LMFT Licensure in Wyoming: Requirements, Hours and Exams

Wyoming's pre-licensure rung is itself a license, but a provisional one with a defined purpose.

The rule describes provisional licensure as the means to continue progress toward the education, experience and examination requirements under a DQCS's clinical supervision and an employer's administrative supervision, and a supervision agreement must be submitted and approved before the license issues.

The Provisional Marriage and Family Therapist title may be used only after the board grants it, and only for activities and services that are part of the supervised clinical experience.

Provisional licenses are not renewable; instead there are extensions — one of up to six months to keep sitting for the exam once the clinical hours are done, or one of up to three years to finish the hours if the exam was passed during the initial three-year period.

An applicant may not be issued more than two provisional licenses in any individual discipline.

The default degree is a master's in marriage and family therapy from a COAMFTE- or CACREP-MCFC-accredited program, with one timestamped catch: the board accepts CACREP-MCFC education only if the applicant was enrolled in the program before January 1, 2020.

Applicants from programs accredited by neither body may still be deemed to have met the requirement on the equivalency route: an institution accredited by a CHEA-recognized regional or national accrediting body, a program substantially similar in content to COAMFTE or CACREP-MCFC standards including supervision, practicum and internship, transcripts and course descriptions that clearly identify the program as preparing couples, marriage and family therapists, and a minimum of 72 quarter hours or 48 semester hours of graduate coursework.

The required core areas differ depending on whether you graduated before or after January 1, 2020; the post-2020 list requires a practicum of at least 300 clinical contact hours — at least 100 of them relational, over at least 12 months — plus 100 hours of supervision, at least 50 of them utilizing observable data.

The 3,000 hours are supervised clinical training/work experience in individual, couple, marriage and family therapy under the direct supervision of a DQCS, and two structural rules shape the whole plan.

First, all 3,000 hours must be completed after the award of the graduate degree — no pre-degree banking.

Second, the window is fixed: not less than 18 or more than 36 months unless the board grants an extension, so the window is both a floor and a ceiling.

Within the 3,000, at least 1,200 hours must be direct client contact, and at least 500 of those 1,200 must be direct clinical services to couples and families; the remaining indirect balance is work that supports the direct hours, such as charting, preparation, meetings and trainings.

Separately, an applicant needs a minimum of 100 post-graduate hours of clinical supervision with a DQCS, as described in Chapter 18.

The board accepts a passing score, as established by the examination provider, on the AMFTRB examination or on another examination it approves, and the pass must fall within the immediate five years before the application is submitted — with two carve-outs written into the rule: the recency window does not apply to applicants under Section 6 (reciprocity) or to those applying for licensure by completing provisional.

The official score report goes directly from the examination provider to the board's office.

Provisional licensees also face an attempt limit: three attempts to pass the exam requirement, with one more only if the board approves a remediation plan the applicant submits.

The statute behind these rules (W.S.

33-38) was not part of the sources read, so everything here rests on the board's rules, which were last amended effective December 17, 2021.

Supervision runs through a Designated Qualified Clinical Supervisor: licensed for independent practice a minimum of two years, four years of post-graduate professional experience in the discipline, free from disciplinary action, and either a graduate course in clinical supervision or at least 3 CE contact hours in it.

Supervision comes monthly at a ratio of at least one hour per 20 hours of direct clinical provision of services, and it can be individual face-to-face, triadic face-to-face, or individual distance — distance supervision is expressly permitted, provided it is adequate to ensure the quality and competence of the activities supervised.

Two headcounts matter: supervising more than two supervisees simultaneously does not count toward the face-to-face requirement, and a DQCS may not supervise more than five at one time without the board's written exception.

The DQCS-change clause is written for “the certificate holder”: written notice within 10 days, and no services until a new DQCS is approved — provisional licensees should confirm with the board whether it applies, though the section's opening bars clinical practice until a DQCS is approved.

Chapter 10 defines the practice of a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist as rendering professional couples, marital and family therapy services and treatment to individuals, family groups, organizations, couples and marital pairs, singly or in groups — including the assessment, diagnosis and treatment, including psychotherapy, of nervous, emotional and mental disorders within the context of couples, marital and family systems.

Delivery can be face-to-face or by electronic delivery such as telephone or computers, but electronic practice carries three conditions: compliance with professional ethical standards and all other rule requirements, special care for the confidentiality and security of services, and a hard limit — the therapist may provide only those services that are legal within the state the recipient of services lives in.

The LMFT title may be used only after the board grants licensure, and licensees must comply with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Code of Ethics incorporated into Chapter 15.

The rule titles its endorsement route License by Reciprocity, and it has three legs: a master's degree or higher in marriage family therapy, a pass on the Section 5 examination, and a license from another state that is free from discipline and in good standing to practice marriage and family therapy there.

The board's approval is required, and a clinician who has held a license in more than one state must verify that all licenses held within the last five years have had no discipline.

One timing relief: the five-year exam recency window does not apply to reciprocity applicants, so an older AMFTRB pass is acceptable on this route.

There is no MFT interstate compact as of September 2026, so this rule is the route the state gives an out-of-state clinician.

An initial license is valid for a minimum of two years and expires on the licensee's birthday immediately following that two-year period; each renewed license then runs two years, again expiring on a birthday.

Renewal takes a completed application, the fee, and evidence of 45 contact hours of CE earned during the current renewal period.

Beginning July 1, 2021, renewal applicants have also submitted fingerprints and other information necessary for a criminal history record background check, as §14-3(e) requires under Wyoming Statute 33-38-105(j)(2).

Two slices are fixed: at least 3 contact hours on professional ethics and at least 3 on suicide assessment or intervention.

The rule also caps the credit for teaching and attending board meetings — presenting earns 1 hour per hour up to 6 per period, and board-meeting attendance up to 3 — and you keep supporting records for two years from the renewal submission (§14-4(e)), and every application is separately subject to CE audit by the Application Review Committee (§14-4(f)).

A licensee who fails to timely renew may not practice until appropriately licensed.

Progression is paperwork-driven.

When you believe you have completed the requirements, you apply for the independent license with Verification and Evaluation of Supervised Experience report forms — original signatures, submitted directly to the board by each approved DQCS, covering the period from provisional issuance to the application.

Hours completed outside Wyoming may be approved by the Application Review Committee if the supervision was substantially similar to Chapter 18 and the hours fall within the 24 months before the provisional application — and the board counts the time spent completing them toward what the rule calls the minimum requirement of holding a provisional license for eighteen (18) months before applying for full licensure in Wyoming.

The provisional licensee keeps receiving administrative and clinical supervision until the independent license issues, then surrenders the provisional identification card and files a revised disclosure statement before the wall certificate is presented.