Counselor Licensure in Kentucky: LPC Requirements, Hours and Exams

Kentucky's entry rung is a license.

KRS 335.525(2) issues the professional counselor associate license to an applicant who has already met the degree requirements of subsection (1) but not the 4,000-hour experience or the exams, and who has a board-approved supervisor of record — the same construct as the LPCC, minus hours and exam.

The associate may begin practice only once the board approves the supervision agreement (201 KAR 36:060 Section 3(3)), and the statute requires ongoing supervision for as long as the license is held.

The supervisory tie is structural, not ceremonial: a supervisee whose agreement conditions are not being met shall not continue to practice (201 KAR 36:060 Section 6(2)).

The associate then applies up — KRS 335.525(5)(b) allows application for the professional clinical counselor license on completing the hours and passing the exams.

The degree must be a master's, specialist, or doctoral degree in counseling or a related field from a regionally accredited institution, with a minimum of 60 graduate semester hours across nine areas running from the helping relationship to professional orientation and ethics; 90 quarter hours equal 60 semester hours (201 KAR 36:070 Section 1(5)).

The regulation then narrows the gate twice.

A qualifying counseling degree must include at least 600 hours of practicum or internship (Section 1(1)(d)), while the statute requires every applicant to complete an organized practicum or internship of at least 400 hours (KRS 335.525(1)(e)) — both figures are current; cite each to its source.

And it excludes whole fields: degrees in psychology, marriage and family therapy, social work, pastoral or biblical counseling, art or dance therapy, criminal justice, or special education do not qualify as a degree in counseling or a related field (Section 1(3)).

The program must also be CACREP-accredited (Section 2(2)); any additional hours must come from a CACREP program (Section 2(3)).

Kentucky's experience requirement is stated in one long sentence and every clause binds.

The 4,000 hours are in the practice of counseling, all obtained since the master's degree, under approved supervision, and include at least 1,600 hours of direct counseling with individuals, couples, families, or groups and at least 100 hours of individual, face-to-face clinical supervision with an approved supervisor.

The statute also encourages — does not require — a minimum of 10 hours of direct counseling with individuals in a jail or corrections setting.

No minimum months or years appears in KRS 335.525 or 201 KAR 36:060; the pace is set by the supervision frequency rules, not a clock.

Two procedural points decide whether hours count: a candidate obtaining experience in Kentucky submits the supervision agreement before beginning to accrue any hours (201 KAR 36:060 Section 7(1)), and hours from another jurisdiction need that state's board to certify the hours, the supervisor, and their post-master's timing (Section 5(2)).

The regulation gives the LPCC applicant a choice: a passing score on the National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification (NCE) or the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE) (201 KAR 36:070 Section 3), with the statute wrapping it as passing scores on all portions of the examinations required by the board (KRS 335.525(1)(f)).

On jurisprudence, the commission's fee table leaves Kentucky's field blank and no separate Kentucky jurisprudence exam was located in the sources read.

The nearest requirement is continuing education, not an exam: 3 hours on the law for regulating professional counseling — KRS 335.500 to 335.599 and 201 KAR Chapter 36 — every three years of licensure (201 KAR 36:030 Section 1(5)).

Plan around the renewal CE cycle, not a licensure-day law test.

The supervisor of record must be a licensed professional clinical counselor supervisor (201 KAR 36:060 Section 2(1)) — the LPCC-S designation of 201 KAR 36:065 Section 1(4).

An LPCC-S needs at least 2 years following licensure as a professional clinical counselor and 15 hours of board-approved supervision CE or a graduate supervision course; one coming from another state adds proof of supervisory status plus a 3-hour board-approved training on Kentucky law (Section 1(1)).

A supervisor of record may carry no more than 9 supervisees at once (Section 2).

Frequency is practice-dependent: supervision shall occur at least 3 times per month, 1 hour per meeting, for a full-time practice of 25 or more clock hours a week, or 1 hour for every 30 hours of client contact part-time (201 KAR 36:060 Section 3(1)(g)).

The agreement may say supervision may include interactive, simultaneous video and audio media — but the statute's 100 required hours are individual and face-to-face, and the sources read do not state whether video counts toward those 100; ask the board in writing before relying on it.

The chapter defines the practice of professional counseling broadly, and the two licenses are positioned inside it.

KRS 335.500(3) ties the LPCC to the independent practice of that definition; KRS 335.500(4) has the associate practising the same work under an approved clinical supervisor.

The supervised years are aimed squarely at diagnostic competence: supervision must relate to the qualifying experience and focus on the appropriate diagnosis of a client problem leading to proficiency in applying professionally recognized clinical nomenclature (201 KAR 36:060 Section 6(1)(a)).

Beyond that, the sections read set no separate diagnostic privilege for Kentucky counselors and name no psychological-testing restriction; do not assume testing or diagnosis rules this page does not state — ask the board.

Endorsement under KRS 335.527 asks for the same 60-hour, nine-area education, an active license or certificate from another state in good standing, and evidence of a minimum of 5 years' experience as a certified or licensed professional counselor.

The 5-year showing is the hinge: with it, the applicant is exempt from both the 4,000 hours of supervised experience and the examination (KRS 335.527(2)).

The education requirement does not bend — the endorsement applicant is measured against the same degree rules, and 201 KAR 36:070 Section 1 cites KRS 335.527(1)(a) directly for endorsement degrees.

A counselor with fewer than 5 years does not fit this route and would file the standard application instead, with out-of-state hours approved only if the other state's board certifies them under 201 KAR 36:060 Section 5(2).

Kentucky enacted the Counseling Compact as KRS 335.560, created by 2022 Ky.

Acts ch. 127, sec. 1, effective July 14, 2022, and the commission counts Kentucky on its member list.

Enactment is not operation.

As of September 2026 Kentucky is not among the states the commission lists as live — issuing and accepting privileges — so no compact privilege runs in either direction: a Kentucky LPCC cannot practise elsewhere on a privilege, and a counselor licensed in a live state cannot use one to practise in Kentucky.

Until the commission lists Kentucky as live, the routes in remain a Kentucky license, by examination under KRS 335.525 or by endorsement under KRS 335.527.

Every credential renews annually (KRS 335.535(1)): a missed renewal opens a 60-day grace period in which the holder may continue to practise and may renew on payment of the renewal fee and a late fee; then it terminates and the holder may not use it in the Commonwealth (KRS 335.535(2), (3)).

Someone who does not reinstate within 3 years of termination cannot have the credential renewed, restored, reissued, or reinstated, and may only reapply under the current requirements of KRS 335.525 (KRS 335.535(7)) — for the associate, the degree and a board-approved supervisor of record again, because KRS 335.525(2) issues that license without the 4,000 hours or exams.

Continuing education is 10 hours per annual period (201 KAR 36:030 Section 1(1), (2)), plus 3 hours on domestic violence within 3 years of initial licensure, 6 hours on suicide assessment, treatment, and management within the first 3 years and every 6 years after, and 3 hours on Kentucky counseling law every 3 years.

Academic credit converts at 15 CE hours per credit hour from a CACREP-accredited counseling program (Section 2(1)(b)).

The 2023–2026 action is in the regulations, not the statute.

All four core rules — qualifying experience (36:060), the supervisor designation (36:065), applications, education, and exams (36:070), and continuing education (36:030) — carry amendments effective February 16, 2024, with new incorporated forms dated July and December 2023: the LPCA Supervision Agreement (DPL-LPC-02, July 2023), the LPCC-S Application (DPL-LPC-03, December 2023), and the LPCC and LPCA applications (DPL-LPC-04/05, December 2023).

The 9-supervisee cap carried its own compliance point: a supervisor with more than 9 supervisees on or before April 1, 2024 had to reduce through attrition (201 KAR 36:065 Section 2).

The hour, degree, and exam figures rest on KRS 335.525, whose saved text is effective July 15, 2002 — a guide written before February 2024 can still have the right hours and exams; its supervisor, form, and CE details are the parts to re-check.