LMFT Licensure in New Hampshire: Requirements, Hours and Exams

New Hampshire issues one licence, and the rule is candid about the stage before it.

A graduate counting hours is a candidate for licensure — the rules define that as a person not licensed as a mental health practitioner who is receiving post-graduate supervision — and under Mhp 302.01(h) no supervised-practice hour is credited until the supervision agreement is approved by OPLC, so the supervisor choice comes before the first hour.

Layered onto that agreement is the conditional licence, which the statute treats as a licence with a term: it issues when the board approves a supervisory agreement with documented intent to pursue licensure, it runs no more than 2 years, and applicants in good standing may renew it one time.

The full licence is the only rung that allows independent practice — no candidate shall engage in independent or private mental health practice.

Four routes satisfy the degree rule, and the statute's third is the one people miss: clinical membership in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy qualifies on its own.

The others are a master's or doctorate in marriage and family therapy from a COAMFTE-accredited program, a degree with a concentration in MFT from a regionally accredited institution, and — added by the rule — a mental-health-field degree from a regionally accredited institution plus a COAMFTE-accredited post-graduate training program.

A concentration degree carries homework: coursework across family studies, family therapy, diagnosis, human development, professional studies and research, plus a one-year practicum supervised by an AAMFT approved supervisor totalling at least 300 face-to-face client-contact hours with individuals, couples and families.

That practicum is where the relational split lives in New Hampshire's rules — the post-degree hours do not repeat a couples/families quota.

The statute sets the frame: a minimum of 2 years of post-master's experience in a mental health counseling setting, 3,000 hours of supervised practice of marriage and family therapy, and 200 hours of face-to-face supervision by a supervisor approved by AAMFT or the board.

The rule then defines the years: each year of experience is at least 1,500 hours completed within not less than 12 and not more than 24 consecutive calendar months, and supervision must include at least one hour per week of individual face-to-face supervision by a psychologist, clinical mental health counselor, independent clinical social worker, pastoral psychotherapist or marriage and family therapist licensed where the supervision takes place.

Within the 3,000, every applicant needs 1,000 hours of supervised face-to-face clinical client contact with individuals, couples and families — no separate couples/families quota applies at this stage.

Two doors let hours in early: COAMFTE graduates may count up to 100 pre-degree supervision hours and up to 500 graduate client-contact hours under Mhp 306.02(g), and doctoral students with a qualifying master's may use doctoral practicum, internship and supervision.

Two exams stand between a finished candidate file and the licence.

The statute requires a pass on the AMFTRB national proctored examination, and Mhp 306.03 routes the request through a board form.

Then the jurisprudence examination: Mhp 311.01 examines each initial-license applicant on the contents of RSA 330-A and administrative rules Mhp 100 through Mhp 500, it is open book but taken individually, a score of at least 75 percent passes, and a failed attempt may be retaken as many times as it takes to pass.

The application must document the jurisprudence pass under Mhp 302.05(a)(13), so schedule the exam before you file rather than after.

The 200 supervision hours go to an AAMFT approved supervisor or an AAMFT approved alternate supervisor; an alternate needs a graduate degree in MFT or a related field, an NH licence, five graduate courses taken or taught (four clinical couples or family-therapy courses and one in ethics), 2 years of full-time post-licensure experience and the 30-hour AAMFT Approved Supervisor Training Course.

If your workplace has no AAMFT supervisor, you may contract for outside supervision under a contract filed with the supervision agreement, with at least twice-yearly worksite visits; under that contract the rule accepts individual supervision of one supervisor with up to 2 supervisees and group of up to 6 (Mhp 306.02(f)(3)) — the chapter's own definition of individual supervision stays one-on-one.

For candidates the rules add their own floor — a supervisor licensed in New Hampshire, practising there at least 2 years, with at most 8 candidates unless the supervisor files a waiver under Plc 211, and no spousal or close-family relationship.

The platform is flexible: face-to-face includes synchronous HIPAA-compliant virtual presence, so video supervision counts.

The endorsement rule is a pointer, and the honest reading is that its conditions live in a document the sources read do not contain.

Mhp 302.06 sends applicants who meet the substantially similar qualifications for licensure by endorsement required by Plc 313.37 to apply for initial licensure under Mhp 302.05, implementing RSA 310:17; what Plc 313.37 actually demands — which licence, held how long, with what exam history — is not stated in the sources read, so ask OPLC before planning a move around it.

There is no MFT interstate compact as of September 2026, so endorsement is the way in, and any hours still to be earned in New Hampshire follow the same Mhp 306.02 rules through the candidate stage.

Renewal is biennial, and the CE rule is precise.

Each licensee completes 40 hours of approved continuing education every 2 years; at least 30 of the 40 must come from Category A, at least 6 in ethics from Category A, and at least 3 in suicide prevention from Category A — the suicide floor is statutory, RSA 330-A:10, XI.

No more than 10 of the 40 hours may come from Category B, and board approved supervisors must include at least 6 Category A hours in clinical supervision.

Alongside the CE sits a second running total many applicants discover late: each licensee completes and documents 40 hours of collaboration every 2 years — small-group meetings with licensed practitioners, supervision or consultation, study groups, expert consultation — so log those hours as you go.

The statute's MFT section carries two amendments — 2023, 224:6, effective October 3, 2023, and 2025, 161:14, effective September 13, 2025 — and chapter 161 of 2025 also repealed former RSA 330-A:23 and :24, effective September 13, 2025.

The sources read confirm the amendments without isolating what each one changed, so treat any pre-2023 summary of the MFT licence rules as needing board confirmation.

On the rule side, chapter Mhp 300 was readopted by Document #14464, effective February 17, 2026, and it is that version the application cites: Mhp 302.05 in the readopted chapter requires documentation of the jurisprudence examination, whose current rule, Mhp 311.01, carries the same 2-17-26 effective date.

The conditional-licence provisions now sit in RSA 330-A:21, paragraphs IV and V, as amended.

The setting rules decide whether hours count before the arithmetic does.

Independent private mental health practice is not supervised professional experience, and private-practice experience counts only inside a W-2 employment relationship — a 1099 independent contractor relationship with the site does not meet the requirement.

The question surfaces early, too: the candidate supervision-agreement form asks the supervisor directly whether a W-2 relationship exists.

The paperwork is equally specific, because the MFT summary-of-experience form requires, for each placement, the dates, the facility, the supervisor, total individual supervision hours, total client-contact hours and total clinical-experience hours, and the supervisor confirms them on a separate form.

Track those numbers per placement from your first day, and check any unusual employment structure with the board before it starts.