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

The committee registers licensed psychologists, provisionally licensed psychologists and holders of a temporary license.

The provisional licence is the doctoral graduate's supervised stage: it authorizes only psychological services rendered under the supervision and full professional responsibility of the licensee's postdoctoral-degree licensed supervisor, and it ends at the first of permanent licensure, a disciplinary finding, one year from issuance, or termination of supervision — renewable to a maximum of two years total, with committee-rule variances for vacations, illness, pregnancy and other good causes (RSMo 337.020.5).

The temporary license issues immediately, without an additional fee, to applicants for licensure by reciprocity or endorsement who are licensed as psychologists in another jurisdiction, are ABPP diplomates or are National Register members; it authorizes practice the same as a permanent licence until the permanent one issues (RSMo 337.020.6–.7).

The committee also certifies health service providers (337.029.3; 337.033).

Every route starts from a doctoral degree in psychology from a recognized educational institution — regional accreditation or a foreign equivalent of substantially equal standard (337.010(10)).

Route one is a program accredited, or provisionally accredited, by APA, CPA or PCSAS, provided it includes supervised practicum, internship, field or laboratory training appropriate to the practice of psychology.

Route two is a program designated or approved by ASPPB or the Council for the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, or both.

Route three is a program meeting nine statutory criteria: clearly labeled as a psychology program, with an identifiable psychology faculty and matriculated students, a curriculum of at least three academic years of full-time graduate study with one year in residence, and a core of at least three semester hours (or five quarter hours) in each of five areas — biological bases, cognitive-affective bases, social bases, individual differences, and scientific methods.

A program without APA, CPA or PCSAS accreditation can still qualify on route three, but only from a recognized, regionally accredited institution whose curriculum carries that core.

The statute asks for at least one year of satisfactory supervised professional experience (337.025.2); the hours are in 337.025.4.

First, a minimum of 1,500 hours in a successfully completed internship, in not less than 12 nor more than 24 months — an internship is part of successful completion of the doctorate (337.010(4)).

Second, a minimum of 2,000 further hours of any combination of: preinternship and predoctoral postinternship experience after the first doctoral year (or, after a master's in psychology, at any point in the program), up to 750 internship hours beyond the first 1,500, and postdoctoral experience in no more than 24 consecutive calendar months at up to 50 hours per week.

As written, the combination needs no postdegree hours — the postdoc is optional under 337.025.4.

Other sections keep older wording: 337.020.4 and 337.010(9) describe the provisional licensee as lacking a 'required period of postdegree supervised experience,' and 337.010(6) says a person in postdoctoral experiences 'shall not be licensed until he or she satisfies additional supervised hours.'

Confirm with the committee before planning around no postdoc.

A permanent licence goes to the applicant who passes the examination for professional practice in psychology — the EPPP — and such other examinations as the committee adopts (337.020.3).

The committee administers written and oral examinations at least twice each year to applicants, examining professional knowledge, techniques and applications, research and its interpretation, professional affairs, ethics, and Missouri law and regulations (337.020.8).

Reciprocity applicants are licensed under 337.029 without retaking the EPPP, and endorsement applicants apply by endorsement of an EPPP score; both groups' files close with the jurisprudence examination and an oral examination — 337.020.3 and .7(1) describe the permanent licence issuing after the jurisprudence and oral interview examinations, while 337.029.2 phrases the oral as one the committee may require.

Passing scores are not in the statute, and the committee's administrative rules, 20 CSR 2235, which would carry them, were not among the sources read.

No EPPP Part 2 requirement appears in the statute read — a question with a closing date anyway, because ASPPB's single integrated EPPP replaces both parts for first-time takers from fall 2027.

Applicants who intend to seek health service provider certification and who completed an APA-designated health service provider delivery area program must accrue experience under the primary supervision of a licensed psychologist who is also a health service provider or otherwise meets the certification requirements; applicants not seeking that certification may be supervised by a licensed psychologist or a qualified mental health professional the committee approves (337.025.5).

The statute states no primary-supervisor rule for the HSP-bound applicant from a program outside those APA areas — confirm the committee's reading before counting hours.

Postinternship and postdoctoral hours run under the primary supervisor's order, control and full professional responsibility, with face-to-face individual supervision at least one hour monthly.

Clinical supervision may be delegated to secondary supervisors who are qualified psychologists, and they must meet the applicant at least one hour per week — the same rate when the primary supervisor is also the clinical supervisor (337.025.6).

Group supervision does not count, and the committee may grant rule-based variances from the weekly face-to-face requirement for vacations, illness, pregnancy and other good causes (337.025.7).

Missouri issues no master's-level psychology licence today.

Section 337.021 preserves a master's route — a master's degree from a primarily psychological program plus at least three years of satisfactory professional experience — but the section governs only people who completed a primarily psychological graduate program before August 28, 1990, or matriculated in one before that date and finished the initial-licensure requirements by August 28, 1996.

A new master's graduate has no psychology-board rung to enter.

The licensed psychologist definition itself is drawn broadly: it reaches anyone who offers to render psychological services to individuals, organizations or the general public for a fee, monetary or otherwise, implying that they are trained, experienced and licensed to practice psychology (337.010(5)).

Missouri psychologists have no prescriptive authority.

The PSYPACT Commission map, as read in September 2026, lists Missouri as a member in effect: MO HB 1719 / SB 660, enacted June 1, 2018, effective July 1, 2020.

The compact covers doctoral-level psychologists only.

Missouri's provisional licence requires the 337.025 doctorate; permanent licences can also issue on the 337.021 master's grandfather (337.020.2), and a licensee holding the licence on that master's route is not doctoral and cannot use PSYPACT.

A Missouri licensed psychologist uses PSYPACT to practise telepsychology or work temporarily in person in other participating states, through ASPPB's E.Passport or Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate plus the matching PSYPACT authorization.

The committee's own PSYPACT page and the enacting legislation were not among the sources read; the status here is the Commission map.

A psychologist licensed in another jurisdiction with no violations, suspensions or revocations anywhere may receive a Missouri licence by passing a written examination on Missouri laws and regulations and meeting any listed criterion: ABPP diplomate; National Register membership; or current licensure in another state, territory or the District of Columbia with an APA- or PCSAS-accredited doctorate (or the 337.025 nine-criteria route), five years licensed and five years without discipline; or a current ASPPB Certificate of Professional Qualification (337.029.1).

The committee may also require an oral examination (337.029.2), though the licensure sections describe the licence issuing after the jurisprudence and oral interview examinations (337.020.3, .7(1)).

For Canadian-trained applicants: the reciprocity degree line names APA or PCSAS accreditation, not CPA — a CPA-accredited doctorate can still qualify through the nine-criteria route.

The temporary license issues on application and proof of licensure elsewhere, ABPP diplomate or National Register status, and carries full practice authority until the permanent licence issues (337.020.6–.7).

A reciprocity or endorsement licensee also receives the committee's health service provider certification on meeting one of the listed criteria (337.029.3).

The statute sections read — 337.010, 337.020, 337.021, 337.025 and 337.029 — set no renewal cycle and no continuing-education hours.

The committee's administrative rules, 20 CSR 2235, which would carry them, were not among the sources read, and the committee's website was not fetched.

Treat this as a gap in the sources rather than an absence of requirements: before your renewal comes due, confirm the renewal date, fee and CE hours directly with the Missouri State Committee of Psychologists.

No amendment to the psychologist statutes between 2023 and 2026 was located.

The most recent are the 2020 amendments to 337.020 and 337.029 effective August 28, 2020; the hour rules in 337.025 have stood since August 28, 2018, and the internship and experience definitions in 337.010 since August 28, 2017.

One current requirement worth knowing: the text of 337.020.1 in force since August 28, 2020 requires the licence application form to include a statement that the applicant completed two hours of suicide assessment, referral, treatment, and management training meeting the committee's guidelines.