Professional counseling license requirements, state by state.
What it takes to become a licensed professional counselor in each US state. Titles differ by jurisdiction - LPC, LPCC, LMHC, LCPC and others - and this site maps them to a single comparable set of requirements.
What this site covers
Each state page will set out the requirements a prospective professional counselor has to meet in that jurisdiction, presented in a consistent format so states can be compared directly:
- The credential title used in each state
- Graduate coursework and degree requirements
- Supervised clinical hours
- NCE / NCMHCE exam requirements
- Renewal cycles and CE requirements
How the data is sourced
Requirements come from primary sources — the state licensing board, agency or statute that actually sets the rule — rather than from other summary sites. Every figure is traceable to the document it came from, and each state page carries the date its data was last checked against that source.
Where a state's rules are ambiguous, portal-locked, or genuinely absent, that is stated plainly rather than filled with an estimate. Terminology also differs between states, so each page uses the term that state actually uses for the credential and notes the equivalent elsewhere.
Corrections
Licensing rules change, and boards revise fees and requirements without notice. If something here is out of date or wrong, corrections are welcome at editor@counselinglicense.com and are checked against the primary source before publication.