# How California Counts Your MFT Hours

Every hour you log runs through the same rules before it reaches your 3,000. This guide covers what those rules are, and where hours stop counting.

## What Has to Be Inside Your 3,000 Hours

California asks for 3,000 hours of supervised experience before it will license you as a marriage and family therapist. The 3,000 isn't one pool. Parts of it have minimums you have to reach. Parts have maximums you can't count past. And the whole thing has to run over a minimum stretch of time.

| What the Board asks for | The figure | What it does to your count |
|---|---|---|
| Total supervised experience | **3,000 hours** | The number everything else sits inside. |
| Supervised weeks | **Minimum 104** | Two years at the least. Each of those weeks needs at least one unit of supervision. |
| Weeks of individual or triadic supervision | **Minimum 52** | Half of your 104 weeks. Each of the 52 needs an hour of individual or triadic contact, so group supervision alone can't carry you. |
| Direct clinical counseling | **Minimum 1,750 hours** | A floor inside the 3,000. Your hours of direct client contact. |
| Couples, families, and children | **Minimum 500 hours** | A floor inside the 1,750, not on top of it. Diagnosing and treating couples, families, and children. |
| Non-clinical experience | **Maximum 1,250 hours** | A ceiling. Supervision, psychological testing, clinical reports, progress notes, client-centered advocacy, and workshops. |
| Hours earned before your degree | **Maximum 1,300 hours** | A ceiling on what you can bring from your traineeship. |
| Counseling and supervision before your degree | **Maximum 750 hours** | A ceiling inside the 1,300, counting the two together. The other 550 can only be non-clinical. |
| Hours earned after your degree | **Minimum 1,700 hours** | The other side of the 1,300. Even a full traineeship leaves this much to earn as an associate. |

### A Minimum and a Maximum Aren't the Same Kind of Rule

A minimum is something you have to reach, and you can't finish without it. A maximum is where hours stop counting toward the 3,000. It isn't a limit on your work, and it doesn't take away anything you already logged.

### The 1,300 Is Not 1,300 Hours of Client Work

As an MFT Trainee you can carry up to 1,300 hours into your 3,000. But at most 750 of those can be counseling and direct supervisor contact combined. The remaining 550 has to be non-clinical. See [how pre-degree and post-degree hours differ](/guides/pre-degree-vs-post-degree-hours) for the line itself.

## Two Limits on Any Single Week

| What's capped | The figure | How it's measured |
|---|---|---|
| Experience credited in a week | **40 hours** | Any seven consecutive days, not a fixed calendar week. Counted between all your settings, not per setting. |
| Supervision credited in a week | **6 hours** | Individual, triadic and group added together. |

### Six Hours, Not Six Units

This is the one people convert wrongly. Every other weekly supervision figure counts in units. One unit is one hour of individual or triadic supervision, or two hours of group. The weekly ceiling counts in hours instead.

So six hours of group supervision in a week is your limit, not six units of it. Reading the ceiling as units doubles it.

### Why 104 Weeks Is a Real Floor

At the maximum 40 credited hours a week, 3,000 hours takes 75 weeks. The Board still asks for at least 104 supervised weeks, so nobody finishes in 75. Working longer weeks moves your hour total. It doesn't move your calendar.

## What Each Column on Your Weekly Log Is Counting

Six columns, and only two of them add up. The others exist so the Board can check the parts. Writing an hour in a sub-column doesn't count it twice.

| Column | Counts toward the total? | What it's checked against |
|---|---|---|
| A. Direct Counseling with Individuals, Groups, Couples or Families | Counts toward C | The 1,750-hour minimum. |
| A1. Diagnosis and Treatment of Couples, Families, Children | Already inside A | The 500-hour minimum that sits inside the 1,750. |
| B. Non-Clinical Experience | Counts toward C | The 1,250-hour maximum. |
| B1. Supervision, Individual or Triadic | Already inside B | Your weekly supervision requirement, the 6-hour weekly ceiling, and the 52 weeks of individual or triadic contact. |
| B2. Supervision, Group | Already inside B | The same weekly requirement and the same ceiling. Group hours never count toward the 52 weeks. |
| C. Total Hours Per Week (A + B = C) | Your weekly total | The 3,000, and the 40-hour weekly limit. |

### One Week as an AMFT, Followed All the Way Through

Say you see clients for 9 hours, 3 of them with families. You sit 2 hours of group supervision and spend 4 hours on notes and reports.

- **Your weekly total is 15 hours**, not 18. Supervision and paperwork both live inside B.
- **9 hours** move you toward the 1,750-hour minimum.
- **3 of those same 9** also move you toward the 500-hour minimum. They aren't counted twice.
- **6 hours** count against the 1,250-hour non-clinical maximum.
- **2 hours of group supervision make one unit**, which satisfies the week at that setting. You didn't pass 10 hours of counseling, so no second unit is owed.
- **The same week as a trainee owes two units**, because the 5:1 ratio rounds 9 hours up.

SparkHours fills every one of these columns from the hours you have already logged. Our [column-by-column walkthrough of the weekly log](/guides/bbs-weekly-log-of-experience-hours) covers what each one wants, including the versions for the other two licenses. For what does and doesn't belong in column A, see [what counts as direct client contact](/guides/direct-client-contact-hours).

## The Week You Owe Supervision Isn't the Week You Saw Clients

The rule is written around weeks for which experience is credited, not weeks with client contact. Earn any hours at a setting that week and you owe at least one unit of supervision there.

A week of nothing but progress notes still owes one. So does a week of only psychological testing, clinical reports, or client-centered advocacy.

| Your week at one setting | Supervision owed there |
|---|---|
| 6 hours of direct client contact | At least one unit |
| No clients. 6 hours of progress notes and clinical reports | At least one unit |
| No clients. 6 hours of psychological testing or client-centered advocacy | At least one unit |
| Attending a training session, and nothing else | Nothing on its own. Those hours still count toward your 3,000. |
| Nothing earned at that setting at all | Nothing |

The carve-out is narrow and specific: time spent **attending** workshops, seminars, training sessions or conferences. Everything else on the non-clinical side still owes you a unit.

Supervision is itself credited experience. So the hour you sit both triggers the week's requirement and satisfies it.

### How Much, and How It Changes When Your Degree Posts

The floor is the same in both phases. What sits above it is not. Before your degree it's a ratio that climbs with your counseling hours. After your degree it's a single step.

| | MFT Trainee, before your degree | AMFT, after your degree |
|---|---|---|
| The weekly floor | One unit at each setting, in any week you earn hours there | The same |
| How many units the week asks for | One unit for every five hours of direct clinical counseling at that setting, rounded up. The floor is the first of those units, not an extra one | The floor, plus one more unit in any week you pass 10 hours of direct clinical counseling at that setting |
| Can it be averaged? | Only the part above the weekly floor, across your time at that setting | No. It has to happen in the same week as the hours it covers |
| Most the rule asks for in one week | Climbs with your counseling hours | Two units |

### The Same Weeks, Run Through Both Rules

**As an AMFT**

- 8 hours of direct clinical counseling: **one unit**.
- 11 hours: **two units**.
- 25 hours: **still two units**. The step doesn't keep climbing.
- No clients, 6 hours of paperwork: **one unit**.

**As an MFT Trainee**

- 4 hours of direct clinical counseling: **one unit**.
- 5 hours: **still one unit**. The floor is the first unit of the ratio, not a unit before it.
- 16 hours: **four units**. One has to happen that week. The other three can be averaged.

### Supervision Runs Per Setting. The Hour Caps Don't

The supervision rules run per work setting. Two placements mean two separate weekly obligations, and supervision at one never covers the other.

The hour figures don't work that way. The 40-hour weekly cap is counted across all your settings at once, and every lifetime number on this page is a career total rather than a per-placement one.

Two supervisors at one setting is a third case. The Board looks at your supervision there as one picture. Each supervisor signs only for the supervision they gave you.

## Where Your Hours Stop Counting

### A Maximum Is a Credit Ceiling, Not a Rule About Your Work

Past a maximum, hours stop moving your total toward the 3,000. Nothing about the work becomes improper, and you keep everything you already logged. The Board's tables describe what gets credited toward licensure.

So a week over 40 hours is a normal week. Only the credit stops at 40.

### Supervision Eats Into the Non-Clinical Maximum

Supervision isn't a separate allowance. It's one of the items inside the 1,250-hour non-clinical maximum, alongside psychological testing, clinical reports, progress notes, client-centered advocacy and workshops.

Over 104 weeks at a single unit a week, supervision alone takes at least 104 hours out of that 1,250. Most people run above one unit a week, and group supervision costs two hours per unit. The 1,250 is not the spare room for paperwork it looks like.

### The Six-Year Rule

All your work experience has to be accrued no more than six years before the date the Board receives your Application for Licensure. The Board's own example: an application received April 3, 2022 counts the experience gained between April 3, 2016 and April 3, 2022.

The clock runs from your **licensure** application, at the end of the process. It doesn't run from your associate registration at the start of it.

One exception exists, and only on the LMFT track. Up to 500 hours of counseling and supervision you earned as a Trainee while enrolled in practicum can be older than six years.

The six-year rule sets the back edge of the window. The [BBS 90-Day Rule](/guides/bbs-90-day-rule) sets the front edge, for the weeks between your degree date and your AMFT number.

## Where This Comes From

The figures here are the Board's own. The breakdown of required experience is in the LMFT handbook at pages 20 and 21. The trainee rules are at pages 9 and 10, and the six-year rule at page 17. The 500-hour practicum exception to that rule is not in the handbook: it's in the Board's MFT FAQ, alongside the weekly minimums and maximums and the worked supervision examples.

- [LMFT handbook](https://www.bbs.ca.gov/pdf/publications/lmft_handbook.pdf), pages 20 and 21.
- [MFT FAQ](https://www.bbs.ca.gov/pdf/publications/mft_faq.pdf), the weekly minimums and maximums and the worked supervision examples.
- [The blank AMFT weekly log](https://www.bbs.ca.gov/pdf/forms/mft/mfwkylog_37a-525_option1.pdf), with the column labels used above.
- [FAQs for supervisors](https://www.bbs.ca.gov/pdf/faqs_for_supervisors.pdf), where the weekly supervision requirement is stated for both phases.

## Common Questions

### How does California count MFT hours toward the 3,000?

Week by week, at each work setting. Your direct counseling and your non-clinical hours add together into a weekly total, and those weekly totals accumulate toward 3,000. Inside that total the Board asks for at least 1,750 hours of direct clinical counseling. At least 500 of those have to be diagnosing and treating couples, families, and children. It credits at most 1,250 hours of non-clinical experience, and at least 1,700 hours have to be earned after your degree. The whole thing runs over a minimum of 104 supervised weeks.

### Can I count more than 40 hours of experience in a week?

No. The Board credits a maximum of 40 hours of experience in any seven consecutive days, counted between all your work settings. You can work more than that, and the extra isn't improper. It doesn't count toward your 3,000. Note that it's seven consecutive days rather than a fixed calendar week.

### Do I need supervision in a week where I saw no clients?

Usually yes. The requirement is written around weeks for which experience is credited, not weeks with client contact. Earn any hours at that setting that week and you owe at least one unit of supervision there. That includes progress notes, clinical reports, psychological testing and client-centered advocacy. The one carve-out is time spent attending workshops, seminars, training sessions or conferences, which doesn't oblige a unit on its own. A week where you earned nothing at that setting owes nothing.

### How much supervision does an AMFT need each week?

At least one unit at each work setting in any week you earn hours there. You owe a second unit in any week you perform more than 10 hours of direct clinical counseling at that setting. Two units is where the rule stops, whether you did 11 hours or 25. Associate supervision has to happen in the same week as the hours it covers, so it can't be averaged.

### What is a unit of supervision?

One unit is one hour of individual or triadic supervision, or two hours of group supervision. Units and hours aren't interchangeable, which matters at the other end of the scale. The Board credits at most six hours of supervision in a single week, counting individual, triadic and group together. Six hours, not six units.

### Can group supervision cover all of my weeks?

No. At least 52 of your 104 supervised weeks have to contain an hour of individual or triadic supervision. Group supervision satisfies the weekly unit and counts against the six-hour weekly ceiling, but it never counts toward those 52 weeks. Meet every other figure with group supervision alone and you would still be short at licensure.

### How is the MFT Trainee supervision ratio different from the AMFT rule?

Before your degree, the rule is a ratio: an average of one unit of supervision for every five hours of direct clinical counseling each week in each setting. After your degree it becomes a step. One unit is the floor, and a second is owed once you pass 10 hours of direct clinical counseling in a setting in a week. Trainees can average the supervision above the weekly floor over their time at a setting. Associates can't average at all.

### Does my supervision count toward the 3,000 hours?

Yes, inside the non-clinical maximum. Direct supervisor contact is one of the items listed in the non-clinical row of the Board's breakdown table. It sits alongside psychological testing, clinical reports, progress notes, client-centered advocacy and workshops. It isn't a separate allowance on top of the 1,250 hours, so supervision and paperwork share one ceiling.

### What happens to hours over one of the maximums?

They stop counting toward the 3,000. The Board's tables describe what's credited toward licensure, not what you're allowed to do. Nothing about the work becomes improper, and you keep everything you already logged. Hours past a maximum stop moving your total.

### How long do my hours stay good?

Six years. All work experience has to be accrued no more than six years before the date the Board receives your Application for Licensure. The Board's own example: an application received April 3, 2022 counts experience gained between April 3, 2016 and April 3, 2022. The clock runs from your licensure application, not from your associate registration.

### Why do I still need 104 weeks if I have the hours?

Because the 104 weeks is its own requirement, not a by-product of the hours. At the maximum 40 credited hours a week, 3,000 hours takes 75 weeks. The Board still asks for a minimum of 104 supervised weeks, so working faster doesn't shorten the calendar.

## How SparkHours Helps

SparkHours knows which weeks you earned hours at which setting, and flags the ones that fall short before you send them to your supervisor. It applies the trainee ratio before your degree date and the associate rule after it, without you switching anything. It turns the weeks you log into the forms the Board asks for, and your supervisor signs each one from a link.

Start with a 14-day free trial. No credit card required.

See the full [AMFT hour requirements](/amft), or read about [how pre-degree and post-degree hours differ](/guides/pre-degree-vs-post-degree-hours).

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