New Mexico licenses Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHC), who must practice under clinical supervision, and Licensed Professional Clinical Mental Health Counselors (LPCC), who practice independently. 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 New Mexico. The LMHC uses the NCE, the exam Counselor Ticket is written to. The independent LPCC requires both the NCE and 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.
New Mexico at a glance
License
Exam
What it takes
LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor)
NCE
A counseling master's with 48 graduate semester hours in the clinical core and nine practicum hours, arranged clinical supervision.
LPCC (Licensed Professional Clinical Mental Health Counselor)
NCE and NCMHCE
Two years of postgraduate clinical counseling, 3,000 client contact hours, 100 hours of face-to-face supervision. $75 application.
New Mexico, step by step
New Mexico Counseling and Therapy Practice Board (Regulation and Licensing Department)
Degree: a master's or doctorate in counseling or a related field with at least 48 graduate semester hours (72 quarter) in the mental health clinical core curriculum (16.27.2 NMAC).
LMHC (16.27.9): pass the NCE and arrange clinical supervision with a supervisor holding the board's supervision designation. The LMHC is a transition license with no time limit, but all work at this level is supervised.
LPCC experience (16.27.4): at least two years of postgraduate clinical counseling with 3,000 hours of client contact and 100 hours of face-to-face supervision, verified by each supervisor on the board's form. Supervised hours older than five years when you apply do not count.
LPCC exams and fee: pass both the NCE and the NCMHCE; the application fee is $75.
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.