LMFT Licensure in Kansas: Requirements, Hours and Exams

Read Kansas titles before anything else: the letters LMFT do not mean independent here.

The licensed marriage and family therapist is the entry license — 21 years of age, a qualifying degree, a board-approved exam, public trust and the fee, with no post-degree experience requirement under 65-6404(a) — but its holder may diagnose and treat mental disorders only under the direction of a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist, licensed psychologist, physician or independent mental-health practitioner.

Independent practice and diagnosis belong to the LCMFT, which layers 15 credit hours of diagnosis-and-treatment coursework, a 300-hour clinical practicum and the 3,000 supervised hours onto that base.

For a new graduate the sequencing is straightforward: the LMFT first, then the clinical hours, coursework and exam that turn it into the LCMFT.

The exam matters twice, because Kansas scores it lower for the LMFT and at the full pass point for the LCMFT.

Both tiers start from the same degree standard: a master's or doctorate from a regionally accredited institution, either an MFT program accredited by COAMFTE or one meeting the board's standards in K.A.R.

102-5-3(d) — nine graduate semester credit hours each in human development, theories of marriage and family functioning, and marital and family assessment and therapy, three each in professional studies and research, and a practicum of at least 300 client-contact hours with at least 60 hours of supervision.

A related-field degree is not lighter: the rule accepts it only where the program provided and the applicant completed those same (d) standards, including at least half the coursework in residence at one institution and the practicum at the same institution (65-6404(a)(2)(B); 102-5-3(e)(2)).

The third door adds board-approved MFT program work to a related-field degree, through a COAMFTE-accredited or (d)-standard program (65-6404(a)(2)(C); 102-5-3(f)).

Audited courses, independent studies, continuing education and on-the-job training never count (102-5-3(h)).

The LCMFT adds 15 credit hours of diagnosis-and-treatment coursework with the DSM — three a discrete psychopathology course — plus a 300-hour clinical practicum (65-6404(b)(1)(B)-(C); 102-5-3(g)).

The LCMFT is where hours count.

The statute requires not less than two years of postgraduate supervised professional experience under a board-approved clinical supervision plan, totaling not less than 3,000 hours, including at least 1,500 hours of direct client contact conducting psychotherapy and assessments with individuals, couples, families or groups, and not less than 100 hours of face-to-face clinical supervision including not less than 50 hours of individual supervision (65-6404(b)(1)(D)).

The rule structures that supervision: one hour for each 15 hours of direct client contact, at least 50 hours individual, up to 50 in groups of no more than six supervisees, and meetings at least twice a month (102-5-7a(a)).

One hour means 50 to 60 continuous minutes or two 25-to-30-minute periods (102-5-1(r)), and one year of professional experience means 1,500 clock-hours, so the two-year floor is real.

Direct client contact happens in person or by real-time two-way audio, visual or audiovisual communication with confidentiality protected; email, instant messaging, texting and fax never count (102-5-1(g)).

Doctoral applicants may have half the hours waived, completed in not less than one year.

Both tiers test on a nationally administered, standardized written examination approved by the board (102-5-5(a)).

The rule names no vendor; the AMFTRB 2025 survey attaches the national MFT exam's name, but that survey is not a citable source for Kansas figures — ask the board which examination it currently approves before you register.

What the rule fixes is scoring, and the tiers score differently: an LMFT applicant passes at 12 items below the criterion-referenced pass point established by the examination service on a 200-item examination, while an LCMFT applicant must reach the pass point itself (102-5-5(d)-(e)).

You may apply before the degree is finished if you will complete it within four months of the application date (102-5-5(b)(1)), and the board may waive the exam for a substantially equivalent standardized exam passed at or above the cutoff score (102-5-5(c)).

Who supervises is tightly gated.

The supervisor of the 3,000 hours must be a board-approved clinical supervisor and, by default, an LCMFT with at least two years beyond the supervisor's registration, certification, or licensure date of independent clinical marriage and family therapy practice, including diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders; other diagnosing licensees qualify only in extenuating circumstances the board approves (102-5-7a(c)).

Board approval itself takes supervision training — 15 hours of continuing education in supervision or one graduate semester credit hour, including at least eight hours of hands-on supervision received from a board-approved clinical supervisor — for supervisory relationships commencing on or after July 1, 2017 (102-5-7b).

The paperwork sequence matters as much as the person: supervisor and supervisee cosign a written clinical supervision training plan on board forms, and the board must approve it before any hour accrues; changes must reach the board within 45 days of taking effect, or no hours count in between (102-5-7a(g), (h)).

Choose an approved supervisor before your first day of counting hours, not after.

Independent practice belongs to the LCMFT, which may diagnose and treat the mental disorders the board designates by rule in the DSM.

Both tiers carry a duty many relocating clinicians do not expect: when a client has symptoms of a mental disorder, the therapist consults with the client's primary care physician or psychiatrist about whether a medical condition or medication may be causing or contributing to the symptoms, and may continue evaluating and treating until the consultation is obtained or the client waives it in writing, with the waiver kept in the record (65-6404(b)(3)-(4)).

The LMFT's narrower authority is stated in the quote below, and direction carries its own paperwork: at each renewal the directed LMFT gives the board the directing licensee's name and license type, a description of the setting and services, and documentation that direction was given (102-5-1(z)).

For a clinician arriving at LMFT level, that means any diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders happens under a director's oversight until the LCMFT issues.

There is no MFT interstate compact (checked 2026-09-24), so moving means endorsement under 65-6406.

Route one: the board determines the other jurisdiction's standards are substantially the equivalent of the Kansas act and the board's rules.

Route two: a similar-scope registration, certification or licensure to practice marriage and family therapy for at least 12 months immediately preceding the application, no serious discipline, and at least a master's degree in marriage and family therapy or a related field from a regionally accredited university (65-6406(a)(2)).

LCMFT applicants must additionally show competence to diagnose and treat mental disorders in at least two of three ways: board-approved graduate coursework or a passed national clinical exam, three years of clinical practice with diagnostic experience, or an attestation from an independently licensed diagnosing professional or a physician (65-6406(b)).

One caution: rule 102-5-4b still asks for documentation covering five continuous years, including an attestation of 15 hours per week for nine months in each of five years — while the statute (L.

2023, ch. 90) says 12 months and controls; confirm current forms with the board.

Every LMFT and LCMFT completes 40 hours of documented and approved continuing education during each two-year renewal period, and hours beyond 40 do not carry over (102-5-10(a)).

The block has internal minimums: at least three hours of formal training on professional ethics focused on marriage and family therapy, and at least six hours on diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders (102-5-10(b)-(c)).

Credit follows actual contact time in quarter-hours from 15 minutes (102-5-10(d)), with category caps worth knowing when you plan: an academic course earns up to 40 hours, supervision you provide to students and LCMFT applicants up to 15, self-directed projects and cross-disciplinary offerings up to 10 (102-5-10(e)).

Keep your own records; the board may require them at least 30 days before the license expires (102-5-10(h)).

Renewal takes the application, CE reporting form and fee before expiration, and a lapsed license needs reinstatement with a late charge (102-5-9(a)-(b)).

Two changes came out of the 2023 legislative session.

L.

2023, ch. 90, effective July 1, 2023, created the community-based marriage and family therapist license and cut the reciprocity lookback to 12 months, so any guide still describing a five-year endorsement wait predates it.

On the rule side, definitions (102-5-1) and the supervision rule (102-5-7a) were amended effective December 16, 2022, and the education rule (102-5-3), the supervisor-approval rule (102-5-7b) and the continuing-education rule (102-5-10) were amended effective June 21, 2024.

The hour totals did not move: the statute and rule still say 3,000 supervised hours, so a source quoting 4,000 for Kansas is repeating the AMFTRB 2025 survey's cell, which the statute contradicts.

The community-based marriage and family therapist license is a bridge with a hard edge.

It covers practice within employment by a community mental health center, a federally qualified health center, a psychiatric residential treatment facility or a private treatment facility, each as the statute defines it (65-6404(c)(1)).

Absent board-approved extenuating circumstances it expires on the date the board issues or denies a license to practice marriage and family therapy, or 24 months after issuance, and it is never renewed or issued again at the same level (65-6404(c)(3)).

The holder may use the title licensed marriage and family therapist, or the initials LMFT, but may not practice except under the supervision of a person licensed at the independent level (65-6404(c)(4)-(5)), and the board will not issue it to anyone previously issued a community-based or temporary MFT license (65-6404(c)(6)).

For an employee of a community setting not yet fully licensed, it is a single window: plan the 24 months deliberately.