Substance Abuse Counselor Requirements in North Dakota: Credentials, Hours and Exams

The Clinical Trainee and Intern statuses are registrations, each capped at 12 months plus one 12-month extension, under which the hours toward a licence are earned.

Above them sit two licences: the LAC and the MAC.

The LCAC was a grandfather licence for counselors already licensed on December 31, 2018 with 10,000 hours, and NDCC 43-45-07.4(1) required the application before January 1, 2024, so it is closed to anyone starting now.

The statute is practice- and title-protected: a person may not represent to the public that they are an addiction counselor, or practise addiction counseling in the state, unless licensed.

The LAC (and the now-closed LCAC) needed a bachelor's, master's or doctorate in addiction studies from a NASAC-, ICASEA- or CACREP-accredited program, or a degree in addiction studies or a closely related field plus a minimum of 27 credits spread across nine set 3-credit subject areas.

The MAC needs a master's or doctorate with at least 28 graduate-level credits, including research coursework and one clinical-supervision credit.

The rule's academic-equivalence language for other North Dakota licensees is narrower than it looks: only a North Dakota-licensed psychologist, psychiatrist or physician with a doctorate in that field of licensure has the degree substitute directly for the MAC's academic requirement.

A North Dakota-licensed associate marriage and family therapist, associate professional counselor, professional counselor, master social worker or advanced clinical practice nurse is eligible to apply for the LAC only; a North Dakota-licensed marriage and family therapist, professional clinical counselor, clinical social worker or advanced clinical practice nurse is eligible to apply for the LAC or the MAC — both only if that person also meets the board's own academic standards.

The LAC requires 960 clinical training hours across multiple levels of therapeutic care, with at least 40 hours of direct, face-to-face supervision in each of five practice areas plus 30 hours of documentation.

The MAC requires 700 clinical training hours (at least 30 hours in each of the same five areas plus 20 hours documentation) and, separately, 2,000 postclinical training hours earned only after the master's or doctorate is awarded, with at least one hour of weekly supervision.

A North Dakota-licensed psychologist, psychiatrist or physician with a doctorate can meet the MAC's entire clinical-training requirement — both the 700 and 2,000 postclinical hours — with 350 supervised addiction-specific hours instead; other specified North Dakota licensees can meet the LAC's, or either licence's, hours the same way, depending on their own credential, if supervised by an LCAC, MAC, or LAC registered as a clinical supervisor.

Supervision stays direct until the supervisee is rated a 3 or higher in a given clinical training area, then becomes indirect for that area while any area not yet rated a 3 stays direct.

The LAC applicant must pass the national certified addiction counselor level II (NCAC II) exam or the master addiction counselor (MAC) exam, both administered by NAADAC, or another exam the board finds equivalent.

The MAC applicant must pass the MAC exam specifically, or another board-approved equivalent — NCAC II is not listed as an alternative for the MAC licence.

A North Dakota-licensed psychologist, psychiatrist or physician who holds a doctorate in that field of licensure is exempt from the exam requirement entirely.

NAADAC's own published state-exam chart lists North Dakota as using NCAC I, which is a live source of confusion; the sources read for this page are the current rule text only, amended effective October 1, 2025, which requires NCAC II or MAC for the LAC — they do not establish what the rule required before that date.

"Addiction counseling" is defined to include the assessment of a substance-related or addictive disorder identified by the DSM-5-TR.

Private practice is separately gated: a person may not engage in the private practice of addiction counseling unless registered with the board as eligible for it, and that registration is available only to an LCAC, a MAC, or an LAC who has separately registered as a clinical supervisor.

A plain LAC reaches that clinical-supervisor registration only after documenting at least 3 years of experience and 6,000 hours of supervised experience as an LAC, 20 hours of continuing education in clinical supervision completed within the 4 years before applying, and letters of reference from two already-registered clinical supervisors; a MAC needs none of that to register for private practice.

Supervising clinical training hours is separate: NDAC 4.5-02.1-01-04(1) still requires a registered clinical supervisor, so a MAC must also hold that registration, though its path is lighter — an ongoing 3-hour clinical-supervision CE statement rather than the LAC's 3-year/6,000-hour/20-CE/two-letters requirement.

North Dakota does not have an IC&RC member board on the current directory, so there is no IC&RC credential transfer into the state licence for a counselor moving here.

NDCC 43-45-05.1(3) lets the board license an applicant already licensed elsewhere if that jurisdiction's requirements are at least substantially the same, or if the applicant's own qualifications and experience are substantially similar to North Dakota's — but the statute says the board "may" grant that license, not that it must.

NDAC 4.5-02.1-01-06.1 implements that same discretionary route: it opens "pursuant to subsection 3" of 43-45-05.1 and, "for the purposes of reciprocity as set forth in subsection 3," deems a current NCAC II certification issued by NAADAC to meet the LAC requirements, and a current MAC certification issued by NAADAC or the National Board for Certified Counselors to meet the MAC requirements — a way of satisfying the substantially-similar test, not a second, automatic path.

The board still grants reciprocity "on such terms and conditions as it may determine necessary."

Licences expire on December 31 of every odd-numbered year, so North Dakota runs on a fixed two-year calendar rather than an individual renewal anniversary.

Renewal requires 40 hours of continuing education for the two-year licensing period, at least 6 of which must be on professional ethics.

A licensee initially licensed mid-cycle has that requirement prorated by when the licence took effect: 30 hours (6 on ethics) for January 1-June 30 of an even-numbered year, 20 hours (4 on ethics) for July 1 of an even-numbered year onward, 10 hours (2 on ethics) for January 1-June 30 of an odd-numbered year, and zero hours for a licence effective July 1 of an odd-numbered year or later.

Two changes matter for anyone researching this credential today.

First, the LCAC grandfather licence's application window closed January 1, 2024, so it is not an option for a new applicant regardless of hours held.

Second, NDAC article 4.5-02.1's licensure-application, academic, clinical-training, exam and reciprocity sections (01-02 through 01-06.1) were all amended effective October 1, 2025.

The sources read for this page are that current, post-amendment text only — they do not establish what those sections required before that date, so a claim that the amendment replaced a specific older exam requirement (such as NAADAC's own published state-exam chart, which lists North Dakota as using NCAC I) cannot be verified from what is on file; only the current requirement, NCAC II or MAC for the LAC, is confirmed.

The chapter carves out two groups.

Subsection (1) covers anyone practising within the standards and ethics of their own licensed profession, as long as they do not tell the public, by title or by using the L.A.C., L.C.A.C. or M.A.C. initials, that they are engaging in addiction counseling — protecting, for example, a psychologist or social worker who addresses substance use within their own scope without also holding a Board of Addiction Counseling Examiners licence.

Subsection (2) separately covers addiction counseling trainees and interns in board-approved programs, so the registration-based training structure that leads to the LAC or MAC does not itself violate the licensure requirement.