The California BBS Weekly Log of Experience Hours is a free form that Associate Marriage and Family Therapists, Associate Clinical Social Workers, and Associate Professional Clinical Counselors use to record supervised hours toward licensure. You complete one each week, your supervisor signs it, and you keep it in your own files. The Board does not want to receive these logs unless it specifically asks for them.
Download the Version That Matches Your Track
Each license track has its own version of the log, and the hour categories differ. Using the wrong one causes trouble later when your supervisor completes the Experience Verification form and the columns don’t line up.
- AMFTs use Form 37A-525, found under the MFT forms section at bbs.ca.gov.
- ASWs use the version posted under the LCSW forms section at bbs.ca.gov.
- APCCs use Form 37A-638, found under the LPCC forms section at bbs.ca.gov.
All three are free PDFs you can print or fill in digitally. If you work at more than one site or under more than one supervisor, you keep a separate log for each supervisor and each work setting. The form itself says so at the top.
Identification Section
The top of every version asks for the same information. Enter your full legal name and your current associate or trainee registration number as issued by the BBS. Below that, put your supervisor’s full name, license type (LMFT, LCSW, LPCC, or Psychologist), and license number. Add the employer or agency name and the physical address where you provided services.
Each form covers a single week, marked by a “Week of” date field. An associate working at two agencies under two supervisors fills out two logs each week, one per site.
The Hours Grid
All three versions share the same skeleton: Column A for direct client contact, Column B for non-clinical experience, and Column C for the weekly total (A + B = C). The AMFT form adds a subcategory the others don’t have.
AMFT Columns
- Column A, Direct Counseling: face-to-face therapy with individuals, groups, couples, or families.
- Column A1, Couples, Families, and Children: hours from Column A that specifically involved diagnosis and treatment of couples, families, or children. MFT licensure requires a minimum number of these hours, so they get tracked separately.
- Column B, Non-Clinical Experience: supervision, psychological testing, writing clinical reports or progress notes, client-centered advocacy, and workshops, seminars, trainings, or conferences.
- Column B1, Individual or Triadic Supervision: one-on-one or triadic meetings with your supervisor.
- Column B2, Group Supervision: supervision with multiple associates and one or more supervisors.
- Column C, Total Hours Per Week: A plus B. The subcategories (A1, B1, B2) are already inside A and B and do not get added again.
ASW and APCC Columns
The ASW and APCC versions use the same layout without the A1 subcategory, since the couples-and-families breakout is specific to the MFT track. You still complete Column A for direct counseling, Column B for non-clinical experience with the B1 and B2 supervision subcategories inside it, and Column C for the total.
The subcategory math is where people slip. B1 and B2 are pieces of B, not additions to it. If Column B shows 20 hours of non-clinical experience, and 2 of those were individual supervision (B1) and 2 were group supervision (B2), Column C uses the 20 from B. Not 24.
Weekly Cap and How the Log Feeds the Total
The BBS credits a maximum of 40 hours in any seven consecutive days across all settings combined. Work at two sites is capped at 40 between them, not 40 apiece.
All three license types require 3,000 total supervised hours completed over at least 104 weeks. Within that total, each track has its own internal minimums. For AMFTs, BPC Section 4980.43 requires at least 1,700 hours earned after the qualifying degree, allows a maximum of 1,300 pre-degree hours, and caps pre-degree counseling and direct supervisor contact at 750 hours. For ASWs, BPC Section 4996.23 requires at least 2,000 hours of clinical psychosocial diagnosis, assessment, and treatment, including a minimum of 750 hours of face-to-face psychotherapy, with a maximum of 1,000 hours of non-clinical activities. The LPCC track under BPC Section 4999.46 sets its own distribution rules.
Those internal minimums are why the column split matters. Reaching 3,000 hours is not enough on its own; if direct counseling accidentally lands in the non-clinical column, you can hit the top-line number and still be short on the categories the Board actually checks.
Supervision Timing and Ratios
Supervision goes in the B1 and B2 subcategories, and it has its own rules about when it has to happen. Supervisor contact must occur in the same week as the experience hours it covers. A session on Monday cannot validate the previous week’s work, and supervision from a slow week cannot be banked and applied to a busy one.
For associates, the ratio is 1:10. If you provide more than 10 hours of direct clinical counseling in a single week at a work setting, you need one additional unit of supervision that week at that setting. A unit is either one hour of individual or triadic supervision or two hours of group supervision. Group supervision cannot exceed eight supervisees, even when more than one supervisor is present.
A maximum of six hours of supervision, individual and group combined, counts toward licensure in any single week. A seven- or eight-hour supervision week still credits only six.
Supervisor Signature
Your supervisor signs each weekly log. The BBS accepts original ink, scanned, and electronic signatures, and the supervisor also dates the form to show the review happened close to the week of service. An unsigned log has no value for licensure.
By signing, the supervisor certifies that you performed the recorded hours under their supervision, that you worked as an employee or volunteer rather than an independent contractor, and that the setting met BBS requirements. BPC Section 4999.46 states that associates cannot gain experience as independent contractors. Knowingly providing false information on the form can result in disciplinary action against both the associate and the supervisor.
Get the signature the same week whenever possible. Chasing signatures months later is one of the most common problems associates hit, particularly after leaving a job or when a supervisor retires, moves, or lets a license lapse.
Keeping the Logs
You do not send weekly logs to the BBS on any schedule. The form says plainly: “Do not submit to the Board unless specifically requested.” Keep them yourself, organized chronologically and separated by supervisor and setting.
The logs back up the Experience Verification form, which your supervisor completes and which you submit with your licensure application. The Verification form summarizes total hours across your time at a setting; the weekly logs are what you fall back on if the Board audits the summary or questions specific numbers. Without them, disputed hours have no substantiation.
Watch the six-year rule. The BBS cannot accept experience hours that are more than six years old as of the date it receives your licensure application. Sitting on completed hours too long can cost you those hours entirely, no matter how well you documented them.
Keep both physical and digital copies of every signed log. Scanning each one into a cloud backup protects against a laptop failure or a flood wiping out years of records. Retain the logs well past licensure; if a question about your pre-licensure experience surfaces during a renewal or a disciplinary matter later, the signed weekly logs are your primary defense.
Mistakes That Cause Problems at Application Time
Most log problems don’t appear until the application stage, when totals have to reconcile with the Experience Verification form. A few patterns come up again and again:
- Using one log for multiple supervisors or sites. Each supervisor-and-setting combination gets its own log; combining them makes the Verification form impossible to complete accurately.
- Adding subcategories into Column C. C equals A plus B. A1, B1, and B2 are already inside A and B, and counting them again inflates totals in a way the Board will catch.
- Recording more than 40 hours in a seven-day period across all settings. Anything beyond 40 does not count.
- Missing or late supervisor signatures. An unsigned log is worthless, and retroactive signatures become hard or impossible once a supervisor leaves or a license lapses.
- Logging supervision outside the service week. Supervisor contact has to fall in the same week as the hours it covers.
Filling out the form takes a few minutes each week. The cost of doing it wrong shows up years later, in an application you assumed would be routine.