Psychologist Licensure in Georgia: Degree, Supervised Hours and the EPPP

Georgia issues two psychology credentials: the psychologist licence and a non-renewable provisional licence.

The provisional licence is the doctoral candidate's working postdoc stage: the Board may issue it to an applicant who has passed the written examinations and completed every other requirement except the postdoctoral supervised work experience and the oral exam.

It is valid for up to two years from issuance and expires at 24 months unless the Board grants an exception, and it can be revoked if the supervised experience is not being satisfactorily met.

A person must hold a current Georgia psychology licence to practise psychology in Georgia or to use the title psychologist, and an unlicensed person may not use words, letters or figures implying that they are a psychologist (r.

510-10-.01(e)).

The degree rule is accreditation-first: a doctorate from an APA- or CPA-accredited doctoral program in applied psychology, accredited at the time the doctoral requirements were completed, or from an I/O or international program the rule defines.

I/O graduates qualify by listing in ASPPB and the National Register's Designated Doctoral Programs in Psychology, or by documenting 15 of the 25 competencies in the SIOP guidelines.

International degrees are accepted only if the Board, in its sole discretion, finds the university's standards substantially the same as APA or CPA.

Rule 510-2-.04 also fixes the shape of the degree: three full-time academic years of graduate study, two at the degree-granting institution and one in continuous full-time residence, which programs that are substantially or completely online cannot meet; an equivalence path exists on 540 hours of in-person course work with a training-director affidavit.

The practical test for a graduate is the transcript's accreditation status at the time your degree requirements were completed.

Two experience blocks are required.

The internship is an APA- or CPA-accredited or APPIC-member internship of at least 2,000 hours.

A non-accredited internship can qualify as an equivalent, but the equivalency criteria include: 2,000 hours in 11 to 24 months (48 for I/O internships), at least 500 hours of direct client contact (I/O interns exempt), 60 graduate semester hours before inception, training in a range of assessment and treatment/intervention activities, the training director's written statement, the specialty areas' site requirements, and no practicum hours awarded course credit (r.

510-2-.05(4)(a)2).

The postdoctoral supervised work experience (SWE) is 1,500 hours and must occur after all requirements for the doctoral degree are completed.

It must finish within 11 to 24 months and include a minimum of 500 hours of client/patient involvement, reaching face-to-face contact, document review, test scoring and note/report writing, logged and co-signed weekly.

A formal postdoctoral fellowship that is APA-accredited, an APPIC member or acceptable to the Board is deemed to meet the SWE with no log, and a Senior Industrial/Organizational Psychologist is deemed to meet it (r.

510-2-.05(5)(a)7-8).

The order is fixed: EPPP Part 1 after all course work, before the internship and SWE; Part 2 only after all doctoral requirements, including the internship, are complete.

Failure carries remediation: after three unsuccessful attempts, 3 semester hours of Board-approved coursework or 15 hours of APA, CPA or GPA continuing education before each retake of attempts four through six, rising to 9 semester hours or 45 hours from the seventh.

The Georgia Jurisprudence Examination, timed and closed book, can be scheduled only after the two-part national exam is passed and while the SWE is under way, with a 30-day retake wait.

Last is the oral before a Board subcommittee, based on a work sample from the candidate's intended area of practice, schedulable after all other examinations are passed and within two months of finishing the SWE.

As amended effective November 6, 2024, the rule still requires both EPPP parts; ASPPB's integrated EPPP replaces both for first-time takers from fall 2027 and is the only version from April 1, 2028, with no Georgia amendment in the sources read.

Choose the SWE supervisor before counting a single hour: the rule starts the clock at the contract, and supervision begins on the date the contract is signed by the supervisor and fellow.

A written, signed contract must exist before the SWE starts, specifying its goals, content and quality criteria.

A supervisor must hold a current licence from the Georgia Board or from a jurisdiction whose standards are not lower than Georgia's, and be free of disciplinary orders.

A supervisor may not take primary responsibility for more than three interns or fellows concurrently without Board approval; I/O supervisors are exempt from the cap but owe at least two supervision hours for each 40 the intern or fellow works.

Supervision is individual, at least one hour for each 30 hours of SWE, in person or by real-time face-to-face video, during the week the services were provided or the week after; I/O Fellows are exempt from this requirement.

Unlicensed fellows also work under co-signed reports and insurance claims, and every supervisor attests to the finished SWE on a Form G affidavit.

Chapter 510-10's bans bind only a person with no current Georgia Board licence who is not within one of the O.C.G.A.

Section 43-39-7 exemptions, a statute not read.

That person may not render, or order rendered, psychological services for a fee (the rule names diagnosing and treating mental and nervous disorders, neuropsychology, psychotherapy, and administering and interpreting tests of mental abilities and personality), and may not offer direct psychological services or supervise psychological services, including for training purposes, regardless of fee.

Business entities may not carry words implying the practice of psychology without a licensed employee or officer.

Administration and interpretation of psychological tests is defined as the practice of psychology and requires a Georgia psychology licence; students, trainees or assistants who satisfy the requisite statutory and rule requirements may test under direct supervision, a supervision framework, not a master's-level credential.

Rule 510-10-.04 adds that a person licensed by another professional board may practise what state law authorizes that licence for, and that acts exempted under 43-39-7 are not unlawful practice.

No prescriptive authority appears in the chapters read.

Georgia is a PSYPACT member in effect, per the PSYPACT Commission map as read in September 2026: HB 26 was enacted April 23, 2019 and took effect July 1, 2020.

A Georgia psychologist uses the compact for telepsychology in participating states through ASPPB's E.Passport plus a PSYPACT APIT authorization, or for temporary in-person practice through the Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate plus a TAP authorization, capped at 30 days per year.

PSYPACT is doctoral-only, because its rule defines a graduate degree as a doctoral degree, so it extends to Georgia's psychologist licence and to nothing below it.

Practice under either authorization follows the scope of the state where the client is physically present.

Psychologist applications in Georgia, by examination or by endorsement, run through ASPPB's PLUS program once the Board has registered the applicant, under the Board's instruction title General Instructions for Application by Examination or Endorsement.

What an endorsement applicant must actually show is not stated in the sources read: the two rules that once occupied that space (510-2-.02 and 510-2-.03) are repealed, and O.C.G.A.

43-39 was not read.

The one cross-jurisdiction line the rules do spell out is reinstatement, for an applicant holding a current licence in another jurisdiction, of a Georgia licence that has been in lapsed status for one or more years: at the Board's sole discretion, upon completion of the requirements set forth above in r.

510-7-.02(1), plus Verification of Current Licensure and passage of both the Georgia Jurisprudence and Oral Examinations.

If you hold another jurisdiction's psychology licence and are moving, confirm your route with the Board first.

Every psychology licence expires on December 31 of even-numbered years and renews for two years when the renewal requirements, including continuing education, and the fee are satisfied; a licensee may not practise after expiration, and a 31-day late window carries a penalty fee before the licence lapses.

Reinstatement within one year of lapse is at the Board's discretion and takes an application, a penalty fee, and 40 hours of continuing education completed within two years; after twelve months, passage of both the Georgia Jurisprudence and Oral Examinations is added.

The renewal CE hours themselves, how many and on what topics, are not stated in the sources read, so check the Board's continuing education rule well before your first renewal.

Rule 510-2-.01, the application rule, was amended effective November 6, 2024.

The history line records the amendment but not its content, so what changed is not stated in the sources read; the rule as it now stands still requires both EPPP parts, the jurisprudence exam and the oral.

History lines for the chapter's other rules were not in the sources read, so whether they also changed in this window is not stated.

How the rule will be amended for ASPPB's integrated EPPP is likewise not stated in the sources read.