Oregon licenses Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC). Graduates register as a Registered Associate under a board-approved supervision plan, because hours earned in Oregon count only inside that plan. 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.
Oregon at a glance
License
Exam
What it takes
Registered Associate
None to register
A qualifying graduate degree and a board-approved supervision plan; experience must be met within five years.
LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor)
NCE or NCMHCE + Oregon law and rules
At least 36 months of supervised clinical experience with 1,900 direct client contact hours. $175 + $48.
Oregon, step by step
Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists
Registered associate: enter a board-approved associate registration plan with an Approved Supervisor (LPC or LMFT) from the board's registry. Hours earned in Oregon count only inside the plan, and the registration expires (closing your file) if you do not meet the experience requirement within five years.
Supervised experience: at least 3 years (36 months) of supervised clinical experience including at least 1,900 hours of direct client contact; the requirement dropped from 2,400 hours on July 1, 2023. Up to one year of full-time supervised clinical experience and 400 direct client hours from the clinical part of your graduate program can count. The board's Experience page sets the monthly supervision minimums.
Exams: a national exam (the NCE or the NCMHCE) and the Oregon law and rules exam.
Apply for the LPC: the license application fee is $175 plus a $48 fingerprint-based background check, $223 in all, paid when you submit 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.