California licenses Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (LPCC) through the Board of Behavioral Sciences. New graduates register as an Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (APCC) while they collect supervised hours. Everything below comes from the board's own pages and rules, checked October 18, 2026. Fees and rules change, so confirm on the linked pages before you pay.
California's licensing exam is the NCMHCE, not the NCE. The BBS uses the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination, a case-study exam, plus its own California Law and Ethics Exam. Counselor Ticket is written to the NCE, so it helps with the shared knowledge but does not cover the NCMHCE format; use NBCC's own NCMHCE materials for that.
Check with your board. Counselor Ticket is a study aid. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), the Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE), the American Counseling Association (ACA), CACREP or any state counseling board; NCE and NCMHCE are NBCC's marks, used here only to name the exams. Laws on confidentiality, duty to warn, reporting and licensing differ by state; follow your state's law, your agency and your supervisor.
California at a glance
License
Exam
What it takes
APCC (Associate Professional Clinical Counselor)
California Law and Ethics Exam
A qualifying counseling degree, Live Scan fingerprints, a $75 registration fee. Valid six years.
LPCC (Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor)
NCMHCE
3,000 supervised hours (at least 1,750 direct clinical counseling) over at least 104 weeks, Law and Ethics passed, a $125 application.
California, step by step
California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS)
Degree: a master's or doctorate in counseling or psychotherapy that meets the BBS degree rules: core content areas, advanced clinical coursework and a supervised practicum that all sit inside the degree, plus courses such as telehealth law and ethics. The registration application's degree certification form lists each requirement; schools that market to California applicants usually map their courses to it.
Register as an APCC: apply within 90 days of graduation if you want hours gained in that window to count; otherwise hours count only once you are registered. The registration fee is $75, plus Live Scan fingerprints (a $49 processing fee for hard cards if you are fingerprinted outside California). A registration lasts six years.
California Law and Ethics Exam: take it each year to renew your APCC registration until you pass; you must pass it before a subsequent registration can be issued.
Supervised experience: at least 3,000 hours over at least two years (104 weeks), all within the six years before you apply, with at least 1,750 hours of direct clinical counseling and no more than 1,250 hours of nonclinical work (supervision, testing, notes, advocacy, trainings).
Apply for the LPCC: send the Application for Licensure with your experience verification and a $125 fee. When everything is approved, the BBS clears you to register for the NCMHCE with NBCC (registering requires BBS approval).
Get the license: after you pass, submit the Request for Initial License Issuance with the initial license fee.
The steps that hold nearly everywhere: a counseling master's degree (usually 60 semester hours, often CACREP-accredited), your board's approval, an NBCC exam, about two years of supervised experience, then the full license. The NCE has 200 questions (160 scored) in 3 hours 45 minutes; the NCMHCE is 11 clinical case studies in the same time; either can be retaken after 30 days (NBCC/CCE candidate handbooks). The full walk-through: How to get your counseling license.