Access the online renewal system here. Read below for information on requirements for continuing education, deadlines, and more.
North Carolina Marriage and Family Therapy Licenses must be renewed by July 1st of each year to remain active. You may submit your renewal beginning March 15th. You do not need to wait until the end of June to submit your information.
Keep in mind there is no grace period for a license to be renewed. Licenses not renewed by June 30th are considered expired on July 1st. You will need to request a reinstatement and pay a fee of $200 instead the annual $100 renewal fee. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR 2020 RENEWAL. The Board has extended the renewal deadline to September 1, 2020 and all continuing education courses may be completed online. For more information see (INSERT LINK HERE TO COVID-19 INFO)
Click on the links below to go directly to specific information.
Lapsed License Reinstatement
After a license has been lapsed (expired) for two years or more, it cannot be renewed. You must apply for a new license under current licensure requirements. For more information, refer to the North Carolina Administrative Code (21 NCAC 31 .0403– REINSTATEMENT AFTER EXPIRATION).
A license which has been expired for non-payment of renewal fees or failure to comply with continuing education requirements will be reinstated, if within two years of expiration, the reinstatement fee is paid and satisfactory evidence of requirements is submitted. The continuing education requirements documented at the time of reinstatement must equal the hours required had the license not expired.
A license which has expired for a period of more than two years will not be reinstated.
Continuing Education Requirements
Each year, 20 contact hours of MFT related continuing education are required. A minimum of three hours of MFT related ethics must be included.
The Board does not approve training in advance.
Continuing Education Content
- Marriage and Family Therapy Practice/Therapeutic Issues (Clinical Content): Maximum of 17 hours of the required 20 may be submitted.
- Supervision: Maximum of 12 hours may be submitted. Ongoing supervision by an AAMFT approved supervisor of AAMFT supervisor candidate may be utilized for up to 12 hours of continuing education.Written documentation of the supervisor’s status shall be provided to the Board via a copy of the AAMFT supervisor or supervisor candidate verification form. If you are an LMFTA and have submitted supervision hours each quarter, you may indicate this on the renewal form by selecting “Supervision” in the “Continuing Education Content Type” drop-down menu. You do not need to resubmit supervision reports.
- MFT Ethics: Minimum of 3 hours of the required 20 must be submitted. Three hours of ethics training in the provision of professional mental health services. Courses that are generic in nature (not mental health services ethics content) or specific to other licenses or state regulations/laws for states other than North Carolina are not accepted.
- Course Presentation: Maximum of 5 of the required 20 may be submitted. The maximum number of hours of continuing education credits for presenting a continuing education course in marriage and family therapy or teaching a course in marriage and family therapy at a recognized educational institution is five. A recognized institution is defined as: any university, college, professional school, or other institution of higher learning that is regionally accredited in the United States by CHEA.
Calculating Contact Hours
One CEU is defined as 10 contact hours. CEUs may be expressed in tenths (i.e. 6 contact hours equates to 0.6 CEU or 0.6 CEU equates to 6 contact hours).
Basically, if a class certificate or transcript states credit as a CEU instead of a contact hour, then move the decimal point one space to the right to calculate the number of contact hours.
Coursework Dates
Only courses completed between July 1st and June 30th of each year may be submitted for renewals, per NC Statutes and Codes.
You do not have to submit additional coursework you may have completed beyond the requirements.
Note: If this is your first required renewal, you may include courses from the date of your initial license, even if that date is prior to July 1st.
Coursework Documentation
Do not send course descriptions, attendance certificates, or other documentation with your license renewal or to the Board office. If is the responsibility of the licensee to maintain these files in their records, should these documents be requested by the MFT Board for audit or verification.
The MFT Board will conduct audits in accordance with Board policies and procedures. Documentation for continuing education coursework should be maintained for a period of no less than three years. If unsolicited certificates are submitted to the Board office, they will not be retained, nor will be they be returned. If you are audited, you will be required to submit these certificates at that time.
Disallowed/Unapproved Coursework
If the Board disallows a course submission, the licensee shall be given 90 days from the date of notification to replace the hours not allowed. Those hours shall be considered replacement hours for the submitted license renewal time. They cannot be counted toward the next renewal period.
If evidence of satisfactory completion of marriage and family therapy continuing education is not presented to the Board within 90 days from the date of notification, the license shall expire automatically.
Please Note: This provision is NOT a grace period. This does not relieve you of the responsibility of submitting 20 hours of continuing education by the June 30th deadline. Practicing without a valid license is a Class 2 misdemeanor under the NC General Statutes. This can result in legal proceedings as well as disciplinary actions.
MFT Renewal Affidavit
On the last of the four sections on the renewal form, you will be asked to attest to eight statements. For some of these statements, you will need to affirm have read and familiarized yourself with specific information. On others, you will need to affirm to the truthfulness of specific statements.
Because of changes and updates that periodically happen, the Board has adopted a policy to ask each licensee to review specific documents as part of the renewal process, and to affirm they have reviewed them on the renewal form.
These are links to the information the Board asks for you to review prior to completing the renewal form:
- North Carolina Marriage & Family Therapy General Statutes
- North Carolina Administrative Code
- AAMFT Code of Ethics
- Employee Classification maintained by the NC Industrial Commission (this is the Public Notice Statement effective December 31, 2017)
If there are statements that you are unable to affirm, the Board encourages you to answer truthfully. Answering these statements dishonestly can jeopardize your license. Acknowledgement of situations does not mean you will lose your license. The Board prefers ethical and honest disclosure of situations, rather than omission of situations.
If you are unable to affirm the statements, the form will require you to upload supporting documentation. Renewals can not be submitted or processed without uploading documentation. Supporting documentation should include copies of any arrests or charges, court records, or statements of explanation on the situation.
Online License Renewal Form
The license renewal form is below. It is divided into four sections. You may save your progress for up to 30 days. If you choose to save and continue later, you will have the option to enter in your email address. You will receive an email with a direct link to use on any device to come back and complete the renewal form.
You will be asked to include information found on your current license verification certicate, such as the date you were initially licensed. If you do not know that information, check the current license verification chart.
When you submit your completed renewal form, you will receive an email confirming your renewal submission. This confirmation email does not automatically approve your information. It simply confirms that your information has been submitted to and received by the Board.
Paper renewal forms are not available. All renewals, including paying the renewal fee, will take place using the online 2020 license renewal form.