Montana Board of Behavioral Health: Licenses, Renewal, and Complaints

Montana Board of Behavioral Health licensing covers five professions under Title 37, Chapter 39 of the Montana Code Annotated: professional counselors, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, addiction counselors, and peer support specialists.¹ Each license requires a qualifying graduate degree, supervised clinical hours, and a national examination, and every licensee must complete 20 hours of continuing education per year to renew. The board, which sits inside the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, also investigates complaints and imposes discipline when practitioners fall short of professional standards.

Who the Board Licenses

Five license types fall under the board’s authority, each with a distinct scope.

Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC)

An LCPC provides independent mental health counseling. The degree requirement is a master’s or doctorate that is primarily counseling in nature, with at least 60 semester credits from a CACREP-accredited program, or 60 credits from an accredited program covering the CACREP core competencies. The required exam is the National Counselor Examination through the National Board for Certified Counselors.²

Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)

An LCSW provides therapeutic services and clinical assessments. You need a master’s degree from a CSWE-accredited social work program plus 3,000 supervised hours under Administrative Rule 24.219.604. The exam is the clinical-level exam from the Association of Social Work Boards.²

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)

An LMFT focuses on relational and family systems work. Montana requires a master’s degree and supervised clinical experience with substantial couples-and-family contact. During internship, at least 500 hours of direct-client contact are required, with at least half of those hours spent with couples and families under qualified supervision. Supervision runs at a 5:1 ratio of client-contact hours to supervision hours.³

Licensed Addiction Counselor and Peer Support Specialist

Addiction counselors focus on substance use disorder treatment; their licensing standards sit in Title 37, Chapter 39, Part 310.⁴ The board also credentials peer support specialists.¹ Specific qualification details for both are posted on the board’s website.

What It Takes to Qualify

The board’s licensure checklist points to the Administrative Rules of Montana, Title 24, Chapter 219, alongside Title 37, Chapters 1 and 39 of the Montana Code Annotated, as the governing authorities for every pathway.² The three building blocks are the same across license types.

Graduate education comes first. Every applicant needs at least a master’s degree from an accredited institution, and the degree has to match the license: a counseling-focused program for LCPCs, a CSWE-accredited social work program for LCSWs, and a program grounded in relational and systemic practice for LMFTs.²

Supervised experience bridges school and practice. Required hours vary. LCSWs need 3,000 hours under Administrative Rule 24.219.604. LCPCs complete supervised hours under Administrative Rule 24.219.504, with thresholds that depend on whether you hold a candidate-level license. LMFT supervised hours must include meaningful couples-and-family contact at the ratios above.²

Then the exam. Counselors sit for the NCE, social workers for the ASWB clinical exam, and marriage and family therapists for a board-recognized exam in their specialty.² These are national exams, but each state sets its own passing score and additional requirements.

Renewing Your License

Every licensee must complete 20 hours of continuing education each year before renewal. If you hold more than one license type, you complete 20 hours for each license separately.⁵

At least two of those hours must cover suicide prevention during your first renewal period and every two years after that. Ethics coursework counts as acceptable continuing education, but the board doesn’t require a set number of ethics hours. Beyond the mandated topics, you choose programs that protect public welfare and build your competence.⁵

Keep documentation for three years and produce it on request. The renewal cycle is biennial and requires proof of completed education plus payment of a renewal fee. Missing the requirements can lead to suspension or revocation. The board publishes an approved-programs list on its website.⁵

Practicing Across State Lines

Montana has enacted the Interstate Counseling Compact in Title 37, Chapter 39, Part 4 of the Montana Code Annotated.⁶ The compact is meant to let licensed professional counselors work across state lines without a separate license in each state.

As of early 2026, only Arizona, Minnesota, and Ohio are actively issuing compact privileges. Both your home state and the state you want to work in must be actively issuing privileges before the compact does anything for you, so a Montana-licensed counselor cannot yet use it to practice elsewhere, and out-of-state counselors cannot yet use it to practice here.⁷ The compact currently applies only to professional counselors, not social workers, marriage and family therapists, or addiction counselors.

If you provide telehealth and prescribe controlled substances, federal rules also apply. HHS and the DEA have extended pandemic-era telemedicine flexibilities through December 31, 2026, allowing prescribers to issue controlled medications without a prior in-person visit.⁸ The extension does not change the requirement that prescriptions be for legitimate medical purposes and comply with federal and state law.

Complaints and Discipline

The board’s disciplinary authority comes from Montana Code Annotated Title 37, Chapter 1, which lets Montana’s professional licensing boards investigate complaints and impose consequences.⁹ Anyone can file a complaint by contacting the board at (406) 841-2319 or by email.¹ Grounds for discipline include professional misconduct, incompetence, and ethical violations.

Available sanctions include:

Reprimand, a formal statement of wrongdoing that becomes part of your record.
Probation, which lets you keep your license under specific conditions.
Suspension, temporarily inactivating your license for a set period.
Revocation, permanently withdrawing the license.

The board matches the sanction to the seriousness of the violation and its potential public-safety impact.⁹

Discipline follows you out of state. Federal law requires state licensing authorities to report formal actions to the National Practitioner Data Bank, including revocations, suspensions, reprimands, probation, and voluntary surrender of a license after an investigation has opened. Interim actions like emergency suspensions must be reported, and reinstatements or revisions to earlier reports must be submitted as well. Non-renewal for unpaid fees and failure to meet threshold requirements for initial licensure are excluded from NPDB reporting.¹⁰

Challenging a Disciplinary Decision

If the board moves to discipline you, you can contest the action through Montana’s Administrative Procedure Act in Title 2, Chapter 4 of the Montana Code Annotated.¹¹ The contested-case process puts your evidence and arguments before an administrative law judge who reviews the matter independently of the board. The judge can uphold, modify, or overturn the board’s decision.

If you disagree with the judge’s ruling, you can appeal to a Montana district court. At that stage, the court reviews whether the board’s decision was supported by substantial evidence and applied the law correctly.

Verifying a License

The Montana Department of Labor and Industry runs a public Licensee Lookup System where anyone can confirm a behavioral health professional’s license status. The system shows whether a license is active and may include disciplinary information, though the page notes that some actions may not appear immediately due to pending appeals or administrative delays.¹²

Formal license verification is available at no charge by email or mail if you have the professional’s license number. Records of disciplinary actions before July 1, 1996 aren’t in the online lookup; you have to contact the licensing program directly.¹²

Loan Repayment for Shortage-Area Practice

Montana has significant behavioral health workforce shortages, and the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program offers up to $50,000 for a two-year full-time service commitment at an NHSC-approved site in a designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Area. Half-time service earns up to $25,000.¹³

After the initial contract, you can apply for continuation awards of up to $20,000 per additional year. Spanish-language proficiency at level three or higher qualifies you for a one-time enhancement of up to $5,000, bringing the maximum full-time initial award to $55,000.¹³

Eligible behavioral health disciplines include LCSWs, LPCs, LMFTs, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse specialists, and health service psychologists. For fiscal year 2026, you need a current, unrestricted license by June 30, 2026, and you must be employed at or have accepted a position at an approved site by July 18, 2026. You must also be a U.S. citizen or national and participate in Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP as applicable.¹³

1
Professional Boards & Licensing. Board of Behavioral Health
2
Board of Behavioral Health. Licensure Checklist
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Montana Board of Behavioral Health. Licensing Requirements and Application Checklist – Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Candidate
4
Department of Labor & Industry. Statutes
5
Legal Information Institute. Montana Administrative Rule 24.219.435 – Continuing Education Requirements
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Montana State Legislature. Montana Code Title 37 Chapter 39 – Behavioral Health
7
Counseling Compact. Compact Map
8
HHS.gov. HHS and DEA Extend Telemedicine Flexibilities for Prescribing Controlled Medications Through 2026
9
Justia. Montana Code Title 37 Chapter 1 Part 1 – Duties and Authority of Department, Director, and Boards
10
National Practitioner Data Bank. Reporting State Licensure and Certification Actions
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Montana State Legislature. Montana Code Title 2 Chapter 4 – Administrative Procedure Act
12
Professional Boards & Licensing. Lookup Licensed Individual
13
Health Resources and Services Administration. Fiscal Year 2026 NHSC Loan Repayment Program Application and Program Guidance