An MSW, a master's in counseling, and an MFT program all lead to a licence that lets you diagnose and practice psychotherapy independently — but they are three different degrees with three different accreditors, and the licence you can pursue is fixed by the degree you enroll in.
This page compares the programs themselves: accreditation, credit-hour floors, practicum requirements, and the licensing exam each one feeds.
One degree per licence — the choice happens at enrollment
Each of the three therapy licences runs through its own degree, and the mapping is fixed.
The clinical social work licence is reached with a Master of Social Work; the counselor licence — called LPC, LMHC, LPCC, or LCPC depending on the state — is reached with a master's in counseling; and the LMFT is reached with a marriage and family therapy program, or in several states a closely allied degree with the right MFT coursework.
A few boards accept allied degrees, but planning to switch licence families after graduation usually means a second master's.
So the real sequence runs: choose the licence first, then the program that feeds it.
The licence-level comparison — training lens, portability, employer demand — is its own decision, covered in LCSW vs. LPC vs. LMFT.
This page takes the next step down: the degree itself, what your state board will demand of it, and where applicants get caught.
For the whole road from degree to independent practice, see how to become a therapist.
The accreditors: CSWE vs. CACREP vs. COAMFTE
Three accreditors govern the three degrees.
CSWE accredits social work programs — both the BSW and the MSW — and most state boards require the MSW to come from a CSWE-accredited program.
CACREP accredits counseling programs, and COAMFTE accredits marriage and family therapy programs.
State boards frequently require an accredited degree, but how strictly each board names its accreditor varies more than most applicants expect.
On the counseling side: Texas defines a qualifying degree by semester hours and content areas and does not require CACREP; Illinois likewise names no CACREP requirement.
New York accepts a program it has registered or a CACREP-accredited clinical mental health counseling program.
Ohio requires an in-state degree begun after January 1, 2018 to be CACREP-accredited or board-approved.
Florida, from July 1, 2025, requires the degree to carry accreditation from CACREP, the Masters in Psychology and Counseling Accreditation Council, or an equivalent accrediting body — an unaccredited program no longer qualifies, though CACREP remains one accepted route rather than the only one.
MFT has the same shape.
California accepts COAMFTE accreditation or regional or national institutional accreditation or state bureau approval; Utah names COAMFTE or an accredited institution meeting board-set criteria; South Carolina accepts a COAMFTE-accredited program or a CACREP-accredited marriage, couple and family counseling specialty; South Dakota requires a board-recognized accredited program without naming COAMFTE at all.
The practical rule: accreditation is a licensure requirement, not a school-ranking question.
The wrong program can foreclose licensure in the state you want to practice in.
The state pages for Texas, New York, Florida, Ohio, and Illinois walk through each licence's full requirements.
Credit-hour floors — and why your enrollment date matters
Counseling boards increasingly print a credit-hour floor, and the floors keep rising.
Texas requires at least 60 graduate semester hours for applicants who began their program on or after August 1, 2017 — 48 for earlier enrollments.
New York requires 60 semester hours and Florida 60 semester or 80 quarter hours; Ohio requires 60 semester or 90 quarter hours; Illinois licenses counselors on a 48-semester-hour minimum today and moves to 60 semester (90 quarter) hours for applicants from July 1, 2026.
MFT rules do the same in several states: California requires 60 semester or 90 quarter units for graduate study begun on or after August 1, 2012; Virginia requires 60 semester or 90 quarter hours; South Carolina requires a 60-graduate-semester-hour program; South Dakota requires at least 48 credit hours in marriage and family therapy.
For the MSW, the state rules this site has reviewed key on CSWE accreditation of the program rather than printing a credit-hour floor of their own.
| MSW | Counseling master's | MFT program | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accreditor | CSWE | CACREP (state-dependent) | COAMFTE (state-dependent) |
| Feeds | Clinical social work licence | Counselor licence (LPC/LMHC/LPCC/LCPC) | LMFT |
| Exam | ASWB — five categories; clinical licence sits at Clinical | NCE or NCMHCE — the state's choice | AMFTRB national exam (except California) |
| Verified credit floors | Rules key on CSWE accreditation, not a state hour floor | 60 sem hrs in TX, NY, FL, OH; IL 48 → 60 from July 2026 | 60 sem/90 qtr in CA and VA; 60 in SC; 48 in SD |
Two cautions before you compare programs on credit count alone.
The floor that applies is the one in force on your enrollment or application date, not the one in force when you read about it — Texas's 48/60 split and Illinois's 2026 change both work that way.
And hour totals are minimums: boards also name required content areas, so two 60-credit programs are not automatically equivalent.
The practicum every degree has to include
All three degrees build a supervised practicum or internship into the curriculum, and boards print minimums for it.
Texas requires a practicum of at least 300 clock hours, of which at least 100 must be direct client counseling.
New York requires a supervised internship or practicum of at least 600 clock hours.
Florida's route for a non-CACREP program requires at least 700 hours of supervised practicum with at least 280 hours of direct client services — and those practicum, content-area, and diagnostic-coursework conditions are the terms of that non-CACREP route, not add-ons to a CACREP degree.
On the MFT side, California requires at least six semester or nine quarter units of practicum, including at least 150 hours of face-to-face experience counseling individuals, couples, families, or groups.
The practicum is also the first place a program choice has real consequences: it is client-contact work under supervision while you are still a student, and the board's minimum — not the school's marketing — is the number that counts.
The exam each degree feeds
The degree decides which family of licensing exam you sit; the state decides which exam within it.
Social work: the ASWB exams, which come in five categories — Associate, Bachelors, Masters, Advanced Generalist, and Clinical.
The clinical licence sits at the Clinical category, which ASWB defines as an MSW plus two years of experience in clinical settings, and each state decides which category its applicants are approved for.
Counseling: the NCE or the NCMHCE, both administered through NBCC, and states split on which.
Texas accepts either, plus its own jurisprudence exam.
New York requires the NCMHCE and states plainly that the NCE is not acceptable.
Illinois requires both exams for the LCPC.
Ohio collapsed to a single exam — either one — from January 1, 2026.
MFT: the AMFTRB national examination, a four-hour test offered in four forms a year, in most states.
California is the standing exception: it requires a California law and ethics exam plus a board clinical exam instead.
A state law effective January 1, 2026 opened the door for California to adopt an outside clinical exam by regulation — no switch had been made as of September 2026.
The degree-choice consequence is easy to state: you do not get to pick your exam.
It follows from the licence your degree feeds and the state that licenses you — which is one more reason to settle the licence before you pay a deposit.
What the degree does not decide
Not the supervised hours.
Post-degree supervised experience is set by each state's board, not by your program, and there is no national figure.
MFT requirements vary by state: 1,500 hours in South Carolina, 1,700 in South Dakota, 1,200 direct client-care hours in Utah, 2,000 face-to-face hours in Virginia, and 3,000 hours completed over at least 104 weeks in California.
How hours are counted, and what changes at full licensure, is covered in associate vs. independently licensed.
Not your payer eligibility, at least not by itself.
Medicare's definition of a qualified MFT requires a qualifying master's or doctorate, at least 2 years or 3,000 hours of post-master's supervised clinical experience in marriage and family therapy, and a state licence — so a state licence on its own does not prove Medicare eligibility where the state's own hour total sits lower.
Utah wrote that test into its statute: its independent licence turns on 1,200 direct client-care hours, with the 3,000-hour track applying only where federal Medicare rules require it.
And not portability or titles.
Which licence travels best between states belongs to the licence decision in LCSW vs. LPC vs. LMFT, and the state-by-state map of the counselor licence's names — including the states where the same letters mean a supervised tier — is in LPC vs. LMHC vs. LPCC vs. LCPC.
Four checks before you apply to any program
The degree decision rewards ten minutes of board-website reading more than any ranking list.
Work through these in order.
Decide the licence first
The licence determines the degree, the accreditor, and the exam. Decide it from where you want to live, what employers near you post, and the licence comparison — not from a program brochure.Read your state board's education rule
Find the education section of the licensing rule for the licence you want: whether an accreditor is named, the credit-hour floor, the practicum minimum, and which enrollment or application date the rule keys off.Confirm the program's accreditation against that rule
Check the program holds the accreditation your board requires — CSWE for the MSW, CACREP or the accepted alternative for counseling, COAMFTE or the accepted alternative for MFT. Allied-degree routes exist, but only on the board's own terms.Match the practicum to the board minimum, not the brochure
Programs describe practicum in their own marketing language. Convert it to the board's numbers — total clock hours and direct client contact — before you commit.
Then apply the enrollment-date check one more time.
These rules change by legislative session and apply by enrollment or application date, not by when you read about them — so confirm your state's current education rule with the board itself before you pay a deposit.
Once you can see the licence you are aiming at, read real job postings for it in the metro you want to live in.
Therapist roles are posted by licence, and employers tell you what they hire more reliably than any comparison table.
This page is career information, not legal or clinical advice, and not a resource for someone seeking treatment.
Degree rules are state rules — and they change