California AMFT to LMFT hours requirements

Requirements

Supervision

• At least 1 supervision unit each week at each site where you gain experience, and 2 units at a site where you have more than 10 direct hours that week.
• One unit is one hour of individual or triadic supervision, or two hours of group supervision, at the same site in the same week. Group units count only in whole blocks inside the week.
• Supervision at one site never covers another site.
• No more than 6 hours of supervision count in a week.
• Supervision counts only in person or by live two-way video. Telephone supervision does not count. Video also depends on your supervisor determining it is appropriate and keeping records.
• Supervision must fall in the same week as the hours it supports; it cannot be back-filled later.
• After the hours are complete, one hour of supervision a week per direct-counseling setting continues.
• At most 1,200 hours may be gained under a licensed educational psychologist.
• BBS associates work as employees or volunteers, never as contractors.

Time limits

• Hours must fall within the 6 years before you apply. Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 4980.43(c)(7) exempts up to 500 hours of qualifying clinical experience in the required supervised practicum from this limit.
• An AMFT registration is valid for six years. On a later registration you cannot work in private practice.

What Accrue checks

• Tracks the 3,000-hour total, the 1,750 direct clinical hours and the 500 hours with couples, families and children.
• Caps non-clinical hours at 1,250.
• Checks each week at each site for 1 supervision unit, or 2 units where you logged more than 10 direct hours. Hours at a site in a week without enough units are not credited.
• Counts supervision in units, never raw minutes: one hour of individual or triadic supervision, or two hours of group supervision in one week, is one unit at one site.
• Credits at most 6 hours of supervision a week and at most 40 hours of experience in any 7 consecutive days.
• Supervision logged by telephone, or with no modality, credits no hours or units and cannot meet a week's unit requirement.
• Counts your supervised weeks toward 104 and your weeks with individual or triadic supervision toward 52.
• Stops counting hours once they are more than 6 years old.
• Counts telehealth client contact with no cap.
• Accepts pre-degree hours you enter yourself as an opening balance, up to 1,300 hours.
• Fills the BBS LMFT weekly log and in-state experience verification with your logged category hours, one supervisor and one setting per form. You keep the weekly log unless the board asks for it; the signed verification goes with your application.

What Accrue does not check

• Supervision must fall in the same week as the hours it supports, with no back-filling. Accrue does not check this.
• One hour of supervision a week per direct-counseling setting continues after the hours are complete. Accrue does not track this.
• At most 1,200 hours may be gained under a licensed educational psychologist. Accrue does not check this.
• Accrue does not apply the 500-hour practicum exemption from the 6-year limit, because a log entry does not show that hours came from a qualifying practicum. Older qualifying practicum hours may need a separate review with the board.
• Trainee hours do not move into this ledger automatically. When you enter pre-degree hours as an opening balance, Accrue does not apply the 750-hour limit on counseling and supervision or the 1,700-hour post-degree minimum.
• Accrue does not track when your AMFT registration ends or the private-practice limit on a later registration.
• Accrue does not fill in the number of supervised weeks, employer or supervisor attestations, required attachments or a supervisor signature on the BBS forms. Complete and check each form with your supervisor before you submit it.
• Out-of-state experience verification forms are not supported.