Counselor Licensure in Washington, DC: LPC Requirements, Hours and Exams

The DC Board of Professional Counseling licenses the profession at two rungs.

The LPC is the independent licence, and the rule's definition of its practice ties it to the licensed title: counselling activities for compensation by someone who represents, by title or description of services, that they are a professional counselor or licensed professional counselor.

The LGPC sits below it, and DC Health does issue it as a license — the board publishes a New License Application checklist for it.

But chapter 17-66 as listed on 2026-09-24 contains no LGPC section; the board's page links LGPC regulations under a separate DCMR chapter (17-91) that was not among the sources read, and the checklist's extracted text is garbled, showing a reference to a minimum of 48 hours that this page deliberately does not repeat as a requirement.

Below the licences, the rules authorise students and graduates to practise only under supervision, and both sides carry duties: the supervised person must identify themselves as such at all times, and the supervisor is responsible for the supervised practice.

The degree rule has two layers.

The applicant needs a master's or higher from an institution accredited at the time the degree was conferred by a body recognized by the US Secretary of Education or the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation or its successor, and a minimum of 60 semester hours in counseling or related subjects after the bachelor's degree — quarter and trimester hours converted using the institution's own formula.

Every course in a graduate counseling program counts toward the 60; courses from outside a counseling program are evaluated individually, and the related subjects the board accepts run from social science, psychology, and social work to psychiatric nursing, rehabilitation counseling, and creative arts therapy.

The program content must cover eleven areas at minimum, including appraisal and testing, professional ethics, principles of etiology, diagnosis, treatment planning, and prevention of mental and emotional disorders, and a counseling practicum or internship.

A separate course per area is not required, but the applicant must evidence the content was covered, and certified transcripts are required from every institution.

CACREP accreditation is not a condition.

The clock starts at the first graduate degree, not during it: the experience must be acquired after completing the requirements of the first graduate degree in counseling or a related area but before the application, though hours from a postmaster's, specialist, or doctoral program in the field are acceptable.

The total is 3,500 hours of professional counseling over not less than 2 and not more than 5 years under general supervision, and the board may extend the five-year limit for good cause.

Inside that total sit 200 hours of immediate supervision: 100 under a professional counselor licensed in a US jurisdiction during the supervised period (or who would have qualified for a District licence), 100 individual, and at least one hour of immediate supervision for every 35 hours worked.

Each supervisor must rate the performance at least satisfactory and sign a statement covering the location and period, practice hours, immediate-supervision hours, the nature of the work, and licence details.

There is no separate direct-client minimum: all hours worked in a position in which general counseling services are offered count.

Licensure by examination means the National Counselor Examination, at a passing score designated by the National Board for Certified Counselors for that administration.

The rule then exempts three groups from taking it: applicants who already passed a professional counselor licensure board exam in another US jurisdiction, applicants who passed the exam of the Commission for Certified Rehabilitation Counselors, and applicants who passed the National Academy of Certified Mental Health Counselors exam, now a specialty within NBCC.

Anyone relying on an alternative must file results certified or validated by the administering entity, so request that paperwork before you apply.

The NCMHCE is not named in the rule text read, and there is no District jurisprudence exam — the Counseling Compact commission's fees table records none for the District.

If the exam you hold is not on this list, ask the board in writing before you register for anything else.

There is no supervisor credential to hold; qualification is a licence plus timing.

The qualified supervisor is a professional counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or independent clinical social worker who was licensed in a US jurisdiction during the supervised period — so a supervisor whose licence lapsed mid-placement is a problem under the rule text.

Of the 200 immediate-supervision hours, 100 must be under a professional counselor, which means a placement supervised entirely by a psychologist or independent clinical social worker cannot satisfy that half.

The definitions section, amended effective July 7, 2023, is what a graduate choosing a job for its supervision should read first: immediate supervision requires the supervisor to be physically present, discussing or observing the practice, while general supervision only requires availability in person or by a communications device.

The 3,500 hours run under general supervision, so the availability layer can be remote; the 200 immediate hours require physical presence under the rule text read, and no telesupervision allowance for them appears in the sections read — confirm any video arrangement with the board before the hours accrue.

The rule defines the practice of professional counseling as engaging in counseling activities for compensation by a person who represents, by title or description of services, that they are a professional counselor or licensed professional counselor, and it folds three processes into that practice: conducting assessments to determine treatment goals and objectives, assisting clients through a professional relationship toward mental, emotional, physical, social, educational, or career development and adjustment across the life span, and using counseling treatment interventions to identify and remediate mental, emotional, or behavioral conditions that interfere with functional wellness.

The education rule's etiology, diagnosis, treatment planning, and prevention coursework is a curriculum requirement, not an express grant or restriction of diagnostic authority.

None of the sections read sets an instrument-level testing gate or a diagnosis limitation for the LPC, and the governing statute was read only as a policy summary, so treat any scope question — diagnosis, testing, telehealth — as a question for the board.

What an LGPC may do independent of supervision is not stated in the sources read.

The Health Occupations Revision General Amendment Act of 2024 revised the endorsement route for counselors already licensed in another state, and DC Health's policy under D.C. Code §3-1207.10(c) sorts applicants by years of practice.

Everyone files the online application, submits to a criminal background check, answers the screening questions, pays the $230 application and license fee, and arranges official verification of licensure and good standing from the issuing board — website verifications are acceptable only if the jurisdiction considers them primary-source verified.

Applicants with at least five years of practice and a current licence in good standing may substitute a written attestation of five years' post-licensure experience in clinical counseling at the independent level, with a resume showing locations, durations, total hours, and the nature of the practice.

Applicants who have held an independent professional counseling license for at least three years may instead submit the National Certified Counselor credential from NBCC.

All other applicants follow the full checklist, and the board reviews every file individually and may ask for hour information, so expect follow-up rather than a same-day decision.

The Counseling Compact Commission counts the District of Columbia as a member — its news post announcing Washington, D.C. joining the Compact is the section's record of it — but membership is not operation, and the commission had not listed the District among the states issuing and accepting privileges as of the 2026-09-24 retrieval.

The District's enacting law or D.C. Code citation was not located in the sources read, so this page states no enactment date.

The commission's own framing is that the District is still completing the steps needed to begin issuing and receiving privileges.

Until the commission lists the District as live, a District LPC cannot use the Compact to practise elsewhere, and a counselor licensed in a live state cannot use it to practise in the District; the route in is a District licence, by examination under §6605 or by endorsement under the 2024 policy.

Each renewal requires 40 hours of board-approved continuing education completed in the two-year period before the licence expires, with four named slices: 6 hours in ethics, 4 in trauma counseling, 2 in LGBTQ+ cultural competency or specialized clinical training, and at least 10% of the total in subjects the Director determines to be the District's public health priorities, updated and published every five years.

The section does not apply to an initial licence by examination, reciprocity, or endorsement, and the first renewal of a licence granted by examination is exempt too.

Since June 16, 2024, DC Health has moved all credentials to a birth-month cycle: licences issued on or after that date expire on the last day of the holder's birth month, in their odd or even year, and licensees whose transition term ran shorter than two years may satisfy half the CE total — though the LGBTQ+ and public-health portions are still due in full.

Missing the deadline leaves a 60-day window to renew with proof and a late fee before the licence lapses.

Three changes fall in the window.

First, a final rulemaking published at 70 DCR 009452, effective July 7, 2023, rewrote both the continuing education rule — the 40-hour total with its ethics, trauma, LGBTQ+, and public-health slices — and the definitions section, fixing immediate supervision as physical presence.

Second, DC Health's birth-month renewal cycle took effect for credentials issued on or after June 16, 2024.

Third, the Health Occupations Revision General Amendment Act of 2024 revised the endorsement standard, per DC Health's policy.

What did not change is just as useful: the source notes in the rules read date the education rule's last amendment to 2005, the supervised-experience and student-practice rules to 2015, and the examination rule to 1994, so a guide written before 2023 can still carry the right 3,500 hours and exam list — its CE topics, supervision definitions, endorsement route, and Compact status are the parts to re-check.