Becoming a licensed psychologist requires a doctoral degree (PhD or PsyD), 1,000 to 4,000 hours of supervised practice depending on the state, and a passing score on the EPPP, the national licensing exam. Your state board of psychology sets the exact rules and reviews every application. Most candidates reach full licensure 8 to 12 years after starting their bachelor’s degree.
Licensure is required in every U.S. state and jurisdiction for any psychology practice that involves direct client contact. A state-issued license is more than a legal box to check. It’s the result of years of doctoral study, supervised hours, and exams, and it tells clients and employers you’ve been vetted at every step.
Psychology Programs By State
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Use the links below to jump to the licensure steps, exam details, and renewal requirements covered in this guide.
- Do you actually need to be licensed?
- Meeting the education and supervised practice requirements
- Applying for licensure through your state board
- Taking the EPPP and other required exams
- Renewing and maintaining your license
- Pursuing board certification in a specialty
- Moving your license to another state
Step 1. Determine if You Need to Become Licensed
Not every professional psychologist needs a state license. If you work in academia, in a research lab, or in a private corporation as an industrial-organizational psychologist, and you don’t provide counseling services, you typically don’t need one.
Your state’s psychology licensing laws spell out exactly who needs a license. In most states, a license is required of any psychologist who:
- Represent themselves to the public by a title or description of services that includes the word “psychological,” “psychologist,” or “psychology”
- Provides psychological services to individuals, groups, organizations, or the public
- Provides psychological services, other than lecture services, to the public for compensation separate from the salary they receive to perform regular duties
- Is employed as a psychologist by an organization that sells psychological services to the public, other than lecture services
States also carve out specific exemptions. In New York, for example, psychologists working in chartered schools, government-operated settings, or most colleges and universities don’t need a license to do their jobs.
Because licensing rules vary by jurisdiction, there’s no substitute for checking your specific state’s requirements before assuming you do or don’t need a license. The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) can direct you to your state licensing board, which is the authoritative source for your jurisdiction’s specific rules.
Step 2. Meet Education and Supervised Practice Requirements
Before you can qualify for a state license, you need to meet the education and practice requirements your state’s licensing board sets.
A Doctoral Degree in Psychology
A doctoral degree in psychology can be a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or the more practice-focused Doctor of Psychology (PsyD).
Some states require your doctoral program itself to carry American Psychological Association (APA) Commission on Accreditation (CoA) accreditation. Others only require your internship to be APA-CoA accredited, without requiring the doctoral program itself to hold that status.
The APA-CoA accredits:
- Doctoral programs in counseling, clinical, and school psychology
- Internship programs in counseling, clinical, and school psychology
- Post-doctoral fellowship programs
APA accreditation is the standard many state boards prefer or require, though requirements vary by jurisdiction. The older ASPPB/National Register Joint Designation Project, which separately designated non-accredited doctoral programs as acceptable for licensure, ran from 1981 to 2018 and has since been retired. If your program isn’t APA-accredited, check directly with your state board about how it evaluates your degree.
Supervised Practice Hours
Every jurisdiction requires supervised experience, although the number of hours required (predoctoral, postdoctoral, or a combination) varies by state. Depending on the state, the total requirement runs anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 hours.
California, for example, requires 3,000 hours of supervised professional experience, with at least 1,500 of those hours completed post-doctorally. Florida requires 4,000 hours total, with the doctoral internship satisfying the first 2,000 and the remaining 2,000 completed through supervised postdoctoral experience.
Some states recognize only APA-accredited internships and postdoctoral fellowships for this requirement, so confirm that your program and site both qualify before you start counting hours.
State-specific supervised training requirements get detailed fast, so it’s worth reading your state board’s rules closely before you start accruing hours rather than after.
More about Post-Doctoral Fellowships
Post-doctoral fellowships, often called postdocs, are a temporary period of mentored, supervised training. They let doctoral graduates build the skills needed to practice independently.
A postdoc satisfies your state licensure requirement, but it also gives you the chance to specialize. The National Postdoctoral Association outlines six core competencies for postdoctoral training:
- Discipline-specific conceptual knowledge
- Research skill development
- Communication skills
- Professionalism
- Leadership and management skills
- Responsible conduct of research
Keep Your Records Organized
Between your doctoral program and your postdoctoral fellowship, you’ll accumulate a mountain of paperwork: work hours, transcripts, supervisor signatures. Logging all of it in a credential bank, such as the National Register of Health Service Psychologists or the ASPPB Credential Bank, keeps everything accessible when you need it for licensure, future job changes, or a move to another state.
Step 3. Apply for a Psychologist License Through Your State Board of Psychology
Once you’ve completed your education and practice requirements, you apply for licensure through your state’s board of psychology or psychological examiners. You’ll need to start this application before you can register for the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP).
Licensing costs typically run from $500 to more than $1,000, covering application fees, initial licensing fees, and exam costs. Your state board will ask for documentation, including:
- Doctoral degree transcripts
- Detailed information on your internship and post-doctoral fellowship, including supervisor signatures and total hours
Note: Most specialty psychologists fall under general state licensing. School psychologists are the exception. They typically earn a certificate and license to work in public schools through their state’s Department of Education, not the Board of Psychology. Many states recognize the National Association of School Psychologists’ Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) designation as a route to that credential. You can check your state’s specific requirements here.
Step 4. Take the Required Examinations
Once your state board approves you, you’ll take the ASPPB’s Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP). All U.S. psychology licensing jurisdictions use the EPPP, a 225-question, multiple-choice exam, to determine whether you have the knowledge, competency, and ethical grounding to practice.
The EPPP covers eight content areas:
- Social and cultural bases of behavior
- Cognitive-affective bases of behavior
- Ethical, legal, and professional issues
- Growth and lifespan development
- Assessment and diagnosis
- Biological bases of behavior
- Research methods and statistics
- Treatment, intervention, prevention, and supervision
Each state sets its own passing score. Most jurisdictions use a passing scaled score of 500 (where applicable), but the EPPP is scored using psychometric scaling, so there is no fixed percentage of questions corresponding to a passing score. You’ll take the EPPP at a Pearson VUE testing center.
Beyond the EPPP, you’ll also need to pass a state-specific jurisprudence or ethics exam covering the mental health laws and ethical standards in your state. Some states add an oral exam, a competency exam, or an interview.
Worth knowing if you’re a few years out from testing: the ASPPB is phasing in an integrated version of the EPPP, with the current content blueprint set to take effect in fall 2027 and the fully integrated exam becoming the only version available to new candidates starting April 2028. The current exam format described above remains in effect through that transition, but it’s worth checking the ASPPB’s exam page if your timeline puts you close to those dates.
Step 5. Maintain Your Psychologist License
Like other licensed professionals, psychologists renew their licenses on a schedule set by their state board, usually every 2 to 3 years. Most states require a set number of continuing education credits per renewal cycle, with a portion of those hours specifically in ethics.
Pennsylvania, for example, requires psychologists to renew biennially and complete 30 hours of continuing education per cycle, including at least 3 hours in ethics.
Most boards accept continuing education from Board-approved courses, workshops, published articles, and teaching. The APA’s Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP) and your state psychology association are both solid sources for CE credits.
Step 6. Consider Board Certification in a Specialized Area of Psychology
After you’re licensed, you might pursue board certification in a specialty area. The American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) certifies specialists in areas including:
- Clinical neuropsychology
- Clinical psychology
- Clinical child and adolescent psychology
- Behavioral and cognitive psychology
- Clinical health psychology
- Geropsychology
- Counseling psychology
- Couple and family psychology
- Organizational and business consulting psychology
- Police and public safety psychology
- Forensic psychology
- Rehabilitation psychology
- Psychoanalysis
- Group psychology
- School psychology
According to the ABPP, board certification is the clearest, most credible way for psychologists to identify themselves as specialists to clients and colleagues.
To qualify, most ABPP specialties require graduation from an APA- or CPA-accredited (or otherwise recognized) doctoral program and an active license; specific requirements vary by specialty. All require postdoctoral training in the specialty and several years of experience. You’ll also submit practice samples and sit for an oral exam.
Once you’re fully licensed, your specialty and location will drive most of the variation in what you can expect to earn. Our psychologist salary guide breaks down current figures by role and state.
Can You Transfer Your Psychology License to Another State?
If you’re licensed in one state and planning a move, you don’t automatically need to start the entire process over. Most states offer licensure by endorsement, which lets you apply based on your existing license, education, and supervised experience rather than repeating all the steps.
For psychologists who only need to practice temporarily or provide telehealth across state lines, the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT), administered by the ASPPB, authorizes psychologists licensed in one participating state to practice telepsychology or provide short-term in-person services in another participating state without a separate license there. Not every state has joined PSYPACT, so check whether both your home state and destination state participate before assuming it applies to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to become a licensed psychologist?
Most candidates need 8 to 12 years from the start of a bachelor’s degree to full licensure: roughly 4 years for a bachelor’s, 5 to 7 years for a doctoral program (which often includes a master’s along the way), and 1 to 2 years of postdoctoral supervised experience before you can sit for your final licensing steps.
Do I need a doctorate to be a licensed psychologist?
Yes, for the title “licensed psychologist” in nearly every state. A PhD or PsyD is the standard requirement. Related roles like licensed professional counselor (LPC) or licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) only require a master’s degree, but they carry a different scope of practice and a different license than “psychologist.”
What score do I need to pass the EPPP?
Most jurisdictions use the ASPPB-recommended passing scaled score of 500 on the 200-800 scale. The EPPP uses a psychometric scaling process rather than a simple percentage-correct system, so there’s no fixed percentage that guarantees a passing score. Your specific state board sets the final passing score, so confirm the number with them directly.
Can I practice psychology in a different state without a new license?
Only if both states participate in PSYPACT, and even then, PSYPACT mainly covers telepsychology and short-term, temporary practice rather than an ongoing full-time practice. For a permanent move, you’ll typically need to apply for licensure by endorsement in your new state.
Key Takeaways
- A doctorate is the baseline — Nearly every state requires a PhD or PsyD from an accredited program before you can call yourself a licensed psychologist.
- Supervised hours vary widely by state — Expect anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 hours, with a meaningful chunk required post-doctorally.
- The EPPP is universal, the passing score isn’t — Every state uses the same 225-question exam, but each board sets its own cutoff, usually around 500.
- Your state board has the final word — Program accreditation, hour requirements, and exemptions all run through your specific state board, not a national standard.
- Moving states doesn’t always mean starting over — Licensure by endorsement and PSYPACT can shorten the path if you’re relocating or practicing across state lines.
Select your state below to find accredited psychology programs, application links, and licensing requirements for your jurisdiction.