Counselor Licensure in Maine: LPC Requirements, Hours and Exams

Maine issues two full counselor licenses under 32 M.R.S. §13858.

The licensed professional counselor is the non-clinical license: rule ch. 2 §1 says an LPC may not diagnose or treat mental health disorders.

The licensed clinical professional counselor is the clinical license: the statute groups the LCPC, licensed pastoral counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist categories as of equivalent clinical status, and rule ch. 3 §1 says an LCPC may both diagnose and treat mental health disorders.

Before either comes the conditional license — a license, not a registration or permit — granted to an applicant who has met every licensure requirement except supervised experience.

It runs 2 years, renewable for up to two additional 2-year periods; the holder may practice only under supervision and must use the designation “conditional” in all documentation.

Maine's old Registered Counselor registration is closed: under rule ch. 5-A, no new registrations are being issued.

The two licenses have different degree rules.

For the LCPC, 02-514 CMR ch. 3 §2(1) requires a master's or doctoral degree from a regionally accredited institution of at least 60 graduate semester hours, met through any of three routes: a CACREP-accredited mental-health-counseling program; a 60-hour organized sequence substantially satisfying the 10 core areas plus 9 semester hours drawn from at least two additional areas such as marriage and family counseling, human sexuality, supervision or addictive disorders; or an APA- or CPA-accredited doctoral psychology degree.

The sequence route's internship is a full academic year of at least 900 clock hours including 360 of direct client contact; in lieu of practicum and internship, the rule accepts 1,000 hours of supervised clinical counseling with at least 400 direct.

For the LPC, ch. 2 §2(1) requires 48 semester hours, the core areas and a 600-clock-hour internship (or 700 supervised hours with 280 direct).

CACREP accreditation is not required on either track.

The statute sets the floor: two years of experience after the degree, including at least 3,000 hours of supervised clinical experience with a minimum of 100 hours of personal supervision (§13858(2)(B)).

The rule adds the breakdown: 3,000 hours over not less than 2 years following the qualifying degree, at least 1,500 direct clinical contact hours, and 100 hours of clinical supervision at the approximate rate of one hour per 30 hours of experience, of which at least 50 are individual (ch. 3 §4(1)).

A degree whose internship ran 600 to 899 clock hours still qualifies, but the requirement rises to 4,000 hours, including 2,000 direct and 150 supervision hours, at least 75 individual (§4(2)).

The LPC needs 2,000 hours with at least 1,000 direct counseling hours and 67 supervision hours, at least 34 individual (ch. 2 §4).

The rule reads these hours as earned during the conditional license term unless the board waives conditional licensure — and the breakdowns come from the 2010 compilation, so confirm them with the board.

Both exams are NBCC's.

For the LCPC, rule ch. 3 §3 requires a passing score on the NCE to qualify for either conditional or full licensure, and a passing score on the NCMHCE for full licensure — so a conditional licensee can hold the license on the NCE alone, with the second exam due at full licensure.

The LPC takes the NCE only (ch. 2 §3), and no jurisprudence exam appears in the rules.

The statute frames the process: every applicant must pass any examination the board prescribes, the board sets the passing score, and examinations must be held at least twice a year (§13858(5)).

There is no supervisor credential; the supervisor is a person the board approves.

For LCPC hours the supervisor must be an LCPC, licensed marriage and family therapist, licensed pastoral counselor, licensed clinical social worker, certified social worker-independent practice, psychologist or psychiatrist — with no family, household or personal relationship with the supervisee — who has five years of licensed practice, a national certification in training or supervision, or 30 contact hours of training in supervision plus a year licensed above entry-level conditional (ch. 3 §4(3)).

An LPC meeting the same criteria may supervise LPC candidates (ch. 2 §4(1)).

Supervision accrues at the approximate rate of one hour per 30 hours of experience, or one per 27 on the 4,000-hour route.

The 2010 rule text lets the approved supervisor join individual supervision by live audio or video conference in lieu of physical presence for up to 25 of the LCPC's 50 individual hours — 17 of 34 on the LPC route, 38 of 75 on the 4,000-hour route.

Confirm distance arrangements with the board in writing before relying on them.

Maine draws the clinical line through licensure.

Clinical status — the LCPC's, along with the licensed pastoral counselor and LMFT categories — grants the ability to diagnose and treat mental health disorders (§13858), and the rules state the split flatly: an LPC may not diagnose or treat, an LCPC may do both (ch. 2 §1; ch. 3 §1).

Testing is bounded separately: §13855 provides that nothing in the chapter permits counselors or conditional license holders to present themselves to the public as psychologists or psychological examiners or to offer primarily or solely the services of psychological testing, and the board adopts ethical standards covering assessment techniques.

Assessment itself is among the defined procedures of counseling (§13851(8)), so the boundary is not assessment outright but a practice built primarily or solely on testing — and any assessment use must sit inside the board's ethics code.

A counselor licensed elsewhere has four ways in.

Reciprocal route: §13857(1) authorizes the board to enter into reciprocal agreements with jurisdictions that have substantially similar licensure laws, and §13857(2)(A) licenses an applicant from a jurisdiction with an agreement on its terms; the sources read do not show whether any agreements are in force.

Section 13857(2)(B) is the long-service route: a valid license in good standing, substantially equivalent and at the level applied for, held for at least 5 consecutive years immediately preceding application; rule ch. 6 §3(1) asks for the licenses you practiced under in those years, those jurisdictions' counseling law and rules, and a practice resume.

Section 13857(2)(C) is the qualification-match route: evidence that your qualifications are substantially similar to Maine's. §13857(2)(E) directs the board to run a licensure-by-endorsement process under 10 M.R.S. §8003-H — rule ch. 6-A, effective April 1, 2023: a valid, active license from a substantially equivalent jurisdiction, which for the LCPC means a 60-hour master's degree, a passing NCMHCE score and supervised clinical counseling experience, plus good standing everywhere you have ever been licensed.

Maine is on the Counseling Compact commission's member list — the Compact is enacted — but the enacting statute section and date were not located in the sources read.

Enactment is not operation: as of September 2026 the commission's home page does not list Maine among the states issuing and accepting privileges, so a Maine LCPC cannot yet take a compact privilege to practice elsewhere, and a counselor licensed in a live Compact state cannot use the Compact to practice in Maine.

One 2025 law touches the Compact's machinery: 32 M.R.S. §13858-A requires a criminal history record check, including FBI fingerprints, for an LCPC or licensed marriage and family therapist applying for an initial compact privilege designating Maine as home state, and bars sharing the results with the compact commission.

Until Maine goes live, the route in is a Maine license — by examination or by endorsement.

Licenses expire biennially on December 31st, on the statute's terms, and may be renewed up to 90 days late with a late fee; after 90 days the applicant is subject to the requirements for new applicants, though the board can waive the examination within 2 years (§13860(1)).

Continuing education sits in rule ch. 7-A, from the 2010 compilation: 55 contact hours per biennium, at least 4 in ethics, up to 15 creditable as peer consultation, and informal home study or prerecorded programs capped at 5 hours.

On top of the hours, §13860(2) requires each renewal applicant, beginning January 1, 2020, to show one-time completion of at least 12 hours of course work in family or intimate partner violence, which counts toward the CE total.

Full LCPC licensure also takes 55 CE hours during the conditional term (ch. 3 §6(4)).

Two changes fall inside the 2023–2026 window, both in the saved documents behind this page.

Rule ch. 6-A, licensure by endorsement under 10 M.R.S. §8003-H, took effect April 1, 2023 (filing 2023-048).

And the statute gained §13858-A through PL 2025, c.

366, §19: the board must request criminal history record checks — state and FBI, with fingerprints — for each initial licensure or endorsement application as a clinical professional counselor or marriage and family therapist, and for LCPCs and LMFTs applying for an initial compact privilege designating Maine as home state.

Beyond those two, the hour, supervision, exam and CE figures above come from a consolidated rule file the Secretary of State last saved in 2010; only ch. 6-A is posted as newer.

Confirm every rule-level figure with the board before you rely on it.