California BBS · AMFT → LMFT
What are the AMFT hour requirements for the LMFT license in California?
An AMFT needs 3,000 hours of supervised experience to apply for the LMFT license in California. At least 1,750 of those hours are direct clinical counseling, and 500 of the 1,750 are with couples, families and children. No more than 1,250 hours can be non-clinical. The hours take at least 104 weeks, with individual or triadic supervision in at least 52 of them. The California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) credits no more than 40 hours in any seven consecutive days. Hours count for six years before the Board receives your application, and for seven years from January 1, 2027.
Always the current version, straight from the Board.
How many hours do you need for the LMFT license?
The Board sets minimums you have to reach and maximums you cannot count past. Both kinds sit inside the 3,000.
| Requirement | Hours |
|---|---|
| Total supervised experience | 3,000 minimum |
| Direct clinical counseling | 1,750 minimum |
| Couples, families and children | 500 minimum, inside the 1,750 |
| Non-clinical experience | 1,250 maximum |
| Hours before your degree | 1,300 maximum |
| Counseling and supervision before your degree | 750 maximum, inside the 1,300 |
| Hours after your degree | 1,700 minimum |
| Supervised weeks | 104 minimum |
| Weeks with individual or triadic supervision | 52 minimum |
| Hours credited in any seven consecutive days | 40 maximum |
| Supervision credited in one week | 6 hours maximum |
| Hours valid before the Board receives your application | 6 years; 7 years from January 1, 2027 |
The number that catches most people is the 500. Those hours are not separate from your 1,750. They are carved out of them. Finish the 1,750 without 500 hours of couples, family or child work and you keep going until you have them. For the week-by-week mechanics, see how California counts your MFT hours.
What has to be inside your 1,750 direct hours?
Direct clinical counseling is the therapy itself: counseling individuals, groups, couples or families. On your weekly log it is column A. At least 1,750 of your 3,000 hours go there.
Inside that 1,750, at least 500 hours are diagnosing and treating couples, families and children. The Board's row says children, not only couples and families. A child you see individually is already inside the 500. So is a couple. So is a family.
Both figures are minimums. Reaching 3,000 does not help if either one is short. For what lands in column A and what does not, see direct client contact hours.
How many of your hours can be non-clinical?
No more than 1,250 of your 3,000 hours can be non-clinical experience. The Board lists what counts: supervision, psychological testing, writing clinical reports, writing progress or process notes, client-centered advocacy, and workshops, seminars, training sessions or conferences. Workshops and trainings count only when they relate to marriage and family therapy and your supervisor approves them.
Supervision is inside this cap. It is not a separate allowance. Over 104 weeks at one unit a week, supervision alone takes at least 104 hours out of the 1,250. Non-clinical hours above the cap do not count toward the 3,000, and they never move the 1,750.
How many of your hours can come from before your degree?
Your degree date splits your hours in two. Before it you are an MFT trainee, enrolled in practicum. After it you are an AMFT.
Up to 1,300 hours can come from before your degree. Inside the 1,300, counseling and supervision share one 750-hour budget: 750 for the two together, not 750 each. The other 550 can only be non-clinical.
At least 1,700 hours have to come after your degree. That is a minimum in its own right. Fill the 1,300 and you still have 1,700 ahead of you. The full rule is in pre-degree and post-degree hours. If you are still in practicum, practicum hour tracking covers the trainee rules.
How much supervision do you need each week?
For every week you claim hours at a setting, you need at least one unit of supervision there. One unit is one hour of individual or triadic supervision, or two hours of group supervision. If you do more than 10 hours of direct clinical counseling at a setting in a week, you need two units there. The Board credits no more than six hours of supervision in any week. At least 52 of your 104 weeks must include individual or triadic supervision.
As a trainee the rule is a ratio instead: one unit for every five hours of direct clinical counseling, averaged over your time at the setting, with at least one unit in any week you log hours there.
Units, ratios and the worked examples are in BBS supervision requirements. Supervision can happen in person or by two-way video in every setting; see video supervision.
What limits apply to a single week?
Two ceilings sit on every week. The Board credits at most 40 hours of experience in any seven consecutive days, counted across all your work settings together. It credits at most six hours of supervision in a week, counting individual, triadic and group together.
A week over 40 hours is a normal week. Only the credit stops at 40. At 40 credited hours a week, 3,000 hours takes 75 weeks, and the Board still asks for 104. Longer weeks move your total. They do not move your calendar.
How long do your hours stay valid?
Your hours must be gained within six years before the Board receives your Application for Licensure. From January 1, 2027, that window is seven years, under AB 1598. The clock runs from your licensure application, not from your AMFT registration.
One exception exists on this track only: up to 500 hours of counseling and supervision earned as a trainee in practicum can be older than the window.
Which forms do you keep and which do you send?
You keep the weekly log, Form 37A-525. One sheet covers one supervisor, one work setting and one year, with ten weekly rows. Your supervisor signs it. The Board asks for it only on request, so store it where you can find it years later. Pre-degree and post-degree hours go on separate sheets; the AMFT Number box is filled only on post-degree sheets.
You send the Experience Verification, Form 37A-301, with your application. One form covers one supervisor at one setting and carries the totals from the signed logs. Column by column, the weekly log is explained in the BBS Weekly Log of Experience Hours.
When do your hours start counting?
Under the 90-Day Rule, your post-degree hours can count after your employer's Live Scan date if the Board receives your AMFT application within 90 days of your degree date. Miss the window and your hours start on the day your AMFT number is issued. The four conditions are in the 90-Day Rule.
What are the most common AMFT hour tracking mistakes?
Forgetting the couples, families and children subset
The 500 hours sit inside the 1,750. Many AMFTs find out late, when the caseload is harder to change.
Miscounting supervision units
Two hours of group supervision make one unit. Mixing hours and units reads as compliant when it is not. It matters most during practicum, where the ratio is one unit per five direct hours.
Counting past the pre-degree cap
Only 1,300 practicum hours count, and only 750 of those can be counseling and supervision. Hours above the cap earn nothing.
Mixing sites and supervisors on one log
The Board wants one weekly log per supervisor per setting. Two sites or two supervisors means two logs every week.
SparkHours checks these rules as you log, not after.
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