LMFT Licensure in Alaska: Requirements, Hours and Exams

Alaska has one license and one pre-licensure vehicle, and both are licenses issued by the board.

The license for supervised practice is where sequencing discipline starts: it expires four years from issuance, subject to board extension for extenuating circumstances, and the 2025 rule amendments added an extension route for reasonable cause or excusable neglect.

An associate may practise only under the direct supervision of a board-approved supervisor, and the statute names a clinic, a social service agency, or another setting approved by the board — the rule adds a private marital and family therapy practice — so your first job offer and your supervisor approval have to line up before the first client, not after.

The exam failure rule sits in this tier too: failing the licensure examination twice costs you the associate license itself, which makes the retake rules in the exams section worth reading before the first attempt rather than after a second failure.

The degree is a master's or doctorate in marital and family therapy or an allied mental health field from a regionally accredited educational institution approved by the board, and the course of study must include instruction substantially equivalent to six areas: nine semester or 12 quarter hours each in marital and family therapy, marital and family studies, human development, and supervised clinical practice in marital and family therapy, plus three semester or four quarter hours each in professional studies or professional ethics and law and in research.

COAMFTE accreditation appears nowhere in the rule, so an allied-field degree can qualify on content.

A graduate whose degree missed an area is not stuck: the board may accept post-degree course work in the same subject, or — for the therapy, studies and human development areas — post-degree practice, with three years of continuous practice equivalent to three semester or four quarter hours, and the same three years counting for no more than that.

Substitution is claimed on an equivalency worksheet filed with the board.

Alaska counts one experience figure: 1,700 hours of clinical contact with couples, individuals, and families, earned after receiving the degree, in this state or another jurisdiction.

Within the 1,700 the statute sets two supervision minimums — at least 100 hours of individual supervision approved by the board, plus 100 hours of either individual or group supervision, or a combination, approved by the board.

There is no separate couples-and-families quota, and no minimum number of months is stated in the statute or current rules read, which makes full-time versus part-time pacing your own planning problem rather than a rule.

The sequencing rule is the one that catches new graduates: Alaska hours begin only once the associate license issues, so hours supervised in another jurisdiction are what the statute lets you bring with you when you move.

The board approves the experience, and your supervisor verifies it on a form provided by the department.

Licensure takes both the national examination and the board's own.

The state written examination covers Alaska statutes and regulations and the code of ethics adopted under 12 AAC 19.900, is an open book examination mailed to the applicant, and must be returned within 30 days of mailing.

The passing bars are asymmetric: the board-recommended minimum score on the national exam, but 90 percent or higher on the state exam.

Failing either exam starts a six-month wait, and a year or more out requires a new complete application and fresh fees.

One name to read past: the rule still says the national exam is administered by the Professional Examination Service, but AMFTRB's current vendor is Professional Testing Corporation, so the rule's administrator name is stale and the exam is the AMFTRB national exam.

Since July 1, 2025, an applicant approved for the associate license can request a test number and schedule the national exam by email.

Individual supervision has the tighter gate: the supervisor must have practiced marital and family therapy for five years, be licensed under AS 08.63, and meet the board's standards, which the rule sets as five continuous years as a licensed marital and family therapist plus at least six contact hours of education in supervising MFTs within the last two years.

Group supervision is open to more licenses — a professional counselor, an MFT, a psychiatrist, a psychiatric-certified advanced practice registered nurse, a psychologist, or a clinical social worker — each needing five continuous years of licensed practice and the same six hours of supervision education.

For an associate choosing a supervisor, the practical split is that a clinical social worker or psychologist can supervise you in group but not one-on-one.

Every supervisor must be board-approved before the hours count, approval is maintained with two supervision CE contact hours per renewal, and AAMFT Approved Supervisor status is not the criterion Alaska uses.

An out-of-state clinician is licensed by credentials: AS 08.63.140 directs the board to issue the license to someone licensed or certified in another state whose requirements are substantially equal to or greater than Alaska's, who also applies, pays the fee, and has not engaged in disqualifying conduct.

The rule adds the paperwork — verification from every jurisdiction where you have ever held an MFT license, evidence that your qualifications are equivalent, and a completed Alaska Jurisprudence Questionnaire covering the statute, this chapter and the ethics code, scored to the 12 AAC 19.110 requirement.

There is no MFT compact, so endorsement is the general route and the substantially-equal call belongs to the board.

Two narrow exceptions exist in the rule: a temporary military courtesy license for active-duty members and their spouses, issued for 180 days and renewable once, and an emergency courtesy license of up to 120 consecutive days during an urgent situation, defined as a health crisis that requires increased availability of marital and family therapists.

The license expires on December 31 of even-numbered years and is renewed biennially.

A full license period requires 45 contact hours of continuing education, with four categories locked in: two hours each in professional ethics, addictions, cross-cultural education, and issues of domestic violence.

The total prorates for new licensees — 30 hours if you were licensed at least 12 but less than 18 months of the period, 23 if less than 12 — with the same four categories in each bracket.

A licensee who practises teletherapy adds two hours of teletherapy continuing education that includes teletherapy ethics.

A contact hour is at least 50 minutes of instruction, one semester credit equals 15 hours, individual study may cover no more than half the requirement, and records are kept for three years because the board audits renewals at its discretion.

The board amended seven sections of 12 AAC 19 effective July 1, 2025 (Register 254), and three of the changes matter to applicants directly.

First, an applicant approved for the license for supervised practice may request a test number from the department and schedule the national examination by email, where the prior rule required filing a complete application to get onto the exam.

Second, a new extension provision lets the board extend the associate license when an extension is necessary to finish supervised experience because of reasonable cause or excusable neglect, which the definitions section now spells out as chronic illness, retirement, military service, a leave of absence from active practice, or a hardship recognized by the board.

Third, the continuing-education section dropped the course listings it gave to the national and state MFT associations and rebuilt individual study as subsection (e): individual study counts no more than half the renewal requirement and now expressly includes asynchronous video or streaming.

The hardship definition in the CE-reinstatement section was repealed the same day in favor of the shared definition.

The teletherapy rules sit in the MFT chapter itself, not in a separate telehealth statute.

To practise teletherapy with clients physically present in Alaska you must be licensed in good standing — as a therapist or as an associate — and have completed at least four hours of initial training spanning appropriateness, theory and practice, delivery modes, legal and ethical issues, online emergencies, and best practices and informed consent; providing such services to a client in Alaska constitutes practice in the state regardless of where the provider sits.

Supervisors carry their own conditions on top: a supervisor who participates in teletherapy must complete the teletherapy technology training before starting, determine that telesupervision is appropriate for each supervisee, disclose the risks and benefits in writing, and secure the communication medium.

The two-hour teletherapy CE requirement at renewal closes the loop for practitioners.