Licensed Professional Counselor

All of your graduate course work needed to meet the academic requirements must be awarded by a regionally accredited college or university, recognized by the United States Department of Education.

In general, in order to meet the qualifying degree requirements for Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) you must be able to demonstrate that you have earned a Board approved sixty (60) semester credit hour or ninety (90) quarter credit hour graduate degree in counseling, including internship, from a regionally accredited college or university.

In order to be considered qualifying, your graduate degree must follow a planned, sequenced mental health program of study. Your program must be reflected in the university catalog and approved by the governing authority of the college or university. The primary focus of the program must clearly be intended to prepare the applicant for a career in counseling. 

Below, you may find a list of in-state programs that have been pre-approved by the Board. The Board will also accept all programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). CACREP accredited programs do not require any additional academic review.

The Board also has a progressive licensure by endorsement statute. Generally, the statute will recognize most licenses issued in other jurisdictions and does not require an additional academic review of coursework earned.

If the degree you are seeking is not pre-approved by the Board, is not CACREP accredited, and you are not licensed in another jurisdiction there is not a process to advise you in advance of whether or not the degree will be accepted by the Board. 

International degrees:

Applicants with degrees from schools outside the United States may qualify with Board approval by providing the Board with an acceptable comprehensive evaluation of the degree performed by a foreign credential evaluation service that is acceptable to the Board, and any other requirement the Board deems necessary.

You must have at least one (1) or more courses of at least three (3) semester credit hours or four (4) quarter credit hours per course in each of the following core counseling areas:

• Human growth and development – at least one (1) course which deals with the process stages of human intellectual, physical, social and emotional development of any of the stages of life from prenatal through old age.
  
• Abnormal human behavior – at least one (1) course that offers a study of the principles of understanding dysfunction in human behavior or social disorganization.
  
• Appraisal/assessment techniques – at least two (2) courses which deal with the principles, concepts and procedures of systematic appraisal, assessment, or interpretation of client needs, abilities, and characteristics, which may include the use of both testing and non-testing approaches.
  
• Counseling theories/methods – at least two (2) courses which survey the major theories and/or techniques of counseling.
  
• Professional orientation/ethics – at least one (1) course which deals primarily with the objectives of professional counseling organizations, codes of ethics, legal aspects of practice, standards of preparation and the role of persons providing direct counseling services.
  
• Research – at least one (1) course in the methods of social science or mental health research which includes the study of statistics or a thesis project in an area relevant to the practice of counseling.
  
• Practicum/internship – at least one (1) course of an organized practicum with at least three hundred (300) clock hours in counseling with planned experiences providing classroom and field experience with clients under the supervision of college or university approved counseling professionals.

You must have at least five (5) courses of at least three (3) semester credit hours each or four (4) quarter credit hours each from the knowledge areas.

The knowledge areas are listed below:

• Group Dynamics
• Life style and career development
• Social and cultural foundations
• Addictions Counseling
• Rehabilitation Counseling
• Counseling with children/adolescents
• Gerontology
• Human Sexuality
• Personality theories
• Crisis intervention
• Marriage/family counseling
• Clinical supervision
• Psychopharmacology
• Consultation
• Physical and emotional health
• Grief Counseling

Additional courses to reach the 60-hour requirement may be in increments of one (1), two (2) or three (3) semester hour courses or one (1), two (2), three (3) or four (4) quarter hour courses.

In addition to a qualifying degree, applicants must demonstrate they have obtained all other academic requirements. For your convenience the Board has created an academic guide to help you determine if you have accrued the minimum coursework hours and academic category requirements for application as a Licensed Professional Counselor. To obtain the academic guide please click the link below.

• Academic Worksheet for Licensed Professional Counselors