LMFT Licensure in Mississippi: Requirements, Hours and Exams

Mississippi issues exactly two MFT licenses, and the associate rung is not a formality.

The LMFTA is a license, but Rule 2.1(2) requires its holder to practice in an agency setting under a 'Board Approved' supervision contract, so a graduate cannot take an associate job in a solo private practice and count the hours.

The board's Quickstep Guide sequences the path: sit for the AMFTRB exam (possible in your final semester, or after graduation), get a supervision plan approved, apply for the LMFTA once you pass, then apply for the LMFT once supervision is complete.

Supervision can start before the exam is passed, but the associate license will not issue without the score.

The applicant must hold a master's or doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy from a COAMFTE-accredited program, or from a program that held COAMFTE candidacy and subsequently received accreditation — no equivalency route for related-field degrees appears in the rule as read.

The practicum is specified down to the hour: no less than 12 consecutive months of face-to-face clinical practice with individuals, couples and families, in person or through a secure video conferencing platform, providing for live supervision.

It must total a minimum of 500 client contact hours, of which no less than 300 are direct client contact hours and 100 are relational direct client contact hours with couples and/or families, plus 100 hours of supervision by an AAMFT Approved Supervisor or a Supervisor Candidate working under one.

Practicum groups are capped at eight supervisees per supervisor per group, and the official transcript must go directly from the institution to the board.

The rule names the setting first: two years of documented clinical experience following the first qualifying graduate degree, within an agency, institution or group practice — a Plan of Supervision in any other setting will not be approved, and the licensure application must occur within two years of completing the experience.

The experience must include a minimum of 1,000 documented face-to-face direct client contact hours, in person or through a secure video conferencing platform; the rule gives no larger total and no post-degree relational minimum — the 100 relational hours belong to the practicum.

Supervision splits three ways: 200 hours with a minimum of 50 individual (no more than two supervisees in the 50-minute hour); up to 100 graduate-training hours count toward the total, but all 100 postgraduate hours must be with a Board Approved Supervisor; and at least 100 of the 200 must be with an AAMFT Approved Supervisor.

Up to one year of a clinical COAMFTE doctoral internship counts toward the two years.

Rule 2.2(D) names the exam: the AMFTRB Examination in Marital and Family Therapy, and an applicant may not be licensed as an associate or as an LMFT without passing it — the associate application needs the score too.

Exam applications are due at least 75 calendar days before an exam date, and a student enrolled in a COAMFTE-accredited graduate program may sit 90 calendar days before graduation with the program director's written approval; the Quickstep Guide confirms this is the intended route.

The passing score is the passing score of the board-approved testing entity, and retakes follow AMFTRB guidelines.

Plan the timing deliberately: sitting in the final semester keeps the post-graduation clock moving toward the LMFTA and the supervised years.

Every postgraduate supervision hour has to be pre-approved: you file a Plan of Supervision and the board approves it before supervision starts, and at most four hours completed before approval count.

The supervisor must be a Board Approved Supervisor holding an LMFT — four consecutive years of verifiable practice plus a board-approved 24-contact-hour supervision course, or a recognized AAMFT Approved Supervisor with two years of licensure — and no plan is approved if that supervisor already carries more than eight postgraduate licensure supervisees pursuing LMFT status in Mississippi.

The cadence averages one hour per week or two hours biweekly over a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 36 consecutive months, with extensions possible under unusual circumstances (the rule gives a hurricane disaster or documented illness as examples), at the board's discretion.

Individual supervision means no more than two supervisees in the 50-minute hour; group means three to eight.

Peer supervision, family members, administrative supervision and didactic teaching do not count, and two concurrent supervisors are allowed with separately approved plans.

The rules define the practice broadly: rendering professional therapy services to individuals, families or couples, singly or in groups, applying psychotherapeutic and family systems theories and techniques — assessment, diagnosis, evaluation and treatment within human relationship systems, including individual, group, couple, sexual, family and divorce therapy.

Performing those services, or holding yourself out under the LMFT or LMFTA title, without a license is prohibited.

One line matters for anyone planning remote work: the rules state that they apply to all traditional and electronic approaches to marriage and family therapy, and Direct Client Contact is defined as face-to-face interaction either in person or through a secure video conferencing platform — which is why the 1,000 post-degree hours can be earned through secure video.

Rule 2.2(G)(1) closes the associate rung to endorsement — an out-of-state applicant must meet all current Mississippi requirements.

For the LMFT, nonresidents qualify under Rule 2.2(G)(2) with at least one year licensed for independent practice in another state whose education, work experience and clinical supervision requirements the board finds equivalent, the national exam passed and no disciplinary record.

Residents have a second door: Rule 2.2(G)(3), under the Universal Recognition of Occupational License Act (Miss.

Code §73-50-2), requires established residence and one year holding an independent MFT license elsewhere; the board must issue or deny within 120 days, and if processing requires more than two weeks, it must issue a temporary practice permit within 30 days of receiving the application, expiring within 360 days.

The AMFTRB 2025 survey prints a five-year figure for this route — the rule requires one year.

Up to half of the 100 postgraduate supervision hours earned in another state may be accepted if substantially equivalent.

Mississippi licenses by endorsement only; there is no MFT compact.

The LMFT license must be renewed biennially, and each two-year period needs 24 hours of board-approved continuing education — none required for the first renewal period.

Up to 12 of the 24 can be approved distance learning or online courses, and 4 of the 24 must be MFT professional ethics hours, of which no more than 2 can come from those online hours.

AAMFT and its divisions, the board itself and AMFTRB offerings are automatically approved; graduate courses convert at five CE hours per semester hour, teaching and presenting at their own rates, and supervising licensees with active supervision plans counts for up to 10 hours biennially.

Board Approved Supervisors additionally owe two hours of MFT supervision CE each renewal period (none for the first renewal after approval) — but the rules disagree on whether those hours can be earned online: Rule 2.2(C)(4)(d) says they cannot, while Rule 4.1(B) allows up to two online.

Confirm with the board.

The LMFTA owes no CE at all — what the associate owes is the supervision itself.

The rules this page rests on are the board's own "2022 Published Rules and Regs" compilation, the copy the board publishes.

The Secretary of State's administrative-search copies of Part 1903 were not retrievable, so amendments adopted after 2022 could not be checked — confirm the current text with the board before relying on any figure here.

The statute behind the rules, the Mississippi Marriage and Family Therapy Licensure Act of 1997 (Miss.

Code Title 73, Chapter 54), is cited in the rules but was not read.

The board's Quickstep Guide to LMFT Status, dated 9/2023, still walks the sequence the rules describe — exam, supervision approval, LMFTA, LMFT — which is the closest available signal that the process stood as of that date.

The general requirements sit underneath the hours and exams.

An applicant must be at least twenty-one (21) years of age, be of good moral character — a continuing requirement — hold an acceptable criminal history records check using fingerprint identification and an acceptable sex offender check, and disclose any unresolved complaints or disciplinary actions; concealing them revokes a granted license.

The background clearance must be recent: within 180 calendar days of the completed application for the LMFTA, and within 180 calendar days immediately before the completed application is filed for the LMFT, and the record must come from the governmental authority directly, not from the applicant.

Both applications also need three letters of professional reference from licensed mental health professionals who have known you at least one year; on the LMFT application, Rule 2.2(F)(6) adds that the people documenting your clinical experience and supervision may not write them.