New Jersey licenses Licensed Associate Counselors (LAC) and Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC). Both use the NCE, the exam our guide is written to. 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.
New Jersey at a glance
License
Exam
What it takes
LAC (Licensed Associate Counselor)
NCE
60 graduate semester hours with a counseling master's or doctorate (45 hours across eight areas), the NCE. $75 + $180 license fee.
LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor)
NCE
Three calendar years of supervised counseling (two after the LAC), or two with 30 more graduate credits. $75 + $250 license fee.
New Jersey, step by step
New Jersey Professional Counselor Examiners Committee (Board of Marriage and Family Therapy Examiners)
Education: at least 60 graduate semester hours including a master's or doctorate in counseling from a planned program that prepares students for professional counseling, with 45 of those hours spread over at least eight listed areas (counseling theory and practice among them).
The exam: the NCE for both the LAC and the LPC. You are admitted only with the Committee's written permission after it reviews your coursework, unless you take the NCE through your graduate program or for another state. The Committee posts an NCE application procedure on its Applications page.
LAC: apply with the $75 application fee; the initial associate license fee is $180 (half that in the second year of the renewal cycle). As an LAC you practice under a qualified supervisor with weekly face-to-face supervision, at least 50 hours a year at one hour a week, no more than 10 of them in groups.
Supervised experience:three calendar years of supervised professional counseling, where one calendar year is up to 1,500 hours over 52 weeks full time (or 750 hours in each of two 52-week periods part time), no more than 30 hours a week or 125 a month. Two of the three years must come after you are licensed as an LAC, and up to one year can come from graduate practicum or internship hours not used for the coursework requirement. With 30 more graduate credits after the 60, two years as an LAC are enough. You have six years from your LAC license to finish.
LPC: send the Documentation of Supervised Counseling Experience; the initial LPC license fee is $250 (renewal $250 every two years).
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.