Logo Barends Psychology Practice
Logo Barends Psychology Practice

Located in Ljubljana (Slovenia), Barends Psychology Practice brings together an international team of licensed psychologists based in Stuart (Florida), Ljubljana (Slovenia), and Rijeka (Croatia). We offer a range of treatments both face-to-face and online.

Barends Psychology Practice was founded in January 2014 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands by psychologist Niels Barends. The practice was later relocated to Ljubljana, Slovenia in October 2015. Early 2017, Barends Psychology Practice started collaborating with different online counselors from around the world: Marylise Zwarts, Tijana Debelić.

At the moment, Barends Psychology Practice offers its services in 6 world languages: English (Niels), Dutch (Niels), Italian and Croatian (Tijana), and French (Marylise). We are looking for more therapists.
For the office locations in Ljubljana, Rijeka, and Stuart (Florida), please click here.

If you want to schedule your first, free of charge, appointment at Barends Psychology Practice, click here.


  In Press


Education and working experience

Online counselor Niels Barends

Online expat counseling: picture of Niels Barends

Niels is an online counselor and psychologist with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Developmental Psychology from the University of Amsterdam. He is specialized in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), schema therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, competitive memory training, and WRITEjunior (ptsd treatment for 4-18 year olds).

He completed these post-masters courses at acknowledged training institutes (EMDR opleidingen, Cure Care Development, Van Genderen opleidingen), and Uva Minds.

Before he started working as an online counselor, Niels worked for two mental health clinics in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. From the summer of 2005 until the summer of 2014, he worked at Mentrum, Arkin (formerly known as: AMC, de Meren) as a case manager and a therapist with a population presenting with long-term severe psychiatric and/or addiction issues.

Additionally, he also has worked as a therapist at JellinekMinnesota, Arkin for almost a year, before emigrating to Slovenia. At JellinekMinnesota, his main focus was addiction, often accompanied by PTSD, trauma, personality disorders, and various emotional issues, such as low self-esteem and perfectionism. He also gave group sessions as well as individual sessions. The group sessions were based on Acceptance and Commitment therapy and the 12 steps of Minnesota. Niels offers his services in both Dutch and English.


Online counselor – Marylise Zwarts

Marylise is an (online) counselor with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from Paris 8 University (2002). She has been practicing for 15 years in France and in the USA as a clinical psychologist, mental health counselor and fully trained EMDR therapist.

Marylise offers individual, couple and EMDR therapy online and face-to-face.
Marylise has worked with adults in various environments, including mental health institutions (hospital Ville-Evrard and Hospital Sainte –Anne in France) , not-for-profit organizations (sos Suicide in France and House of Hope in Florida), substance abuse treatment centers (BHOPB, Florida and Amitie presence Paris) and in private practice in France and in the USA.

Trained in criminology and victimology (university Paris V Descartes in Paris), Marylise completed her EMDR training in 2008. She also completed in 2015 a specialization certificate “The use of EMDR with complex trauma and dissociative symptoms” (EMDRIA institute of the USA).

Marylise provides (online) treatment to individuals and couples struggling with depression, grief and loss, addiction, emotional and anxiety disorder, personality disorder, phobia, OCD, PTSD and more.

Being herself an expat residing for 10 years in the USA, Marylise is particularly qualified to help other expats to overcome the grief and difficulties they experience while adapting to a new culture.

Marylise utilizes a variety of therapeutic techniques, such as the person-centered approach (Carl Rogers), Cognitive and Behavioral approach (CBT), solution focused brief therapy (SFBT), the psychodynamic approach and EMDR, to guide her clients through a fast healing process.

Further to her role as online psychotherapist at Barends Psychology, Marylise attends particular patients in the USA both face-to-face and through online services.

Marylise strongly believes in people’s capacity to use their own resources to recover from difficult experiences and to develop their coping skills to embrace a fulfilling life.
Marylise offers her services in French.



Online counselor – Tijana Debelić

Online counselor Tijana Debelić
Online counselor Tijana Debelić

Tijana is a psychologist who was born and raised in Rijeka, Croatia in a Croatian and Italian family. In 2004, Tijana moved to Italy where she received her M.S. with Honors in Psychology from the University Of Padua.

In 2013, she decided to return to Rijeka, Croatia to start collaborating with the family consulting company as well as working for the only Italian high school in Rijeka in the role of School Psychologist. She completed her post-masters course in Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) at the Croatian Association for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, recognized by CBT Europe.

She thinks of herself as a born psychologist. Since she can remember, she was always interested in understanding the reasons behind human reasoning, emotions and behavior (e.g. why people become addicted to things they know will hurt them, why some people have low self-esteem and how does it reflect on their life etc.) and with adolescence and the increase in self-consciousness this interest became even stronger. When she was a teenager, one of her favorite hobbies was to observe people in buses, bars, school halls and elsewhere and try to figure out what was going on in their head to make them act the way they did. And it still is!

Furthermore, since she lived and worked in Italy for 9 years, Tijana perfectly knows all the stages necessary for adapting to a new culture and environment, as well as the difficulties that arise from that condition. This is why she also provides counseling for all the Croatian and Italian expats who decided to search for happiness far away from home

Tijana provides (online) treatment for anxiety, depression, phobia, self-esteem concerns, relationship counseling and more. She also delivers business coaching and counseling in regards to soft skills (effective communication, conflict resolution, problem solving, etc.), human resources management, career path changing, among other matters.
Tijana offers her services in both Croatian and Italian.



Online counselor – Juan Manuel König

Juan Manuel Konig

Juan Manuel is a cognitive behavioural therapist who integrates CBT into a humanistic-existential framework.

He is a member of the Argentine Association of Anxiety Disorders and has completed postgraduate studies at the University of Morón, the University of Buenos Aires (Cognitive Therapy), and at the Argentine Catholic University (Neurosciences). He also completed a course in ACT and aeronautical psychology.

In recent years he incorporated coaching strategies and applies the Tony Robbins model. He conducts intensive seminars on personal and professional development, behavioral training in anxiety and emotion regulation, as well as vocational guidance processes.

Next to being a therapist, he also teaches developmental psychology.
He has lived and worked in Ecuador and in Argentine Patagonia. He currently resides on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, with his wife and two children. And a restless dog.

Juan offers his services in Spanish.