Montana licenses Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors (LCPC) through the Board of Behavioral Health. Graduates hold a candidate license (PCLC) while they finish supervised hours, and either NBCC exam is accepted. 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.
Montana at a glance
License
Exam
What it takes
PCLC (LCPC candidate)
None
A 60-semester-credit counseling master's or doctorate (CACREP or with the CACREP core) and a qualified Montana supervisor.
LCPC (Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor)
NCE or NCMHCE
3,000 supervised hours, at least one hour of face-to-face supervision for every 20 hours of counseling.
Montana, step by step
Montana Board of Behavioral Health (Department of Labor and Industry)
Degree: a master's or doctorate primarily in counseling with at least 60 semester credits, from a CACREP program or one that includes the CACREP core.
Candidate license (PCLC): apply at bbh.mt.gov with a qualified supervisor (a Montana LCSW, LCPC, LMFT, psychologist or psychiatrist meeting the board's experience or training rule). Candidates renew their registration every year.
Hours (ARM 24.219.604):3,000 hours of supervised work experience. Up to 1,500 may come pre-degree if your graduate program approves them; post-degree hours must include 1,000 hours of direct client contact under face-to-face supervision in a clinical setting (no more than 250 in group work). Supervisors give at least one hour of face-to-face supervision for every 20 hours of counseling.
The exam: the NCE or the NCMHCE; Montana takes either one.
Fees (ARM 24.219.401): application $200 (the candidate license is also $200); candidate annual registration $85; active renewal $149.
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.