Missouri licenses Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC). New graduates register their supervision and hold a Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor (PLPC) license while they collect 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.
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.
Missouri at a glance
License
Exam
What it takes
PLPC (Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor)
NCE
Coursework complete, supervision registered and approved, an NCE pass, a background check.
LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor)
NCE + Missouri jurisprudence
3,000 supervised hours and at least 24 months (within five years), 1,200 direct client contact.
Missouri, step by step
Missouri Committee for Professional Counselors (Division of Professional Registration)
Degree: a master's in counseling. If you enrolled on or after August 28, 2023, the program must be at least 60 semester hours (90 quarter) with a course in each core area and a practicum and internship (the internship at least 600 clock hours, 240 of them face to face); earlier enrollees needed 48 hours.
The exam: Missouri's rule (20 CSR 2095-2.030) requires the NCE. You can take it in the last semester of your master's or any time after; apply online through the committee's NCE page.
PLPC: once your supervision is registered and approved, your coursework is complete, NBCC has sent your passing NCE score and your background check is reviewed, the committee issues the provisional license automatically.
Supervised experience:3,000 hours and at least 24 months, completed within five years, including 1,200 hours of direct individual or group counseling, at least 15 hours a week. Supervision is at least one hour a week face to face, at least two weeks a month individual. Supervisors are LPCs, psychologists or psychiatrists licensed at least two years; register any change of supervisor or setting ($25).
Jurisprudence exam: before the LPC is issued, pass the committee's open-book exam on Missouri counseling law and rules (RSMo 337.510.4), registered online.
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.