Washington · MFT

LMFTA to LMFT: Washington's Marriage and Family Therapist Hour Requirements

Last updated October 10, 2026

What does LMFTA mean?

LMFTA stands for Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate. It is Washington's pre-licensure credential for marriage and family therapists, and it is a real license rather than a trainee status. You hold the LMFTA while you earn the supervised postgraduate hours that qualify you for the full LMFT.

One narrow exception lets you see clients before the license is in hand. Since October 1, 2025, an applicant may practice under a pending associate license for up to 120 days from the day the Washington State Department of Health receives their completed application, under an approved supervisor (WAC 246-809-097(1); RCW 18.225.145(2)). If those 120 days run out, or the application is denied, before a license is issued, you must stop practicing immediately, and WAC 246-809-097(4) says the 120-day period cannot be extended or renewed. One supervision condition applies only inside that window: WAC 246-809-020(2)(c) requires your approved supervisor to review any assessment or diagnosis you make and to agree with it before it is provided to the patient. The rules do not say whether hours earned in that window count toward licensure, so ask the Department of Health before assuming either way.

• Who regulates it: the Washington State Department of Health, under chapter 246-809 of the Washington Administrative Code. The same chapter covers all three behavioral health disciplines, so WAC 246-809-020 sets your supervision standards whether you are an LMFTA, an LMHCA, or a social worker associate.
• What comes next: the LMFT license, after 3,000 total postgraduate hours including 1,000 direct client contact hours and 200 hours of qualified supervision (WAC 246-809-130), plus the AMFTRB national MFT exam.
• How long it lasts: it renews annually, with no limit on the number of renewals. The old six-renewal cap was repealed effective June 6, 2024.
• The sister credentials: LMHCA (Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate, on the way to LMHC) and LSWAIC, the social worker associate on the clinical track, on the way to LICSW.

Moving up to the full LMFT is a cumulative-hours game with no interim paperwork. Two things set the MFT path apart from the state's counseling and social work tracks: double the supervision (200 hours, not 100) and a 500-hour couples/family subset of your direct hours. Here is what the road looks like.

The hour targets

The 500-hour couples/family subset

Of your 1,000 direct client contact hours, at least 500 must involve diagnosing and treating couples and families, per WAC 246-809-130. Hours with an individual client count toward the 1,000 direct total but not toward the 500-hour subset. As in Oregon, these sessions blend into your regular direct hours, so tag them as you go. The MFT couples/family hours guide lays out what counts in both states.

200 supervision hours, two overlapping floors

Washington LMFTAs need 200 supervision hours — double the LICSW and LMHC target — and the 200 carry two independent floors on the same hours:

• By format: at least 100 hours one-on-one; up to 100 may be group.
• By supervisor credential: at least 100 hours with an LMFT who has 5 or more years of clinical experience; up to 100 may be with an equally qualified practitioner (LMHC, LICSW, psychologist, psychiatrist, or psychiatric ARNP).

These are floors, not exclusive buckets — all 200 could be one-on-one with a qualifying LMFT. Underneath both, the WAC 246-809-020 baseline still applies: at least 1 hour of supervision per 80 hours of clinical practice. Your supervisor must have held an unrestricted license for at least two years, with 15 clock hours of supervision training, and cannot be a relative, peer, or your own therapist.

Credits that shorten the road

• COAMFTE-accredited degree: graduates receive credit for 500 direct client hours and 100 supervision hours toward the Washington LMFT requirements.
• SUDP experience: 3+ years as a Substance Use Disorder Professional within the past 10 years reduces the total from 3,000 to 2,700 hours.

No interim reports — then DOH 670-005

Washington has no periodic reporting windows and no birth-month deadlines during your associate period. You track your hours across the whole supervised experience, and each supervisor completes a DOH 670-005 — the Marriage and Family Therapy Supervision and Experience Verification form, one per supervisor and per practice setting — submitted with your final LMFT application. The tradeoff: "no reports" means no forcing function, so if your tracking drifts, nobody notices until the end, when reconstructing hours across supervisors and settings gets painful. Almost Licensed keeps the running split — the 200-hour supervision total, the 100-hour LMFT-supervisor floor, and the 500-hour couples/family subset — and pre-fills the DOH 670-005 per placement.

Renewals and the exam

The LMFTA license renews annually on the anniversary of its issuance date with 16 CE hours per year (WAC 246-809-632, effective October 2025). The old six-renewal cap was repealed effective June 6, 2024 — there is no longer a limit on associate renewals, and anyone who lost an LMFTA to the former cap can reactivate it; the Washington renewal-cap repeal guide covers what changed (it applies to LMHCAs and LMFTAs alike). For the exam, you take the AMFTRB national MFT exam through Professional Testing Corporation / Prometric — submit your request well ahead of your desired testing window. The Oregon LMFT associate guide shows how the same discipline works south of the river.

This guide is informational, not legal advice. Licensure rules change. Always verify current requirements with your board before making decisions about your supervision plan, and flag any discrepancies to support@almostlicensed.com so we can fix them.