RI MFT Licensure:
Tips for Licensure
● Hours
o During your post-graduate experience, make sure to keep track of how many hours you are getting per category
▪ Individual
▪ Relational: Couple/ Family
o Excel is a great way to do this
o Ask a supervisor if your agency provides another option or if they recommend another option to store your hours
● Application
o The application can be found on the state website
o https://health.ri.gov/licenses/detail.php?id=228
▪ When you get to the website click on application+ and the options will come up for the Marriage and Family Therapist application and the Mental Health Counselor application
o Guidance from your approved supervisor can be helpful throughout the
application process
o Make an extra copy
▪ This can be critical in the rare occurrence that your application is lost or if you ever need the application and information on the application
● Waiting for your application
o Within 1-3 weeks an email should be sent back about your application
▪ The email will come from the Rhode Island Department of Health
▪ The email will include an exam code
▪ With the exam code you can now go online and register for your exam
● Getting ready for the exam
o Practice Practice Practice!!!!
▪ Take the practice tests as much as you can
● There is the full-length test (2 hour) and the half-length (1 hour)
o Study
▪ The exam is expensive, so you do not want to take it a second time
▪ 2 – 5 months of consistent studying is what was recommended by an exam taker
● Know how well you pick up on information and study for success not failure
● Think like an exam maker: Read the question and think about what concept they might be trying to test your knowledge on before you go on to the answers
● Many past grads have used resources from:
https://familysolutionsinstitute.com/
o There are many out there if you Google MFT National
Exam Prep
● Taking the exam
o The exam is taken at an authorized testing facility
o Takes about 2-6 weeks to see if you passed or failed
▪ Check the state licensing website to view your status
● Pending - meaning that the exam has not been graded
● Failed – retaking the exam is possible, but the applicant will have to repay the examination fee
● Approval – YOU PASSED!!!!!
● After the exam
o Congrats on getting through this process
o Now you can search for licensed positions or open your own private practice
All MFT licenses expire on 07/01 and renewal is every two years. The renewal fee remains $130 as of this date. RIDOH does their best to send out a renewal reminder to all licensees about one month in advance, but this doesn’t always happen. Here is the law:
https://www.lawserver.com/law/state/rhode-island/ri-laws/rhode_island_general_laws_5-63-2-17
To renew, you need 40 CCEs every two years. That constitutes the “evidence” referred to in the law.
Here are the pertinent regulations: