Alaska Continuing Education Requirements for Mental Health Professionals

Alaska licenses counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists through four separate boards, each with its own biennial renewal cycle but meaningfully different hour totals and mandated content. If you’re searching for Alaska continuing education requirements, the short answer is: it depends heavily on which of these four licenses you hold, and — unusually — even on which specific board oversees it, since some third-party sources incorrectly group Alaska’s licenses under the wrong board entirely. This guide breaks down Alaska continuing education requirements for LPCs, LCSWs, LMFTs, and psychologists, along with renewal logistics, approved providers, and state-specific details worth knowing before your next renewal.

Alaska Continuing Education Requirements

Alaska licenses counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists through four separate boards, each with a biennial renewal cycle but meaningfully different hour totals and mandated topics (Alaska Board of Professional Counselors, n.d.; Alaska Board of Social Work Examiners, n.d.; Alaska Board of Marital and Family Therapy, n.d.; Alaska Board of Psychologist and Psychological Associate Examiners, n.d.).

License Type	CE Requirements	Renewal / Special Requirements	Official Licensing Board
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)	40 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 3 hours ethics, 3 hours suicidality, 3 hours cultural competency. At least 20 hours must be synchronous/live. New licensees complete a one-time 3-hour suicide prevention course. LPCs offering telehealth need an additional 6 hours in distance professional services.	Alaska Board of Professional Counselors
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)	45 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 3 ethics, 6 substance abuse, 6 cross-cultural education (with a specific Alaska Native focus), 3 teletherapy practice, 3 suicide education. At least 10 hours must be live/synchronous.	Alaska Board of Social Work Examiners
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)	45 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 2 ethics, 2 addictions, 2 cross-cultural, 2 domestic violence. Maximum 22.5 hours via self-study/correspondence. Note: LMFT is regulated by a separate board from LPC — some third-party sources incorrectly conflate the two.	Alaska Board of Marital and Family Therapy
Licensed Psychologist (PhD / PsyD)	40 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 3 hours in professional ethics.	Alaska Board of Psychologist and Psychological Associate Examiners

Clinical Note: Alaska is a good example of why it’s worth double-checking which specific board regulates your license, even within the same state — LMFTs are licensed through a distinct Board of Marital and Family Therapy, separate from the Board of Professional Counselors that handles LPCs, and several third-party CE sites incorrectly list them under the same board. Confirm directly with the correct board before assuming a course qualifies. Building sustained familiarity with your specific board’s rules, rather than relying on general assumptions carried over from another state or license, is part of what separates genuinely effective continuing education from simply accumulating hours (Brockett & Bauer, 1998).

Alaska License Renewal Requirements

Renewal deadlines, fees, and portals differ across Alaska’s four boards, so it’s worth tracking each separately rather than assuming a shared system.

LPC License Renewal

Administered by the Alaska Board of Professional Counselors. LPC licenses run on a fixed biennial cycle valid November 1 through October 31 of odd-numbered years, with a renewal fee of $500. The Board does not offer a grace period for late renewals, so plan to submit well before the October 31 deadline — paper renewals can take up to six weeks to process.

LCSW License Renewal

Administered by the Alaska Board of Social Work Examiners. Social work licenses in Alaska expire October 31 of even-numbered years — note this is a different odd/even-year cycle than LPC. The biennial LCSW renewal fee is $325, per current state regulation (12 AAC 02.155); master’s-level (LMSW) renewal runs $275, and baccalaureate-level (LBSW) renewal runs $225. Alaska’s Board of Social Work Examiners is not currently a member of the Social Work Licensure Compact, so out-of-state social workers wanting to practice in Alaska generally need to apply for an Alaska license directly, though licensure by endorsement is available for qualified applicants.

LMFT License Renewal

Administered by the Alaska Board of Marital and Family Therapy. Runs on a fixed biennial cycle expiring December 31 of even-numbered years — a third distinct deadline pattern from LPC and LCSW. Because this is a separate board from LPC licensing, confirm current fees and renewal portal details directly with the Board.

Psychologist License Renewal

Administered by the Alaska Board of Psychologist and Psychological Associate Examiners. Licenses expire June 30 of odd-numbered years, regardless of issuance date (except licenses issued within 90 days of that date, which roll to the next biennial cycle).

Alaska Approved CE Providers

Whether you’re looking for Alaska online continuing education or in-person Alaska continuing education courses, Alaska’s boards generally recognize CE from a mix of national accreditors and course-specific board approval:

Accreditor / Association	Who It’s For	Recognized For
NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Providers (ACEPs)	LPCs	Commonly accepted for LPC renewal
ASWB Approved Continuing Education (ACE) providers	LCSWs	Commonly accepted for LCSW renewal, alongside Alaska’s own course-submission and approval process (12 AAC 18.220)
APA-approved sponsors	Licensed Psychologists	The standard for psychologist CE in Alaska
Alaska Counseling Association (AKCA)	LPCs	State-level CE and networking, alongside NBCC national accreditation
Alaska Psychological Association (AK-PA)	Licensed Psychologists	State-level CE, including a growing homestudy webinar library with member discounts
NASW Alaska Chapter	LCSWs	State-level CE for social workers, including behavioral health and addiction-focused training
AKAMFT (Alaska Division: Marriage & Family Therapy Association)	LMFTs	State-level CE and networking for marriage and family therapists; coordinates regularly with AKCA, AK-PA, and NASW-AK on shared continuing education efforts

Alaska’s cultural competency mandate deserves a specific mention here: given Alaska’s unique CE requirement around Alaska Native-focused content for LCSWs, look specifically for courses developed with Alaska’s Indigenous communities in mind rather than generic cultural competency material, since generic content may not satisfy this state-specific requirement. Alaska’s Board of Social Work Examiners also charges a separate fee for providers submitting courses for approval ($50 initial submission, $25 for resubmission) — a detail that signals the state takes its own course-review process seriously rather than deferring entirely to national accreditors. For a broader look at how CE approval works across all license types and states, see our full guide to continuing education for mental health professionals.

Alaska-Specific Considerations

A few details worth knowing beyond the base CE requirements:

Interstate Compacts Are Actively in Motion in Alaska

As of the 2026 legislative session, Alaska has not yet enacted the Counseling Compact, meaning out-of-state LPCs currently need to meet Alaska’s full licensure requirements directly rather than relying on compact privileges. However, Alaska’s legislature passed HB 110, which brought the state into the Social Work Licensure Compact along with several other interstate compacts, and separate 2026 legislation (HB 352 and SB 281) has been introduced to bring Alaska into PSYPACT for psychologists. None of this is finalized or operational yet — compact membership requires the relevant board to complete its own implementation process — so Alaska clinicians should treat this as a rapidly changing area rather than settled law, and check current status directly with their board before assuming compact privileges apply.

Alaska’s Native-Focused Cultural Competency Requirement Is Unusual Nationally

The requirement for LCSWs to complete 6 hours of cross-cultural education specifically addressing Alaska Native communities (with at least 3 of those hours specific to Alaska Native issues) reflects the state’s significant Indigenous population and is not a generic cultural competency mandate seen elsewhere — a state-specific requirement clinicians relocating to Alaska from elsewhere should plan for directly rather than assuming prior cultural competency CE transfers.

Telehealth-Specific CE Is Built Into the LPC Requirement

Alaska LPCs offering distance/telehealth services need an additional 6 hours in distance professional services on top of the base 40-hour requirement — worth planning for early if telehealth is part of your practice model, since it’s not automatically included in your standard CE plan.

New Licensee vs. Renewing Licensee

A few distinctions worth knowing depending on where you are in your Alaska licensure timeline:

• New LPCs must complete a one-time 3-hour suicide prevention course, separate from the standing 3-hour suicidality requirement that applies to every renewal cycle thereafter.
• New LCSWs face a slightly different initial-renewal content structure than subsequent renewals — the Board’s rules specify 6 hours substance abuse, 3 hours ethics, and 3 hours suicide education for the initial renewal, with cross-cultural education requirements phasing in on subsequent cycles.
• Supervisors overseeing associate-level clinicians in Alaska take on real added responsibility, and having a clear clinical supervision agreement in place from the outset helps define expectations for both parties, regardless of which Alaska board governs the supervisory relationship.

CE Tracker Templates for Mental Health Professionals

Even with a clear picture of your state’s requirements, actually staying on top of continuing education across a full renewal cycle is a different challenge — tracking which hours you’ve completed, which mandated categories still need attention, where you’ve saved your certificates, and when your actual deadline hits. A CE tracker template solves this by giving you one place to log activities as you complete them, monitor progress against your specific requirements, and pull everything together when it’s time to submit your renewal — rather than reconstructing two years of CE history in a panic the week before your license expires.

Get started with the free CE Tracker Template to organize your current renewal cycle, or manage your complete CE renewal process from planning through submission with this comprehensive CE Tracker Template (pictured above).

Final Thoughts

Alaska’s four-board structure, combined with hour totals that range from 40 to 45 depending on license type, means the biggest risk here isn’t complexity so much as misattribution — assuming your LMFT and LPC requirements come from the same board, or that a generic cultural competency course satisfies Alaska’s specific Native-focused mandate. Both of those assumptions are common and both are wrong.

The compact landscape is also worth watching closely if you’re an Alaska clinician who works with clients across state lines or is considering relocating: this is one of the more actively shifting areas of licensure nationally right now, and Alaska’s current position — outside the Counseling Compact, newly inside the Social Work Compact, and pursuing PSYPACT — could look different within the next year or two. Clinicians who stay engaged with their continuing education and licensure landscape as an ongoing practice, rather than a once-every-two-years scramble, tend to navigate these kinds of changes with far less disruption (Neimeyer & Taylor, 2010).

References

• Alaska Board of Professional Counselors. (n.d.). Continuing education requirements. Resource
• Alaska Board of Social Work Examiners. (n.d.). Continuing education requirements. Resource
• Alaska Board of Marital and Family Therapy. (n.d.). Board of Marital and Family Therapy. Resource
• Alaska Board of Psychologist and Psychological Associate Examiners. (n.d.). Board information. Resource
• Brockett, M., & Bauer, M. (1998). Continuing professional education: Responsibilities and possibilities. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 18(4), 235–243. Resource
• Neimeyer, G. J., & Taylor, J. M. (2010). Continuing education in psychology. In J. C. Norcross, G. R. VandenBos, & D. K. Freedheim (Eds.), History of psychotherapy: Continuity and change (2nd ed., pp. 663–671). American Psychological Association.
• Alaska Psychological Association. (2026). Alaska joins interstate licensure compacts through HB 110. Resource
• Alaska Administrative Code. (n.d.). 12 AAC 02.155 — Board of Social Work Examiners fees. Resource