Road to Licensure: The BBS and Licensure Cheat Sheet

Enroll in a qualifying MFT degree program

The LMFT route starts with a master’s or doctoral degree that meets the Board’s educational requirements in Business and Professions Code section 4980.36: at least 60 semester units (or 90 quarter units), including at least six semester units (or nine quarter units) of supervised practicum with at least 225 hours of experience, 150 of them face-to-face counseling. Which degree titles qualify is explained in which master’s degrees qualify for the California LMFT and in the BBS educational requirements guide. To compare schools, start with how to evaluate a therapy graduate program and the directory of California MFT programs.

Enroll in practicum before you see clients

• Hours count only after you finish 12 semester units (18 quarter units) of graduate study, and you must be enrolled in a practicum course whenever you counsel clients as a trainee.
• You may keep counseling clients during a gap in practicum enrollment only if the gap lasts less than 90 calendar days and falls between two practicum courses, or between a practicum course and your degree award date. During a gap of 90 days or more, you may not see clients at all. The Board’s practicum requirements FAQ has the details.
• Trainees work as employees or volunteers, never as independent contractors, and never in a private practice or professional corporation.

For how sites are found and approved, see how MFT practicum placement works and what an MFT trainee is.

Sign a Supervision Agreement with every supervisor BBS form

• You and each supervisor complete the Supervision Agreement within 60 days of starting supervision, or before supervision ends if it lasts less than 60 days. It includes a supervisory plan you develop together. Keep every page of the signed original, because the original goes in with your licensure application years later.
• If your supervisor is not employed by your employer, or supervises as a volunteer, the supervisor and your employer also sign a written oversight agreement before supervision begins. The Board publishes a sample oversight agreement, which goes on the employer’s letterhead.
• Look up your supervisor’s license on the DCA license search when supervision starts and again near its expiration date. Your hours count only while that license is current, active, and not suspended or on probation.

Start seeing clients, and log every week BBS form

• Record your hours on the Weekly Log of Experience Hours and have your supervisor sign it every week. Use a separate log for each supervisor and each work setting, and keep pre-degree and post-degree hours on separate logs.
• You keep the logs yourself and send them to the Board only if it asks for them.
• Trainee supervision follows its own ratio, summarized in supervision rules at a glance.

In your final semester, arrange an employer Live Scan

• If you will keep seeing clients after graduation, at your practicum site or a new job, those hours can count before your AMFT number arrives only if your employer required Live Scan fingerprinting before you earned them.
• Complete a separate Live Scan for each employer and keep a copy of each completed Request for Live Scan Service form, with the employer named in section 2.
• This is not the Live Scan for your AMFT application. It goes in with your licensure application, and the 90-day rule section below explains how the two differ.

Before you leave each site, collect your signatures BBS form

• When supervision with any supervisor ends, have that supervisor complete and sign an Experience Verification form right away, while you can still reach them. Use one form per supervisor and per employer, and separate forms for pre-degree and post-degree hours.
• Leave with your signed Supervision Agreement, any oversight agreement, your signed weekly logs, and a copy of your employer Live Scan form.
• If you volunteered at the site after graduation, ask the employer for a volunteer verification letter on its letterhead that states the dates you volunteered.

Never backdate a form. Every BBS form prints its revision date, the Supervision Agreement is signed under penalty of perjury, and the Experience Verification warns that knowingly false information may be grounds for denying your application.

Graduate, and note your degree award date

Your 90-day clock starts on the date your degree is conferred, as posted on your official transcript, which may differ from the date of the ceremony. For post-degree hours to count before your registration is issued, the Board must receive your AMFT application within those 90 days. Until your AMFT number is issued, you may not work or volunteer in a private practice or professional corporation.

Gather your AMFT application packet BBS form

The Board’s in-state AMFT registration packet contains the application, the Live Scan form, and a checklist. You need:

• The completed Application for Associate Marriage and Family Therapist Registration, in your legal name, signed in ink or with a secure electronic signature.
• A $75 check or money order payable to the Behavioral Sciences Fund. That is the reduced fee for applications postmarked July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2030; the standard fee is $150.
• Your BBS Live Scan, using the Request for Live Scan Service form in the packet. Get fingerprinted no more than 60 days before you submit, then mail the second copy of the completed form with your application. The Department of Justice and FBI fees total $49, plus the Live Scan site’s own service charge.
• Your official transcript and your Degree Program Certification, either in an envelope sealed by your school that you include in your application packet, or emailed by your school directly to BBStranscripts@dca.ca.gov. The Board advises requesting both no earlier than two weeks before you submit.
• Optional now, required later: proof of the six-hour suicide risk assessment and intervention training and the three-hour telehealth course. Both must be done before you apply for licensure, and you can send proof with either application.

Leave out your pre-degree hours and your supervision forms. Those go with your licensure application after all of your experience is complete. The address you enter on the application is public, so use a post office box if you do not want your home address published.

Mail the application so it arrives within 90 days

• Hold the application and check together with a single clip. Staples and paper clips interfere with the Board’s scanning.
• Mail it with tracking. The Board cannot confirm that it received your application, so your tracking record and your cashed check are your proof.
• Give the Board an email address you will keep after graduation, because it sends notices there for the rest of the licensure process.
• Standard processing is 30 business days and can run longer in graduation season. The Board posts weekly processing updates on its social media accounts.

Create your BreEZe account

BreEZe is the state’s online licensing portal. Once your registration is issued, it is the fastest way to renew, update your address, apply for the Law and Ethics Exam, and eventually request your license.

Receive your AMFT registration number

Your registration expires one year from the last day of the month in which it was issued, and it can be renewed five times, for six years in all. Post-degree hours count from here on, along with any hours that qualify under the 90-day rule. What the title allows is covered in what an AMFT is and AMFT employment rules, and the first months are walked through in AMFT registration: your first steps.

Take the California Law and Ethics Exam in your first year

• State law requires a new AMFT to take the California Law and Ethics Exam within the first year of registration. Apply in BreEZe for the fastest processing (a mailed application takes four to six weeks), pay the exam fee of $75 through June 30, 2030 ($150 standard), and schedule with Pearson VUE.
• If you do not pass, you can apply for a re-exam right away, but you can retest only after 90 days. The Board describes at least three chances to pass in each renewal cycle.
• The name the Board has on file must match your government-issued photo ID.

What the exam covers and how to prepare are in the Law and Ethics Exam guide.

Renew your registration every year

• To renew, you must have taken the Law and Ethics Exam during the renewal cycle if you have not yet passed it. Taking it is enough to renew; passing is required later, for licensure.
• Complete three hours of continuing education in California law and ethics during every renewal cycle, even after you pass the exam, and keep the certificates. The Board’s registrant continuing education guide lists acceptable providers.
• Pay the renewal fee, $75 through June 30, 2030 ($150 standard). Renewals filed online in BreEZe take effect right away.

Renew on time. Hours you earn while your registration is expired do not count toward licensure. More detail is in BBS renewal in California and continuing education for licensees and registrants.

Keep every week of supervision in compliance

• As an associate you need at least one unit of supervision in every week you claim hours, in every setting where you work, plus one more unit in that setting in any week you provide more than 10 hours of direct clinical counseling there. Hours spent at supervisor-approved workshops, seminars, training sessions, and conferences are exempt from this rule. The full rules are in supervision rules at a glance.
• You must work as a W-2 employee or a volunteer, never as an independent contractor, and clients may never pay you directly.

For the details, see BBS supervision requirements for associates, who can supervise an AMFT, and remote and telehealth supervision.

Collect paperwork every time something changes

• New supervisor: sign a new Supervision Agreement within 60 days (or before supervision ends, if sooner), and if the supervisor works outside your employer or volunteers, have the oversight agreement signed before supervision begins.
• Leaving a supervisor or a job: get the Experience Verification signed the day supervision ends.
• Each year of paid work: keep your W-2 from each employer. Volunteer work: get the volunteer verification letter with your dates.

Pass the Law and Ethics Exam before your registration reaches six years

You must pass the exam to be licensed and to receive a subsequent registration number. If your hours are not finished when your first registration reaches its six-year limit, you can apply by mail for a subsequent registration, no earlier than 90 days before the first one’s final expiration and only after passing the exam. An AMFT holding a subsequent registration may not work in a private practice or professional corporation.

Finish 3,000 hours over at least 104 weeks

The categories, caps, and the six-year window are laid out in hours requirements at a glance. Hours earned more than six years before the Board receives your licensure application do not count, except for up to 500 practicum hours. Once your hours are complete, you still need at least one hour of supervision each week in every setting where you provide direct clinical counseling while you finish the process. How long it usually takes and what associates earn along the way are covered in their own guides.

Complete the two pre-licensure courses

You need six hours of coursework or supervised applied experience in suicide risk assessment and intervention, and three hours on providing mental health services via telehealth, including telehealth law and ethics. If your degree program covered them, your school can certify it. Suicide risk training that was part of your supervised experience can be certified by your training director or primary supervisor. Otherwise, take a course from a provider the Board accepts for continuing education.

Submit your Application for Licensure BBS form

The Board’s in-state Application for Licensure includes a checklist. You send:

• The completed application with a $250 check or money order, which is a $125 application fee plus the $125 Clinical Exam fee at the reduced rates in effect through June 30, 2030.
• An Experience Verification form for each supervisor and each employer, with pre-degree and post-degree hours on separate forms.
• The signed original Supervision Agreement for each supervisor, or the Supervisor Responsibility Statement for supervision that began before January 1, 2022.
• For post-degree hours, your W-2 for each year and each employer (a current pay stub for the current year), or a volunteer verification letter for each volunteer position.
• A copy of each employer Live Scan form, if you are counting hours earned between graduation and registration.
• Any written oversight agreements, and proof of the telehealth and suicide risk courses if you have not sent it already.

You can file this application before you pass the Law and Ethics Exam. Leave out your weekly logs unless the Board asks for them.

Take the LMFT California Clinical Exam within one year

Once the Board approves your application and you have passed the Law and Ethics Exam, you receive a notice of eligibility and schedule the Clinical Exam with Pearson VUE. You must sit for it within one year of the date your application was approved or, if you passed the Law and Ethics Exam after that, within one year of the date you passed it. If you do not pass, you must retake it within one year of the failed attempt, after a waiting period that the Clinical Exam guide explains.

Watch the one-year deadlines. Missing one closes your file, and when you reapply, any hours more than six years old at that point no longer count.

Request your initial license BBS form

After you pass both exams, file a Request for Initial License Issuance. If you ever held an associate registration, apply online in BreEZe for the fastest processing; a mailed request takes about 30 working days. The fee is $100 through June 30, 2030 ($200 standard), and you must apply within one year of being told you passed, or the file is closed.

Celebrate: you are a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

Your license issues online in BreEZe first, and the certificate follows by mail. Once it shows online, you are licensed. Renewal then moves to every two years, with its own continuing education requirement, which the BBS renewal guide covers.