Eating disorder therapy for the Netherlands
Dr Philippe Jacquet works with eating disorders online by secure video from his Harley Street practice in London, in English and French, for people in Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and across the Netherlands.
His doctorate at the University of Essex examined eating disorders, and he has worked with them clinically for twenty-five years.
The years before anyone asks
Most people who come here have had this for a long time.
It has survived relationships, jobs, moves between countries. It is organised around not being seen: the meal eaten in private, the hour afterwards, the arrangements made so that nobody notices what is or is not being eaten. A great deal of intelligence goes into keeping it invisible, and it usually works. People who live with you may not know.
What is often hardest to say is that it is not, from the inside, simply a problem. It does something. It regulates something that is otherwise unmanageable, and that is precisely why advice to eat differently has never touched it.
You do not have to be underweight
This is the misunderstanding that keeps people away for years.
Most people with a serious eating disorder are not thin, and bulimia and binge eating cause as much suffering as restriction does. If you have been told, or have told yourself, that it is not bad enough to deserve help, that judgement is almost always made against an image of anorexia that has very little to do with how most eating disorders actually look.
Nobody here will suggest you come back when it has got worse.
What is worked with
Bulimia. Binge eating and compulsive overeating. Restriction and anorexia. Compulsive exercise. The body image that organises the whole thing, and the shame that keeps it private.
Alongside those, what usually sits underneath: perfectionism, early experience that left no room for appetite or need, a relationship with a parent that is still being conducted through the body, trauma, and the long habit of managing feeling by managing food.
Where there is a medical risk that needs monitoring, that is said plainly at assessment and arranged locally, alongside rather than instead of this work.
Men, and the exercise that nobody questions
Most people seen here are women. But a particular group of men goes unrecognised for years, and the reason is almost absurd.
A man who drinks every night will eventually be asked about it. A man who trains every night is admired. The same compulsion, read as discipline. He is at the gym before work and again after it, he cannot miss a day, he weighs and measures what he eats, and everyone around him treats this as a credit to him.
There is one question that clarifies it. Could you not go, once, and sit at home with whatever comes up? For some men that is mildly irritating. For others it is unthinkable, and the unthinkability is the answer.
Dr Jacquet’s doctorate examined male eating disorders and the part the father and son relationship plays in them. For the fuller account, see male eating disorders.
Eating disorders and addiction
The two travel together more often than services assume, and the order matters. In a great many people the eating disorder came first and alcohol or drugs arrived later and concealed it, so stopping the substance uncovers the eating disorder rather than creating it.
Treating one and leaving the other tends to produce relapse in the untreated condition. Here they are treated as one piece of work. See addiction.
What progress looks like
Not a weight, and not a food diary.
The moment to watch for is quieter: the session where someone begins using the hour to deal with what they feel, because they need to, rather than going towards food. When the feeling has somewhere else to go, the eating loosens on its own.
How it works
Online by secure video, in English or French, on Dutch time, one hour ahead of the UK. Where trauma sits underneath, EMDR may be used within the wider work.
No waiting list. Dutch mental health services had more than 101,000 people waiting to begin treatment in October 2025, averaging twenty-four weeks.
Beginning
A first conversation is confidential and without commitment. Book here.
Back to psychotherapy in the Netherlands.
Dr Philippe Jacquet is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, a Jungian analyst and an HCPC registered art psychotherapist, with twenty-five years of clinical practice. His Professional Doctorate in Analytical Psychology at the University of Essex examined male eating disorders from the perspective of analytical psychology. Registration can be checked on either public register.
How the work is delivered from here
All international sessions are by secure video, in English or French. Online therapy is not a reduced version of consulting room work: it is the format that lets weekly work survive living abroad, travelling, or relocating. Sessions run in United Kingdom hours, which suits most regions, and if your time zone makes none of it workable, say so when you enquire rather than assuming it rules you out.
For clinicians and treatment services
Dr Jacquet supervises clinical teams in private residential addiction treatment and in a private psychiatric hospital. For treatment centres, psychiatric units and group practices looking for external clinical supervision, including in places where no supervisor of this seniority is available locally, team supervision is also delivered by video. For individual practitioners, see clinical supervision.
Common questions
What is treated here?
Bulimia, binge eating and compulsive overeating, restriction and anorexia, compulsive exercise, and the body image difficulties that drive them. Where weight or physical health needs medical monitoring, that is said at assessment and arranged locally alongside the therapy.
Can this work online?
Yes. This is psychotherapy rather than medical management, and it is delivered effectively by secure video, in English or French. Many people find it easier to begin from their own home than to walk into a clinic.
How long is the wait to begin?
There is no waiting list here. Dutch mental health services had more than 101,000 people waiting to begin treatment in October 2025, with an average wait of twenty-four weeks. A first conversation can usually be arranged within days.
Do I have to be very underweight for this to be serious?
No, and this is one of the most damaging misunderstandings about eating disorders. Most people with a serious eating disorder are not underweight. Bulimia and binge eating cause profound distress at any weight, and nobody here will be told to come back when it has got worse.
Do you work with men?
Yes. Most people seen here are women, which reflects who is affected, but men are a particular specialism: Dr Jacquet's doctorate examined male eating disorders, and compulsive exercise in men is routinely missed because it looks like discipline.