LMFT Licensure in South Carolina: Requirements, Hours and Exams

The associate credential is a license, not a trainee registration: Section 40-75-20(6) defines "license" to include the associate license, and Section 40-75-240 issues it once the education requirements and the exam are done.

The sequencing matters — because the exam is an associate-license prerequisite, it is behind you before your first supervised hour counts.

An associate may practice only under the direct supervision of a board-approved licensed marriage and family therapy supervisor.

To apply for the LMFT, Reg.

36-08(2) requires a current, active and unrestricted associate license unless applying under the endorsement provisions — a clause that points to former Reg.

36-11, which the chapter's own renumbering note transferred to the endorsement rule, Reg.

36-14, in 2019.

The associate license runs two years, and the legislature renamed it from "intern" to "associate" in 2018.

Title protection is real: Section 40-75-30(B) makes it practicing without a license to represent yourself as a marriage and family therapist under the titles the statute lists.

Reg.

36-07 names two accredited routes at a minimum of 60 graduate semester hours: a program accredited by COAMFTE, or a marriage, couple and family counseling specialty program accredited by CACREP.

A third route admits a master's, specialist's or doctoral degree of at least 60 graduate semester hours in marriage and family therapy from a program accredited by a national educational accrediting body, or one that requires or follows substantially similar educational standards — including a post-degree COAMFTE-accredited program — with the institution itself holding recognized accreditation.

The practical door for graduates of non-COAMFTE programs is the rule's own mechanism: a school may submit its program to the Board for a determination whether it meets the substantially similar standards.

The statute layer requires a master's or higher graduate degree as provided in regulation, with coursework at an accredited college or university — the MFT-specific degree content comes from Reg.

36-07.

Whichever route you take, the hour figure is the rule's own minimum — 60, not an estimate.

The full-license experience rule is post-master's: 1,500 hours of clinical experience and supervision performed over no fewer than two years, with two documented minimums inside it — 1,380 direct client contact hours and 120 supervision hours — and at least 60 of the supervision hours in individual/triadic format, the remaining 60 either individual/triadic or group.

The rule sets no separate couples-and-family hours figure; direct client contact is the only client-hour category it defines.

Two procedural points decide whether hours count.

First, Reg.

36-08(2) requires a current, active and unrestricted associate license when you apply, so the experience must be accumulated while that license is alive.

Second, your supervisor — a licensed marriage and family therapy supervisor or another qualified licensed mental health practitioner approved by the Board — must be approved before you begin supervision, and the rule expects experience assessing and treating the more serious problems in standard diagnostic nomenclature.

Neither primary text names an examination.

The statute requires an applicant to pay the appropriate fees and pass an examination approved by the board, and the associate-license rule requires applicants to submit evidence of a passing score on examinations approved by the Board.

The AMFTRB 2025 survey — an aggregate source used here only as a cross-check — reports for South Carolina that all licensure candidates must take and pass the National Marital and Family Therapy examination; treat that as the survey's word, not the board's, and confirm with the board which examination it currently approves before scheduling.

What the primary text does fix is timing: the passing score is a prerequisite for the associate license under Section 40-75-240, so in South Carolina the exam sits at the front of the ladder, not at the end of the supervised-experience period.

Your supervisor must be approved by the Board before your first supervision hour, and Reg.

36-01(12) defines who can fill that role: a licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor, an MFT Supervisor, an Addiction Counselor Supervisor, a Psychologist, or a Medical Doctor, as approved by the Board.

The format rules are in Reg.

36-01: group supervision means no more than six supervisees for at least two hours, and individual or triadic supervision means one or two supervisees in a session of at least one hour — so at least 60 of your 120 supervision hours must be individual/triadic.

Distance is not a barrier; the rule expressly allows a HIPAA-compliant technological medium.

Becoming the supervisor yourself takes the separate supervisor license — Section 40-75-230 sets a floor for every applicant of five years in the practice of the discipline, and Reg.

36-09(3) adds either a doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy or a CACREP marriage, couple and family counseling specialty, or five years of continuous clinical experience plus 36 hours of supervision-of-supervision and 3 semester hours of graduate study in supervision.

The practice definition places assessment and treatment inside marriage and family systems.

The statute's assessment definition — which applies to the practice of counseling and therapy generally — reaches diagnosing: assessing, diagnosing, and treating, using standard diagnostic nomenclature, a client's attitudes, abilities, and mental, emotional, and behavioral problems that are typical of the developmental life cycle.

The statute bounds that reach in the counselor's terms: a counselor may assess more serious problems as categorized in standard diagnostic nomenclature only if the counselor has been specifically trained to assess and treat that particular problem, and must refer when a problem is beyond the counselor's training and competence.

On the consumer side, Section 40-75-270 requires each licensee to maintain a professional disclosure statement available to clients, covering the licensee's address and phone, fee schedule, education and training, specialization, and an explicit statement that sexual intimacy between the practitioner and a client is prohibited.

Confirm anything touching scope or duties against the statute before relying on it.

The endorsement rule asks for a current, active, unrestricted license in good standing from the jurisdiction where you are licensed, no pending investigations there, the required fee, other documentation as required by the Board, and an application certifying you have read and understand South Carolina's statutes, regulations and ethics code — and, critically, an applicant is only eligible at an equivalent credential level, so an associate-level licensee elsewhere maps to the associate license here, not the LMFT.

The statute layer adds Section 40-75-260: the board may adopt reciprocal agreements with states whose requirements are substantially the same or higher, and it may license an individual currently credentialed in another jurisdiction who meets the regulation's standards — but it may not license an applicant under investigation in this or another jurisdiction until the investigation is complete.

Supervisors have their own endorsement track at Reg.

36-14(B).

South Carolina is in no MFT licensure compact as of September 2026, so endorsement is the route for a move; check the board's pages for the current application packet.

The renewal rule is biennial, and Reg.

36-16(1) fills in what it costs in hours: 40 board-approved continuing education hours per period, of which 33 must relate to your professional license, 6 in ethical standards, and 1 in suicide assessment, treatment and management treatment.

A licensee receiving the license for the first time is exempt for the period in which the initial license was obtained.

Holders of multiple licenses may satisfy the requirement with 50 hours split across them, and supervisors must add 10 hours in supervision.

Hours do not carry forward to the next period.

Delivery is flexible: continuing education may be taken in person or online, and the suicide hour may be completed virtually.

Confirm the current CE worksheet on the board's pages before your renewal window opens.

The clearest recent amendment is the suicide-training requirement: 2024 Act No. 158 (S.408), effective May 20, 2024, added Section 40-75-250(D), requiring at least one hour of continuing education in suicide assessment, treatment and management treatment, completable virtually — and the act itself says the requirement reaches renewal cycles ending after 2025, so it is in force for current renewals even though the act passed in 2024.

The regulation chapter also moved: the chapter's own history notes show SCSR 49-5 Doc. No. 5354, effective May 23, 2025, amended Reg.

36-07, Reg.

36-09 and Reg.

36-16 — the education, supervisor-license and continuing-education rules, the last sitting right next to the suicide-hour change.

What changed inside those amendments is not isolated in the sources read, so read the current text of all three rules rather than assuming an older summary still describes them.

South Carolina runs a separate behavioral telehealth registration alongside licensure, created by 2022 Act No. 155 and codified at Section 40-75-800.

An individual holding an active, unencumbered license from another U.S. state, the District of Columbia or a territory — substantially similar to the corresponding South Carolina license, with no disciplinary action in the five-year period before the application — may register with the board and provide behavioral telehealth services to clients located in South Carolina, for a ten-dollar fee.

Registration is not the LMFT: it authorizes telehealth into South Carolina, and services delivered to a person in the state are deemed delivered in the state, which is what gives the board disciplinary authority over the registrant.

A clinician fully licensed in South Carolina does not need this registration to practice here.

Confirm eligibility against the statute and the board before relying on either route.