LMFT Licensure in Texas: Requirements, Hours and Exams

Texas's pre-licensure rung is a license, not a registration: Occupations Code §502.252(b) requires a qualifying degree, a completed graduate internship and passes on the licensure and jurisprudence examinations, and the associate then offers marriage and family therapy for compensation under a supervisor approved by the executive council.

You must already have passed the licensure exam when you apply — the rule requires proof of a passing score with the associate application.

The clock is the part to plan around: an LMFT Associate license expires 60 months from the date of issuance, and an associate who has not finished the supervised experience in that window must reapply for licensure.

Only the council-approved terms Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate and LMFT Associate may be used; the rule expressly bars abbreviations like LMFT A.

The LMFT and LMFT Associate titles are both protected by the chapter.

Section 801.112(a) opens three doors: a master's or doctorate in marriage and family therapy from a COAMFTE-accredited program; a CACREP Marriage, Couples, and Family Counseling master's that meets the course-content rule in §801.114(b)(8) and starts on or after January 1, 2017; or a master's or doctorate in MFT or a related mental-health field from a regionally accredited institution with a planned MFT course of study.

The hour floor turns on your start date: at least 45 semester hours for an applicant who started a program before August 1, 2017, and at least 60 semester hours for one who started on or after that date.

For programs begun on or after August 1, 2017, the coursework must include the supervised clinical internship at 12 months or nine semester hours, with 300 hours of experience — at least 150 direct client contact, of which at least 75 with couples and families.

You cannot sit the licensure exam until you have completed or are enrolled in the council-approved graduate internship.

The rule requires a minimum of two years of work experience in marriage and family therapy carrying a minimum of 3,000 hours of supervised clinical practice, and the statute mirrors the split.

Within the 3,000, at least 1,500 hours must be direct clinical services — no more than 750 of them via technology-assisted services, as approved by your supervisor, and at least 500 of them direct clinical services to couples or families, which the rule defines as two or more individuals simultaneously, or from the same family system, in the same session.

The remaining hours may come from related experiences: workshops, public relations, writing case notes, consulting with referral sources.

Graduate internship hours beyond the §801.114(b)(8) minimum count toward the 3,000 only if you began the degree before September 1, 2025 — capped at 500 excess hours from a COAMFTE program (no more than 250 couples or families) or 400 from a non-COAMFTE program (no more than 200).

A master's-level associate in a qualifying doctoral program may count hours completed after the master's conferral.

Texas names two accepted licensing examinations: the AMFTRB national licensure examination and the State of California marriage and family therapy licensure examination — confirm with the council which one applies to you before you register.

On top of either, every applicant must pass the BHEC jurisprudence exam, an online learning experience based on the Act, the Council Act and council rules, taken no more than 6 months prior to submitting the application.

Sequencing matters: an LMFT Associate applicant must already hold a passing score when the associate application goes in, and statute lets you sit the licensure exam while still enrolled in the graduate internship if you prove good standing in the program.

An applicant who fails the national exam faces the retake limits in §882.6.

An LMFT Associate needs a minimum of 200 hours of supervision by an LMFT-S during the 3,000 hours, at least 100 of them individual supervision — the rule caps individual supervision at two supervisees and defines group supervision as three to six — and at least one hour of supervision every week except for good cause shown; a supervision hour is 50 minutes.

Up to 100 graduate internship supervision hours may count toward the 200.

Supervision may be in person or by live video; telephone is available only if your supervisor determines in-person or live video supervision is not accessible.

Choosing a supervisor is a licensure decision: an LMFT-S must have 3,000 hours of LMFT practice over a minimum of 3 years plus a 3-semester-hour graduate MFT supervision course, a 40-hour continuing education course in clinical supervision, or an AAMFT-approved Fundamentals of Supervision course; may not be employed by the associate; and an associate may have no more than two council-approved supervisors at a time.

File a Supervisory Agreement Form within 30 days of starting.

Chapter 502 defines marriage and family therapy as professional therapy services to individuals, families or married couples, alone or in groups, applying family systems theories and techniques — including the evaluation, diagnostic assessment and remediation of mental, cognitive, affective, behavioral or relational dysfunction, disease or disorder in the context of marriage or family systems, and it may include using the DSM and ICD.

The chapter states the practice does not constitute the practice of medicine and does not include prescribing medication.

Settings are open to an associate: an LMFT Associate may practice marriage and family therapy in any setting under supervision, with the rule naming private practices, public or private agencies and hospitals.

Titles are protected: neither the licensed marriage and family therapist nor the licensed marriage and family therapist associate title may be used without the license, and no title may imply licensure unless you hold one or are authorized within another Texas license.

The deemed-met route needs an independent, active LMFT license in good standing from another jurisdiction held for at least two years immediately before the council receives your application — then academic and experience requirements are deemed met if you can document 3,000 hours of work experience including 1,500 direct clinical services, 200 supervision hours including 100 individual, and a master's or doctoral degree with a graduate internship.

The provisional license is a parallel route, not a fallback for shorter licensure: §801.203(a) grants it to an applicant licensed or registered in another jurisdiction whose requirements, when obtained, were substantially equivalent, who has passed a national or council-approved exam, holds a Texas LMFT sponsor, and documents on council forms the experience the §801.142 and §801.143 rules set.

The council must process a provisional holder's LMFT application within 180 days, extendable for pending exam results, and §801.203(c) issues the full license only after the §801.174 exams, the §801.112 through §801.115 transcripts, and that same experience documentation.

There is no MFT interstate compact (checked September 2026).

A license issued under the chapter is subject to biennial renewal.

Each renewal period an LMFT must complete 30 hours of continuing education, including 6 hours in ethics and 3 hours in cultural diversity or competency, and may carry forward at most 10 hours not needed for renewal.

Three overlays apply: a licensee with supervisory status must add 6 hours in supervision and take and pass the jurisprudence exam, which may itself be claimed as 1 ethics hour; a licensee providing telehealth must complete 2 hours in technology-assisted services; and, under a rule effective January 1, 2024, at least fifty percent of CE hours must come from listed provider types such as professional associations, government entities, accredited institutions of higher education and hospitals.

The council does not pre-approve providers or hours; keep proof of compliance for at least 3 years after the renewal period.

§801.142 was amended effective March 7, 2023, March 27, 2024 and November 14, 2024; the amendment notes do not state what each version changed.

The current text limits excess-internship credit to applicants who began the degree before September 1, 2025: internship hours beyond the §801.114(b)(8) minimum count toward the 3,000 capped at 500 hours from COAMFTE programs (no more than 250 couples or families) and 400 from non-COAMFTE programs (no more than 200). §801.202 was most recently amended effective March 7, 2023; subsection (c) as it now reads converts all active LMFT Associate licenses to a 60-month term as of that rule's effective date.

The required curriculum for the 40-hour clinical supervision course took effect May 1, 2023 (§801.143(n)), and the CE provider rule in §801.261(f) took effect January 1, 2024 (§801.261(k)).

The endorsement rule §801.115 was repealed effective November 14, 2024 and re-adopted effective March 17, 2025; the current text is the deemed-met test quoted above.

Chapter 502 does not apply to several groups, which matters when you are hiring or reading a colleague's credentials.

Exempt: people performing marriage and family therapy within the scope of their employment by a federal, state, county or municipal agency or an educational institution; students, interns and trainees in a recognized MFT course of study, if the activities are part of that course of study and they are called a marriage and family therapist intern or similar title; people licensed in another profession — the statute names physicians, attorneys, registered nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers and licensed professional counselors; and recognized religious practitioners, including pastoral counselors, practicing consistently with state law.

The rule's definition requires the practitioner to remain accountable to a legally recognized denomination and not hold themselves out as a licensed marriage and family therapist.

If you practice under another Texas license this chapter does not govern you; if you want the LMFT title, the license rules above do.