The journey of becoming a therapist is extensive and you’ve made it to practicing independently as an associate—congratulations! You got the bachelor’s degree, you earned the master’s degree, you completed your practicum/internship, and now it’s time to collect those associate hours.

If the maze of requirements is feeling confusing and overwhelming, you’re not alone, and I’m here to make it easier.

First, grab yourself the beautiful Associate Hours Tracker that will make this two-year-long admin a breeze. It does all the mathing for you and keeps all the license-specific requirements in a simple framework, right at your fingertips. It gamifies collecting those hours in a thoroughly satisfying and rewarding way.

All of these requirements are being pulled from the Washington State Department of Health websites, specific to each license, as of 2026: MFT, LMHC, LICSW, where you are encouraged to verify your alignment with current requirements.

Marriage and Family Therapy Associates

The systemic orientation of Marriage and Family Therapy makes it the only therapy license that requires relational hours in addition to individual client contact hours. Half of the 1000 therapy hours you acquire must be in treating couples or families (have more than one person in the room). These hours are significantly more challenging to obtain as an associate, most commonly achieved by seeing a minor with their parent or a romantic partnership.

Of the 200 hours of supervision required, half must be individual and half can be group supervision. Group supervision offers the benefits of lower cost, diversity of perspectives, and community support—I’m a big fan. You’ll need to be practicing under the license of an approved supervisor (engaging in regular individual supervision) throughout your two-year associate period, but interspersing both modalities maximizes the quality of experience (while minimizing the expense).

One hundred of these 200 supervision hours must be with an LMFT, while the remaining 100 can be with an LMHC or LICSW. And in case you were wondering, yes, I do offer both individual and group supervision as an LMFT approved supervisor.

If you completed a master’s program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (COAMFTE), then you get a credit of 500 client contact hours and 100 supervision hours with an LMFT approved supervisor (meaning your remaining 100 supervision hours can be with an approved supervisor of any comparable therapy license).

The remaining 1800 hours are made up of activities like clinical documentation, case management, clinical collaboration, professional development, preparation and research—the time you spend in service of your clinical work without a client in front of you.

Mental Health Counselor Associates

Same 3000 total for all three therapy licenses, but there are some meaningful differences in the specifics.

LMHCAs need 1200 hours of direct counseling (200 more than LMFTAs), but no relational requirement.

You only need 100 hours of supervision, with any approved supervisor therapy license, but group supervision isn’t allowed. One supervisor with no more than 2 associates is the limit. While I would certainly be pursuing a dyad to capture some of the benefits of group supervision, this is the biggest drawback to this license journey, IMO.

You’re then left with 1700 indirect hours, counted in the same vein as the LMFTA requirement described above.

If you attended a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Program (CACREP) for graduate school, you can be credited with 50 hours of postgraduate supervision and 500 hours of postgraduate experience.

Independent Clinical Social Worker Associates

Seventy of the required 100 supervision hours must be with an LICSW supervisor. The remaining 30 can be with an equally qualified licensed practitioner.

Just like with the LMFTA, 40 of the 100 supervision hours can be in a group, though you could do all 100 in individual.

Unfortunately, no practicum/internship/graduate school accreditation credit for social workers.

Hour Verification

Included in that Template Bundle with the Associate Hour Tracker is a Private Practice Start Up spreadsheet with links to everything you need to open shop as a practicing therapy associate. But for the purposes of this post about associate hours, I want to offer you direct links to the two forms DOH will require as verification of your supervised clinical experience.

Once you secure your LMFTA, LMHCA, or LICSWA associate license, you’ll need to enter into a relationship with a supervisor and get the Approved Supervisor Declaration for LMFT, LMHC, or LICSW Candidates signed. In this form, the Supervisor declares that they are, in fact, an Approved Supervisor (they have met requirements to provide supervision). You keep this form and submit it when applying for full licensure upon completion of your associate hours.

Each of your supervisors will also submit an LMFT, LMHC, or LICSW Supervision and Experience Verification Form for the work with you that they supervised. You will fill this form out and provide it to each supervisor. They will sign and submit it to the DOH directly on your behalf (ideally in an email that includes both you and the DOH, so you can download the signed copy for your records and have proof that it was submitted if you have to argue with the DOH—unfortunately a common necessity).

I strongly encourage associate therapists to have any supervisor they work with sign and submit that Verification Form as soon as the relationship ends. Many a therapists have been thwarted trying to chase down past supervisors who are no longer accessible. For example, if you participate in an 4-week group supervision book club, provide the form to that supervisor immediately upon completion of that month-long program. Don’t wait to try to track that supervisor down two years later when you’re ready to apply for full licensure (therapists retire, move out of state, leave clinical practice, etc.).

Supervisees practicing under my supervision will enjoy a shared Hours Tracker spreadsheet, so we can both follow along with hours collected. I provide an Approved Supervisor Declaration Form at the onset of our relationship and support my supervisees in completing the Supervision and Experience Verification Form as our work together ends.

Hopefully you’re feeling more clear and confident as we have demystified this associate hours step on the therapy licensing journey. The clinical skillset involved in being a fantastic therapist is a totally different skillset from the admin and executive functioning required to navigate this licensing maze. I’m happy to support you with the accommodation of these templates, like an external prefrontal cortex hard drive. You’re already doing so much—let this be easy.