Washington · Counseling

LMHCA to LMHC: Washington's Mental Health Counselor Hour Requirements

Last updated October 9, 2026

What does LMHCA mean?

LMHCA stands for Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate. It is Washington's pre-licensure credential for mental health counselors, and it is a real license rather than a trainee status. You hold the LMHCA while you earn the supervised postgraduate hours that qualify you for the full LMHC.

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 LMHCA, an LMFTA, or a social worker associate.
• What comes next: the LMHC license, after 3,000 total postgraduate hours including 1,200 hours of direct client counseling and 100 hours of immediate supervision (WAC 246-809-230), plus the NCE or NCMHCE 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 The old six-renewal cap was repealed effective June 6, 2024.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: LMFTA (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate, on the way to LMFT) and LSWAIC, the social worker associate on the clinical track, on the way to LICSW.

Moving up to the full LMHC is a cumulative-hours game with no interim paperwork. The Department of Health verifies everything once, at the end, on a single form per supervisor. Here is what the road looks like.

LMHC hours requirements at a glance

How supervision is measured

Washington sets a proportional floor rather than a fixed monthly minimum: at least 1 hour of supervision per 80 hours of clinical practice, per WAC 246-809. The 100-hour immediate-supervision requirement is the tighter constraint — those are sessions where your approved supervisor has no more than two candidates. General group supervision (up to 6 candidates) is allowed but does not count toward the 100-hour immediate floor.

Credits that shorten the road

• CACREP-accredited degree: once DOH receives your official transcript, you are credited with 50 hours of immediate supervision and 500 hours of direct counseling or other qualifying clinical experience — leaving 50 immediate-supervision hours to earn and 500 fewer hours toward the 3,000 total.
• 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 670-027

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 670-027 — the Verification of Mental Health Counselor Supervised Postgraduate Experience form, one per supervisor and per practice setting — submitted with your final LMHC application packet. It asks for four totals: immediate supervision, direct counseling, all other hours, and the total they add up to. 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.

Renewals: the six-renewal cap is gone

The LMHCA license renews annually on the anniversary of its issuance date (WAC 246-809-990(2)), and — since June 6, 2024 — there is no limit on how many times it can be renewed. The old six-renewal cap was repealed (2024 c 371 s 15; RCW 18.225.145(6)), and anyone who lost an associate license to it can reactivate it as an ordinary expired credential. Each renewal carries 16 CE hours per year (WAC 246-809-632, effective October 2025 — 6 hours of ethics/law every two years, 2 hours of professional roles and boundaries, and 2 hours of health equity every four years). The repeal guide covers what changed and who can reactivate.

Exam

You must pass the NCE or NCMHCE, administered by NBCC/CCE, with scores submitted directly to DOH.

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.