Idaho licenses Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC) and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors (LCPC) through the Licensing Board of Professional Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapists. 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.
Two NBCC exams in Idaho. The LPC uses the NCE, the exam Counselor Ticket is written to. The LCPC requires the NCMHCE, a case-study exam our guide does not cover.
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.
Idaho at a glance
License
Exam
What it takes
LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor)
NCE
A CACREP (or substantially similar) counseling degree, 1,000 supervised hours with 400 direct client contact.
LCPC (Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor)
NCMHCE
2,000 supervised direct client contact hours, 1,000 of them under an LCPC, one hour of supervision per 30 client hours.
Idaho, step by step
Idaho Licensing Board of Professional Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapists
LPC degree and exam: a graduate program primarily in counseling, accredited by CACREP or substantially similar and approved by the board, and the NCE.
LPC supervised experience: 1,000 supervised hours with at least 400 hours of direct client contact and at least one hour of individual supervision for every 20 direct hours. A graduate practicum or internship can fulfill it.
LCPC experience:2,000 hours of direct client contact under supervision, at least 1,000 of them supervised by a licensed clinical professional counselor, with one hour of clinical supervision for every 30 client hours and at least half of supervision individual.
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.