LMFT Licensure in Tennessee: Requirements, Hours and Exams

The current pre-licensure rung is statutory: under § 63-22-121(b), amended by 2025 ch. 204, the board may issue an associate license to a marital and family therapist applicant who has completed the academic coursework and training required for the license sought.

You apply with a completed associate application, satisfactory evidence of an agreement with an approved supervisor under whom you intend to practice, and fees, and the license authorizes the practice of marital and family therapy under that supervisor.

It is valid for up to four years and eligible for an extension at the board's discretion, and it ceases to be valid when the board approves or denies your application for the independent license or revokes the associate license.

The older rule instead describes a temporary license — no more than one per person, valid no more than three years — for an applicant who finished the academic work but not the post-masters experience; that rule last took an amendment effective May 31, 2006, before both statutes.

The statute sets the education floor by reference: an applicant must satisfy board standards no less stringent than the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy's standards for a clinical member, so long as those standards specify a minimum of a master's level degree.

The rule translates that into a master's or doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy or equivalent from an institution accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools or by a comparable accrediting body.

A degree in a related subject field can qualify if it contains the rule's coursework, with every course at least one semester long: three courses in human development and personality, three in marriage and family studies, three in marriage and family therapy, one in research, one in professional ethics, and one in assessment and diagnosis of cognitive, affective and behavioral problems in DSM IV T.R. (or its successor) nomenclature — plus a supervised practicum or internship of no less than 300 hours that includes experience in assessment, diagnosis and treatment.

The hour rule lives in the administrative rules, and it counts time as much as totals.

Qualification requires two years of post-masters clinical experience consisting of not less than 10 hours per week, documented at application as evidence of 1,000 hours of clinical practice and 200 hours of supervision by an approved supervisor over a period of not less than two years.

To show the practice was active, the rule defines actively engaged as 10 or more face-to-face client contact hours per week, and a client contact hour is a 50-minute period working with an individual, couple, family or group.

The rule separates practice hours from supervision hours but sets no couples-and-families quota; the research section records that no couple/family figure was found, so do not import one.

An employment offer at fewer than 10 client-contact hours a week would leave you short of the weekly floor even if your annual totals were on pace.

The statute requires each applicant to pass such examination as may be administered by the board (§ 63-22-106(4); § 63-22-107(c)).

The rule names two.

The written examination is the Professional Examination Service published examination or its successor, as developed by the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards — the AMFTRB national MFT exam — scheduled at Prometric testing centers under the rule's process.

The rule then requires an oral examination for all applicants except those approved to upgrade from CMFT to LMFT: a two- or three-member committee appointed by the board's president scores it, a passing score is seventy-five percent, and it covers the Tennessee statute (T.C.A. §§ 63-22-101 et seq.), the board's code of ethics and other practice-related areas.

An applicant who neglects, fails or refuses either exam within twelve months of being deemed eligible has the application denied.

The exam rule was last amended effective November 18, 2003, and whether the oral exam is still administered as written was not confirmed on the board's page — confirm with the board before you plan around it.

Under the rule, your 200 supervision hours must be supervised by an AAMFT Approved Supervisor or Supervisor-In-Training whose qualifications meet AAMFT standards.

The statute defines approved supervisor more broadly: a licensed marriage and family therapist or any other licensed mental health professional who is an AAMFT-approved supervisor; a supervisor-in-training mentored by a current AAMFT-approved supervisor; or a board-approved supervisor (§ 63-22-115(a)(2)).

In (a)(3), board-approved supervisor means a person who gives the board evidence of five years of full-time experience in marriage and family therapy practice and supervision, 36 hours of supervision specifically in the skill of providing marriage and family therapy supervision, and a recommendation from a supervisor who provided supervision of the supervision.

Supervision may be direct — one or two persons' interaction with a client — or in a group, but no more than one half of it may be group.

Supervision by a relative, an employee, or anyone sharing your household does not count, supervision continues until the license issues, and whether it may be delivered by video is not stated in the sources read.

Marital and family therapy in Tennessee means the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive, affective and behavioral problems and dysfunctions within the context of marital and family systems, delivered to individuals in the context of family systems theory and practice, couples and families.

The statute protects the title: a person who is not licensed or certified under the part may not advertise marital and family therapy services or use any title denoting that they are a marital and family therapist, and an unlawful act under the section is a Class B misdemeanor.

The testing boundary is specific: an LMFT may not perform psychological testing intended to measure or diagnose mental illness, but consistent with their formal education and training they may administer appropriate assessment instruments measuring cognitive, affective and behavioral problems of individuals, couples and families as part of the therapy process or a treatment plan.

Public Acts 2024, ch. 700 rewrote § 63-22-103: the statute directs the board to license without examination a marital and family therapist applicant who is licensed to practice independently in another state if the applicant's qualifications meet the licensure requirements under this part, and it lets the board enter reciprocal agreements with states that license marital and family therapists.

The 2006 rule's two older routes still sit on the Cornell text — licensure by reciprocity, which required the oral exam, and licensure by endorsement, which required current AAMFT clinical membership — but the statute post-dates them.

There is no MFT interstate compact as of September 2026, so this endorsement statute is a relocating licensee's route, not any multistate privilege.

Confirm with the board what documentation it expects and how it evaluates your qualifications against this part before you apply.

Licenses renew on the Division of Health Related Boards' biennial birth-date system: the renewal due date is the last day of the month in which your birthdate falls.

Continuing education runs on the calendar year — 10 clock hours each year, with none required in the calendar year your license was first approved.

Within those hours, 3 clock hours must pertain to professional ethics and/or Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 63, Chapter 22 and/or the board's own chapter 0450-02, every two years.

Since January 1, 2020, the Kenneth and Madge Tullis, MD, Suicide Prevention Training Act has required a board-approved suicide prevention program of not less than 2 hours at least once every five years, and those hours count toward the 10.

A new licensee's qualifying training — a two-hour academic program completed within two years before application — only defers the suicide prevention requirement for two years after the date of initial licensure; it is not an exemption.

A license not renewed within 60 days of the renewal date is revoked without further notice.

Two statutes have moved Tennessee's MFT rules faster than its administrative rules.

Public Acts 2024, ch. 700 rewrote § 63-22-103 into an examination-free endorsement route for independently licensed out-of-state therapists.

Public Acts 2025, ch. 204 then amended § 63-22-121, whose subdivision (b) carries the associate licensed marriage and family therapist (AMFT) license, and amended the definitions in § 63-22-115.

The chapter 0450-02 rules on Cornell predate both acts: their amendment histories end with the continuing-education rule effective August 12, 2019, the qualifications rule effective April 11, 2006, and the exam rule effective November 18, 2003, so a guide that quotes only the rules will miss both the AMFT license and the current endorsement.

The statutes' effective dates are not stated in the sources read; confirm current implementation with the board.