LMFT Licensure in Washington, DC: Requirements, Hours and Exams

DC has one license and no associate tier.

Section 7712 fills the gap with a supervised, unlicensed stage for three groups: students in MFT programs, first-time applicants whose DC license application is pending, and graduates who meet § 7702.1 and are working toward the § 7703 supervised clinical experience.

The section's term for a graduate at that stage — unlicensed marriage and family therapist — is defined as a person who has completed the educational requirements for the degree but not the clinical requirements (§ 7799.1); students and pending applicants practise under the same section without fitting that defined term.

An unlicensed therapist must identify as such at all times and give every client a professional disclosure statement stating that services are provided under supervision, with the supervisor named (§§ 7712.8, 7712.17).

Supervisors co-sign all case documentation and are subject to disciplinary action for a supervisee's violations of the Act or the chapter (§§ 7712.5–7712.6).

Section 7702.1 gives two routes: a master's or doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy from a recognized educational institution, or a graduate degree in an allied field — psychology, social work, psychiatry, professional counseling, or a comparable mental-health profession (§ 7799.1) — with graduate coursework the Board finds equivalent to an MFT master's.

Alongside them, the subsection printed as 7202.2 says that qualifying degrees consist of at least 60 semester hours or 90 quarter credits in marriage and family therapy from a COAMFTE-accredited program; § 7702 as a whole was last amended by 62 DCR 12529 (September 18, 2015).

The two passages sit in tension — an allied-field route next to a COAMFTE-only sentence — and this page quotes both without resolving them; the Board makes the call.

Section 7702.3 then requires at least 39 semester hours across seven areas: 3 in family systems theories, 6 in marriage and family studies, 9 in marriage and family therapy, 9 in human development, 6 in psychological and mental-health competency, 3 in professional ethics and identity, and 3 in research.

Section 7703.1 requires a minimum of two (2) years of full-time post-graduate supervised clinical experience, completed within five (5) years of graduation unless the Board finds good cause (§ 7703.2).

Those years must contain at least 2,000 hours of supervised practice in marriage and family therapy, and within them at least 1,000 hours of face-to-face direct client contact — a term § 7799.1 defines as providing services in a live, in-person, face-to-face setting.

Supervision is separate from those totals: monthly face-to-face discussions at minimum, plus one hour of direct supervisory contact for every twenty (20) hours of direct client contact.

The rule states no separate couples or families quota.

Your supervisor countersigns all notes, documents and correspondence, each supervisor must rate your performance at least satisfactory, and five years of practice in a jurisdiction that does not license MFTs can replace the experience requirement (§ 7703.5).

For experience begun before June 30, 2014, the Board may waive any § 7703.3–7703.4 requirement (§ 7703.6), and § 7712.18 gives it similar discretion at the § 7712 stage.

One examination: a passing score, as determined by the Board, on the standardized examination sponsored by the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards (§ 7705.1).

No jurisprudence exam appears in the chapter.

The timing consequence lands on pending applicants: a first-time applicant practising under supervision while their DC application is pending who fails the national examination shall cease practising marriage and family therapy under supervision until such time as a license is duly issued (§ 7712.4).

The Board, not AMFTRB, sets the passing score (§ 7705.1); retake, score-transfer and scheduling rules are not stated in the chapter sections read, so confirm them with the Board before you book.

Your 2,000 hours must be supervised by an AAMFT-approved supervisor or a supervisor approved by the Board (§ 7703.3(a)).

The Board may approve a non-AAMFT supervisor who is licensed in good standing as a marriage and family therapist, professional counselor, counseling psychologist, psychiatrist or independent clinical social worker in the jurisdiction where the experience occurs, has a minimum of five (5) years of clinical experience working with couples and families, has sufficient supervision experience or training, and supervises no more than five (5) individuals at any given time (§ 7703.4).

For the § 7712 unlicensed stage the supervisor must be licensed in the District, carry no disciplinary action in any jurisdiction in the five years prior, complete 6 hours of board-approved supervision courses — at least 3 of them live, interactive, in-person and face-to-face — before starting and in each renewal period (§ 7712.10), and have no familial, social or financial relationship with you (§ 7712.14).

Direct supervisory contact is itself defined as an in-person meeting (§ 7799.1); the rules read state nothing about remote supervision.

The chapter folds its practice standards into § 7713.

Everyone authorized under the chapter must comply with the AAMFT standards of ethical and professional conduct as they are amended or republished (§ 7713.1); provide an informed consent form signed by both parties that tells the client their rights and the risks involved in therapy (§ 7713.2); and document each session with the person or persons present, the date, the start and end times, the issues presented, and the risks presented and assessed (§ 7713.3).

Supervised practice adds its own layer: the client must be informed of, and consent to, services being performed under supervision, and the supervisor bears all responsibility for the supervisee's practice (§ 7703.3).

No separate scope-of-practice or diagnosis section appears in the chapter sections read.

Section 7711.1 directs the Board to issue a license to a therapist holding a valid unrestricted license from another jurisdiction of the United States or Canada on either showing: the applicant met all DC requirements, sections 7702.1 through 7704.4, when originally licensed, or the other jurisdiction's requirements were substantially equivalent to this chapter's at the time of application.

The rule itself sets no years-licensed test.

DC Health's page also links a Board policy statement on endorsement applicants Licensed for Five Years or More — Waiver of Verification for Postgraduate Supervision Hours — but the policy text is not among the sources read, so confirm its current terms with the board before relying on it.

There is no MFT compact to fall back on: DC licensure for an out-of-state therapist runs through § 7711, jurisdiction by jurisdiction.

The rule's default term is even-year expiry: licenses expire at 12:00 midnight of December 31 of each even-numbered year, unless the Director changes the system to the holder's birth month (§ 7701.1–7701.2).

DC Health has made that change: all credentials issued on or after June 16, 2024 expire on the last day of the holder's birth month.

Renewal CE is thirty (30) approved hours in the two-year period before expiry, of which a minimum of fifteen (15) must be in a live, face-to-face setting with direct, real-time interaction, six (6) in ethics, and ten percent (10%) in the public-health priorities the Director sets, plus two (2) hours of LGBTQ continuing education for renewals after December 31, 2018 (§ 7707.4).

The first renewal after the initial grant is exempt (§ 7707.2).

The Board accepts courses approved by AAMFT, NASW, APA, NBCC, ACA or other state MFT boards (§ 7707.8) and may audit up to twenty percent (20%) of licensees (§ 7707.10).

The 2023–2026 story is administrative, not a rewrite of the hour or exam rules.

DC Health is moving every professional credential to a birth-month renewal cycle: anything issued on or after June 16, 2024 expires on the last day of the holder's birth month, renewing licensees were covered beginning September 2024, and a birthday in an odd year means renewals fall in odd years (even years for even-year birthdays).

For the one-time transition, the boards accept 50 percent of the CE requirement from licensees whose term came in shorter than two years — but the two LGBTQ cultural competency hours and the 10 percent public-health priorities are still due in full.

DC Health's page also posts a 2025 public notice identifying public health issues for continuing education, effective October 1, 2025; the notice text is not among the sources read, so confirm the current priority subjects with the board.

No chapter section read shows an amendment later than June 7, 2019.

The compensation rule is the one that shapes a DC graduate's first job.

A supervisee may not receive compensation of any nature as a marriage and family therapist, directly or indirectly, from a client — the only permitted pay is a salary from an employer based on hours worked under supervision (§ 7703.3), and § 7712.9 repeats the ban for an unlicensed marriage and family therapist, § 7799.1's defined term.

Fee-for-service splits, per-session pay and percentage-of-collections arrangements are hard to reconcile with the rule's terms while you are unlicensed; the workable settings are salaried agency, clinic or organizational jobs with an AAMFT- or board-approved supervisor on staff.

The same rule requires the client to be informed of, and consent to, services performed under supervision.

Section 7706's examination-and-education waivers for allied-field practitioners required application within two years after July 1, 2007, so they describe a closed window, not a route.