LMFT Licensure in Indiana: Requirements, Hours and Exams

Indiana's rungs are two licenses and one permit.

The marriage and family therapist associate license requires the qualifying degree, the section 2.5 education requirements, a pass on an examination provided by the board and a fee — no experience, which is the point: IC 25-23.6-8-2.7(c) requires the associate license while you earn the postdegree clinical experience in Indiana (subject to a section 1.7 exception not read here), though 2.7(j) also counts hours accumulated under an associate temporary permit before it expires — so register before your first supervised job.

The associate temporary permit is different paper: issued to an applicant who meets the LMFT educational requirements and is still pursuing the clinical hours, it lapses after one year whether or not you have passed the exam.

The LMFT application under section 1 requires the associate license in good standing, or licensure as a marriage and family therapist in another state, plus the experience, background and fee requirements.

The degree is a master's or doctor's in marriage and family therapy or a related area as determined by the board; the rule names clinical social work, psychology, counseling, pastoral counseling and COAMFTE-accredited programs, with a documentation route for any other degree.

The statute requires graduate course work covering eleven named content areas — theoretical foundations, major models, individual development, family development, clinical problems, collaboration, sexuality, gender and sexual orientation, culture, therapy techniques and behavioral research — plus legal, ethical and professional standards and appraisal and assessment; thesis, dissertation and practicum credits do not count toward them, and the rule requires the degree curriculum as a whole to encompass a minimum of 27 semester or 41 quarter hours of graduate course work.

The practicum is where the two texts disagree: the statute requires at least 300 face-to-face client contact hours, at least 100 relational, over at least 12 months plus 100 hours of supervision, while the rule defines a practicum as at least 500 face-to-face hours.

Ask the board which figure it applies before you plan clinical placements.

IC 25-23.6-8-2.7(b) requires at least two years of postdegree clinical experience, 1,000 hours of postdegree clinical experience and 200 hours of postdegree clinical supervision, 100 of them individual, under a licensed marriage and family therapist with at least five years of experience or an equivalent supervisor, with at least 50% of your clients receiving marriage and family therapy services.

The rule pins the window: the 1,000 hours are acquired over not less than 24 months, counted from associate licensure.

Section 2.7(d) then shapes the caseload itself — you must provide direct individual, group and family therapy and counseling to unmarried romantic relationships and relational systems, married couples, separating or divorcing couples, and family systems including children and minors — so plan case assignments early, because a year of only individual adult clients logs hours but not the required case mix.

A doctoral internship may be applied toward the requirement.

The associate statute's exam requirement is a single clause: pass an examination provided by the board.

None of the primary texts read names that examination; the AMFTRB 2025 survey identifies it as the AMFTRB exam, but the survey is an aggregate source rather than the rule, so confirm the current exam with the board before you register for anything.

The rules do set the mechanics.

Once the board approves you to sit, you have one year from that approval to take the exam or the approval lapses and you must file a new application; results come in writing; retake applicants apply under 839 IAC 1-2-1; and three failures can trigger a required personal appearance before the board.

On substantial equivalence, the one definition in the texts read, 839 IAC 1-4-7, is written for a different statute — IC 25-23.6-8-13, an examination-exemption section not read here — and treats an exam as substantially equivalent if it is the board's own exam or one the board finds comparable.

Confirm with the board which test it applies to you.

Your postdegree supervisor must be a licensed marriage and family therapist with at least five years of experience, or an equivalent supervisor as determined by the board — someone licensed in a mental health field who is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, an AAMFT supervisor candidate, or a supervisor who documents MFT training plus supervision credentials such as a state MFT supervision credential, MFT supervision course work or continuing education, significant supervised supervision experience, or more than five years supervising marriage and family therapists.

For the graduate practicum, the rule's qualified supervisor list is similar and adds at least 30 clock hours of MFT supervision training.

Individual supervision is face-to-face with an equivalent supervisor and no more than two individuals — the frame for the 100 individual hours inside the 200.

The telesupervision rule is the statute's headline: up to 100% of the supervised postdegree hours may be accounted for through virtual supervision, defined as synchronous, real-time audio-and-video interaction on a HIPAA-compliant platform; telephone calls, email and text messages do not count.

Endorsement is mechanical by design: the statute does not ask for Indiana hours, a re-reviewed degree or a minimum time licensed — it directs the board to issue a license within 30 days of a completed application to an out-of-state licensee who meets its four conditions.

Two are worth checking before you apply.

The examination condition requires a pass on something substantially equivalent to the level requested — a phrase the sections read never define for this statute, so confirm with the board how it is tested.

The discipline condition is about pending proceedings elsewhere, not closed matters.

A standard LMFT applicant licensed in another state can also satisfy section 1's associate-license condition through its out-of-state clause.

There is no MFT compact, so this statute is the portability route.

The renewal period is the two years beginning April 1 of even-numbered years, and the licensure year runs April 1 to March 31.

A licensee must complete at least 20 CEUs per year — a CEU is one continuing education hour — for 40 per period, at least half from Category I formal programming and at most half from Category II self-directed learning such as journal reading and case conferences.

At least one CEU of each year's ten Category I hours must cover ethics and professional conduct, including boundary issues, from a Category I provider.

CEUs cannot carry over between periods, records are kept four years, holders of more than one license under IC 25-23.6 can apply the same CEUs to each, and continuing education counted in another state where you are also licensed can count here.

A first renewal is prorated: licensees licensed at least 12 but fewer than 24 months owe half, and those licensed under 12 months are exempt.

839 IAC 1-4-3.1, -3.2, -3.3 and -5 were readopted on August 31, 2023 and again on June 24, 2024; 1-4-7's readoption history runs through November 2019 and June 2024 with no 2023 filing; and the continuing education rules carry the same June 2024 readoption, with no substantive change identified in any pass.

The Indiana Code text read is current as of January 1, 2026.

The rule worth checking any guide against is IC 25-23.6-8-2.7(h), which allows up to 100% of postdegree supervision to be virtual.

And beware a circulating figure of 15 continuing education hours per licensure year: it comes from the AMFTRB 2025 survey, whose Indiana cells also mix in Illinois rule text, while 839 IAC 1-6-3 requires 20 CEUs per year and 40 per two-year period.

Three practical rules live at the end of section 2.7.

The experience may be earned at or away from the supervising therapist's premises, but away-premises work fails the statute when it is the independent private practice of marriage and family therapy and is not performed somewhere with the supervision of a licensed marriage and family therapist or equivalent supervisor — relevant if you are weighing a contract at a satellite office.

Hours accumulated after associate licensure do not expire and remain usable whenever you apply, which takes the calendar pressure off.

Hours accumulated under a temporary permit also count, as long as they were earned before it expired.

One cross-reference stays open: the associate-license condition in section 2.7(c) carries an exception in the statute's section 1.7, which was not among the sections read, so ask the board if you think it applies to you.