work.

Who must be registered, and what the titles mean

The eleven registered professions include the mental-health professions this guide covers. They are clinical technologist, dentist, doctor, health psychologist, midwife, nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist, physician assistant, psychotherapist and general educational psychologist.² Each of these must be entered in the BIG-register to work under the professional title.

Only a professional who is registered may use the legally protected title that belongs to their profession. In the same way, only a registered professional may independently perform the reserved actions tied to the profession. Reserved actions are procedures a professional may carry out on their own only if they are registered, and the register names the professions this applies to: doctors, dentists, clinical technologists, midwives, nurses and physician assistants may carry out certain reserved procedures independently. Registration also lets a professional begin specialist training in their field.¹

There is a further condition for anyone who trained outside the Netherlands. A professional with a foreign diploma must first have that diploma officially recognised before they can be registered.¹

It helps to know what each of these titles means. A doctor has completed medical training, and a psychiatrist is a doctor who has gone on to specialise in mental health, so a psychiatrist can assess, diagnose and, where needed, prescribe. A health psychologist and a psychotherapist are trained to assess and treat psychological difficulties through talking therapies rather than medicine. The general title psychologist, in Dutch psycholoog, is not one of the eleven titles the Act protects, so anyone may use it; only the register's own titles, health psychologist, in Dutch gezondheidszorgpsycholoog, and psychotherapist, in Dutch psychotherapeut, along with recognised specialist titles such as clinical psychologist, in Dutch klinisch psycholoog, are legally reserved.⁵ What the three have in common is the register. That is why the register, rather than a certificate a practitioner shows you, is what to check.

Standards and accountability

Being on the register is not only a qualification check. Everyone entered in the BIG-register is subject to Dutch disciplinary law,¹ so a registered professional can be called to account for their conduct. Disciplinary measures may be imposed on healthcare professionals.³

A disciplinary measure has consequences for the person's registration and can restrict them in practising their profession. When a decision is final, the measure is published, including in the Government Gazette,³ so it is a matter of public record.

If you have a concern about a practitioner

The BIG-register does not handle complaints about healthcare professionals. If you have a concern about a specific practitioner, the route is to contact the National Health Care Report Centre, in Dutch the Landelijk Meldpunt Zorg.³

How to check a practitioner is registered

The register is public, and checking it is simple. Anyone can consult the BIG-register to see whether a health professional is authorised to practise.²

Every registered professional has a unique, personal BIG number, and more than 350,000 professionals are listed.² If you want to be sure that a psychiatrist, health psychologist or psychotherapist is genuinely entitled to practise, that lookup is the most direct way to confirm it. It is worth asking a practitioner for their BIG number before you begin care. If a practitioner is not listed, they may not use the protected title that belongs to that profession. Only eleven professions can register, so someone practising under a different job title would not appear in the register at all. If a practitioner you expect to find is not there, the register is not confirming their qualifications or entitlement to practise, so treat the title as unverified until you find the entry.

The register is searchable in more than one way, which matters if you only have partial information. You can search by name and specialism as well as by BIG number,⁴ so you are not stuck if the practitioner has not given you their number yet.

Alongside the register itself, a separate search for disciplinary measures is provided.⁴

Both searches are public, and neither requires you to ask the practitioner's permission.

The register records whether a professional is currently qualified and entitled to practise, and, through Dutch disciplinary law, whether any measure now limits what they may do. Registration is not permanent either: every BIG-registered professional must re-register every five years, in Dutch herregistratie, showing enough recent hours worked in the profession or, failing that, an approved refresher certificate, in Dutch a Periodiek Registratie Certificaat.⁶

Quick reference

Whatever the profession, check the BIG-register. Ask for a practitioner's BIG number, look them up in the public register, and if you have a concern raise it with the National Health Care Report Centre.

Team TherapyRoute

References

1. [1] BIG-register - the legal, online and public register of healthcare professions arising from the Individual Healthcare Professions Act; registration obligatory for eleven healthcare professions; protected titles and reserved actions; foreign-diploma recognition. english.bigregister.nl.
2. [2] BIG-register - about: the register gives clarity about a care provider qualifications and entitlement to practise; the professions it covers; anyone can consult it by name or BIG number; every registrant has a unique personal BIG number. english.bigregister.nl/about-the-big-register.
3. [3] BIG-register - disciplinary rules and complaints: everyone in the BIG-register is subject to Dutch disciplinary law; measures under the Healthcare Professionals Act have consequences for registration and can restrict practice; final measures are published including in the Government Gazette; the BIG-register does not handle complaints, which go to the National Health Care Report Centre (Landelijk Meldpunt Zorg). english.bigregister.nl.
4. [4] BIG-register - "Search in BIG-register": the register can be searched by name and specialism as well as by BIG number, and a separate search for disciplinary measures is provided. english.bigregister.nl/search-big-register.
5. [5] Wet op de beroepen in de individuele gezondheidszorg (Wet BIG), Article 3(1) lists the eleven professions for which registers exist, including gezondheidszorgpsycholoog and psychotherapeut but not psycholoog; Article 4 reserves those titles to registrants and forbids their use by anyone else; Article 17 reserves recognised specialist titles. wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0006251.
6. [6] BIG-register, Herregistratie: BIG-registered professionals must re-register every five years, meeting either the work-experience requirement or, failing that, obtaining a Periodiek Registratie Certificaat. bigregister.nl/herregistratie and english.bigregister.nl/registration/re-registration.