How to Become a Licensed Psychological Associate in Texas

To become a Licensed Psychological Associate in Texas, you need a graduate degree in psychology with at least 60 semester credit hours, passing scores on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) and the Texas Jurisprudence Examination, a cleared criminal background check, and an approved application filed with the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (BHEC). Once licensed, you practice under the supervision of a licensed psychologist. The BHEC and the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists (TSBEP) jointly administer the process under Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 501.

Qualify Your Graduate Education

Your degree has to come from a regionally accredited institution and contain at least 60 semester credit hours of graduate work. No more than 12 of those hours can come from practicum, internship, or structured experience, and at least six of the practicum/internship hours must be completed under the supervision of a licensed psychologist.¹

The 60-hour floor is higher than many standard master’s programs provide, so check your transcript against the requirement early. Your coursework also has to cover specific core areas of psychology, including psychological assessment, research methods, and ethics, and the BHEC asks applicants to identify on their transcript which courses satisfy each required area.¹

If a required area is missing, the BHEC may let you complete additional coursework before you move forward. Requesting an unofficial transcript review before you file the full application catches gaps before you spend money on fees and exams.

Pass the Two Required Exams

The EPPP

Every LPA applicant has to pass the EPPP, a standardized test developed by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) and used by all 66 member jurisdictions in the United States and Canada.² Texas LPA candidates take the master’s-level version, which covers biological bases of behavior, cognitive processes, social and cultural influences, and psychological treatment approaches.

ASPPB had planned to add a skills-based component (EPPP Part 2) effective January 1, 2026, but rescinded that mandate in October 2024. The organization is developing an integrated knowledge-and-skills exam with a tentative launch in late 2027. For now, only the knowledge-based EPPP is required.

You cannot sit for the EPPP until the BHEC reviews your application and authorizes you to test. ASPPB charges its own exam fee separate from the Texas application fees.

The Texas Jurisprudence Examination

The Jurisprudence Examination is an open-book, multiple-choice test on Texas laws and ethical standards for psychology practice. The passing score is 85%. It costs $39, and once you register you have 14 days to complete it.³

Timing matters. You must take the exam no more than six months before submitting your licensure application, or the results won’t count toward your application.³ Content focuses on confidentiality, record-keeping, informed consent, and professional boundaries. Because it is open book, most candidates pass on the first attempt, but the 14-day completion window means you shouldn’t register until you are ready to sit down and work through it.

File Your Application and Pay the Fees

Apply through the BHEC’s online licensing system. The application requires personal information, educational history, and documentation of any supervised experience. Your graduate institution must send official transcripts directly to the BHEC, and a supervising psychologist typically completes a verification form for any supervised work you’re submitting.

The fees stack up as follows:

LPA application fee: $144⁴
Criminal history evaluation: $150, covering a background check processed through the Texas Department of Public Safety and cross-referenced with FBI databases⁴
Jurisprudence Examination: $39

That is roughly $333 in state fees before the separate EPPP cost charged by ASPPB. Once the BHEC confirms your file is in order, you receive authorization to sit for the EPPP. The license is issued after you pass both exams and clear the background check. If documentation is incomplete or raises questions, the BHEC may request more information or ask you to appear before a review panel, so starting the application with transcripts, supervision verification, and jurisprudence results in hand prevents the most common delays.

Practice Under Supervision After You’re Licensed

An LPA must practice under the supervision of a licensed psychologist and cannot practice independently by default.⁵ That rule applies from your first day of licensure and covers your direct client contact, psychological assessment, and intervention work. Your supervising psychologist is responsible for overseeing that clinical work.

There is a path to independent practice, but it takes time. You need at least 3,000 hours of post-graduate supervised experience delivering psychological services, spanning at least 24 consecutive months but no more than 48, and completed across no more than three placement sites. When you meet those thresholds, you submit a separate application to the BHEC for independent practice approval.⁵

Not every hour counts. You can’t use experience supervised by a psychologist with a restricted license, or by a psychologist related to you within the second degree by blood or marriage. If you also hold a specialist in school psychology license or a provisional psychologist license, work under those credentials can count toward the 3,000 hours as long as a licensed psychologist supervised it.⁵ Independent practice approval removes the supervision requirement but doesn’t change your other professional obligations under BHEC rules.

Keep the License Active

LPA licenses renew on a regular cycle. Each renewal requires an application, the renewal fee, and completed continuing education, including designated hours in ethics and risk management. The specific hour requirements are set out in TSBEP Rule 463.35, and courses must come from approved providers.

Texas also requires most health care practitioners (other than physicians and nurses) to complete a training course on identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking as a condition of license renewal, under House Bill 2059.⁶

Missing the renewal date is expensive. If your license has been expired for 90 days or less, the late fee equals 1.5 times the base renewal amount. If it has been expired for more than 90 days but less than one year, the late fee doubles the base renewal amount.⁴⁷

1
Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. How to Become a Licensed Psychological Associate
2
Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology
3
Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. TSBEP Jurisprudence Examination Information Sheet
4
Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council Fee Schedule
5
Legal Information Institute. 22 Texas Administrative Code 463.8 – Licensed Psychological Associate
6
Texas Legislature Online. Texas House Bill 2059 – Training Course on Human Trafficking Prevention
7
Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. Reinstatement Applications