Counselor Licensure in Colorado: LPC Requirements, Hours and Exams

Colorado's counseling rules create one independent license, the LPC, and one rung below it, the licensed professional counselor candidate.

What that rung legally is was not resolved by the sources read: rule 1.14(D)(1) and rule 1.18 speak of a candidate registration, rule 1.1(E) describes persons licensed as a licensed professional counselor candidate, and DORA's homepage refers to Professional Counselor Candidates with an Active Colorado license.

The statute, C.R.S. §12-245-604, was not read.

What is clear is function: the candidate credential is what you hold while accruing the 2,000 supervised hours, it renews, and from the second renewal it carries its own 60-PDH development requirement.

Before you put either word on a form, confirm the credential's current form with DORA.

The default degree is from a program approved by CACREP; if you enrolled after August 31, 2014, the program must comprise not less than 60 semester credit hours.

A non-CACREP graduate has two equivalency routes: a program the Board has deemed CACREP-equivalent on an annual cycle, or an evaluation by a Board-approved credentialing agency.

The equivalency analysis looks for a regionally accredited institution, an integrated counseling curriculum, and supervised field experience of not fewer than 700 hours; for pre-2014 enrollees it checks 48 semester hours (72 quarter) of graduate study for a master's, or 96 semester (144 quarter) for a doctorate.

If your degree falls short — fewer hours, missing coursework in the eight content areas, no 700-hour field placement — the requirements can be completed post-degree, but post-2014 enrollees may complete no more than six semester credits (nine quarter credits) after graduation.

That cap decides, before you apply, whether a thin transcript can be repaired.

The requirement is at least two years of post-master's practice, or one year of postdoctoral practice, under clinical supervision, with at least 2,000 hours of practice in counseling including at least 1,500 hours of face-to-face direct client contact, completed in no fewer than 24 months.

For each 1,000 hours of supervised practice you need a minimum of 50 hours of supervision: at least 25 of the 50 must be individual supervision, in person or by telesupervision, and the remaining 25 may be triadic or group supervision at a maximum ratio of one supervisor to ten supervisees — the rule accepts no other modes.

Post-doctoral applicants may count up to 300 hours of supervised teaching of professional counseling toward the practice requirement.

Plan the calendar as well as the count: experience and supervision older than five years before your application are not accepted absent a showing of good cause, though the rule notes exceptions under the statutes concerning professional counselor candidates, which were not read for this page — ask DORA before assuming hours banked years ago have lapsed.

Colorado requires a national exam and a state exam.

The national examination in professional counseling is, in the rule's words, the counselor certification examination administered under contract with NBCC; the rule never uses the exam names NCE or NCMHCE, and whether Colorado accepts the NCMHCE was not established in the sources read, so ask the board which administration it accepts before you register.

Every applicant, for licensure and for candidate registration alike, must also pass the Board-developed jurisprudence examination.

Two timing rules help you plan: a student in the last semester or quarter of a graduate program may apply directly to NBCC to sit the exam early, and exam results are valid for up to five years before your application date.

Colorado issues no separate supervisor credential.

The board may accept an LPC, a licensed clinical social worker, a marriage and family therapist, a psychologist or a licensed addiction counselor as your supervisor, each licensed in the jurisdiction where your services were performed, with experience substantially equivalent to the scope of a licensed professional counselor.

The general supervision rule adds a floor for professional counselors who clinically supervise: since September 1, 2021 they need three years or 3,000 hours of post-graduate clinical experience as a counselor, plus one of a two-credit graduate supervision course, six clock-hours of supervision training across named content areas, ACS certification, or a counseling doctorate with a supervision component, and three PDH in clinical supervision each renewal period.

Supervision may be in person or telesupervision, and the rule's responsible-direction standard is broad: decisions such as the type, duration and method of your services and the fees and billing procedures are made with the approved supervisor's approval.

Colorado channels endorsement through its Occupational Credential Portability Program, with two doors.

The one-year door: satisfactory proof that you have held for at least one year a current and unrestricted license, in good standing, to practice professional counseling in another jurisdiction with a scope of practice substantially similar to the LPC's under part 6 of the Mental Health Practice Act.

The experience door: a qualifying degree, an attested examination covering competence including psychotherapy, and an attestation of two years of post-master's or one year of post-doctoral supervised practice substantially similar to rule 1.14 — or an attested two years of active practice, meaning at least 20 hours per week averaged over your time in practice with no more than a six-month absence.

Every endorsement applicant also passes the jurisprudence exam and proves they are at least 21 years old.

As of September 2026 the Counseling Compact Commission lists Colorado among its member states, and Colorado is not among the states issuing and accepting compact privileges.

Until the commission lists Colorado as live, a Colorado LPC cannot use the Compact to practise in another member state, and a counselor licensed elsewhere cannot use it to practise in Colorado; the route in remains a Colorado license, by examination or through the Occupational Credential Portability Program.

The commission's fee table records a Colorado jurisprudence requirement for the Compact.

The enacting bill and its C.R.S. citation were not located in the sources read, so this page states membership status only, dated to its retrieval.

Colorado does not run a flat CE list.

Renewal, reinstatement and reactivation all run through the Continuing Professional Development program: a Professional Practice Survey, a Personal Learning Plan drafted from it, and documented Board-approved professional development activities worth 40 PDH per renewal cycle, with no more than 20 PDH credited from any single activity.

Licensees licensed for part of a cycle accrue 1.66 PDH per month; up to 5 PDH may carry into the next cycle if earned within six months of expiration and in excess of the 40; documentation is retained at least five years.

A 60-day grace period after expiration allows renewal without a disciplinary sanction for practising on the expired license, with a delinquency fee.

How long the renewal cycle itself is was not stated in the sources read — check DORA for your expiration date.

Three changes fall in the window.

Effective May 22, 2024, licensed professional counselor candidates were added to the Continuing Professional Development program: 60 PDH at the second and every later renewal of the candidate registration.

Rule 1.14, the education and experience rule this page relies on throughout, was amended effective May 15, 2025 (48 CR 07) — that is the text cited here.

And on June 4, 2024 the Governor signed HB24-1004, under which a regulator may consider an applicant's conviction only for a three-year period beginning at the conviction or the end of incarceration; DORA publishes it on the counselor program page as reaching applications for a registration, certification or license.

The pre-amendment text of 1.14 was not read, so this page cannot say what that amendment changed; verify the rule text in force when you apply.