Colorado Continuing Education Requirements for Mental Health Professionals

Colorado takes a genuinely different approach to continuing education than most states. Rather than mandating specific pre-approved courses or a fixed ethics-hour carve-out, Colorado’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) model asks clinicians to build a personal Learning Plan and accrue Professional Development Hours against it. If you’re searching for Colorado continuing education requirements, that self-directed structure is the single most important thing to understand before anything else — the rules here genuinely work differently than in neighboring states. This guide breaks down Colorado CE requirements for LPCs, LCSWs, LMFTs, and psychologists, along with renewal logistics, approved providers, and state-specific details worth knowing before your next renewal.

Colorado Continuing Education Requirements

Colorado uses a distinctive Continuing Professional Development (CPD) model across all four license types — rather than mandating specific pre-approved courses, clinicians build a personal Learning Plan and accrue Professional Development Hours (PDH) against it (Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, n.d.).

License Type	CE Requirements	Renewal / Special Requirements	Official Licensing Board
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)	40 Professional Development Hours (PDH) every 2 years	No more than 20 PDH may come from a single Professional Development Activity category (e.g., coursework, independent learning, supervision, consultation). The Board does not pre-approve courses or providers. A jurisprudence exam must also be retaken each renewal period.	Colorado State Board of Licensed Professional Counselor Examiners
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)	40 PDH every 2 years	Same self-directed PDH/CPD structure as LPC. Up to 5 PDH may carry over from the prior cycle if earned within 6 months of the prior expiration date.	Colorado State Board of Social Work Examiners
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)	40 PDH every 2 years	Same self-directed PDH/CPD structure as LPC and LCSW.	Colorado State Board of Marriage and Family Therapist Examiners
Licensed Psychologist (PhD / PsyD)	40 PDH every 2 years	Same CPD/PDH model. No more than 20 PDH in a single category. Requirement is prorated for newly licensed psychologists based on months licensed during the initial cycle.	Colorado State Board of Psychologist Examiners

Clinical Note: Colorado’s CPD/PDH model is structurally different from most states — there’s no board-mandated ethics-hour carve-out and no board pre-approval of individual courses or providers. Instead, clinicians are expected to build a self-directed Learning Plan and document how each activity supports it. This gives real flexibility, but also real responsibility: since the Board doesn’t pre-vet courses, it’s on you to confirm an activity genuinely counts as a legitimate Professional Development Activity before relying on it for renewal. This self-directed structure places more weight on individual professional judgment than most states require — a good reminder that meaningful continuing education depends as much on a clinician’s own engagement with the material as it does on the credential attached to it (Brockett & Bauer, 1998).

Colorado License Renewal Requirements

Renewal fees and portals differ across Colorado’s four boards, though all fall under the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) Division of Professions and Occupations.

LPC License Renewal

Administered by the Colorado State Board of Licensed Professional Counselor Examiners. Renewal is completed through DORA’s online licensing portal every two years, alongside submission of your Learning Plan documentation. A jurisprudence exam must be retaken each renewal period regardless of how many times you’ve previously renewed — this isn’t a one-time requirement the way it is in some other states.

LCSW License Renewal

Administered by the Colorado State Board of Social Work Examiners. Renewal runs on the same two-year DORA cycle, with a renewal fee typically around $70 — confirm the current amount directly with DORA, as fee schedules are periodically revised. LCSWs complete a Professional Practice Rubric and Self-Assessment at the start of each renewal cycle before building their Learning Plan.

LMFT License Renewal

Administered by the Colorado State Board of Marriage and Family Therapist Examiners, using the same DORA portal and two-year cycle as LPC and LCSW.

Psychologist License Renewal

Administered by the Colorado State Board of Psychologist Examiners. Renewal follows the same two-year CPD cycle, with the requirement prorated for psychologists newly licensed partway through a cycle. Psychologists interested in interstate practice should also review the Board’s PSYPACT resources directly, since Colorado participates in that separate compact.

Colorado Approved CE Providers

Because Colorado’s CPD model doesn’t rely on board pre-approval of individual courses, “approved provider” looks a little different here than in most states — it’s more about credible source organizations than a formal approval list. Whether you’re looking for Colorado online continuing education or in-person Colorado continuing education courses, these are the organizations most Colorado clinicians turn to:

Accreditor / Association	Who It’s For	Recognized For
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)	LPCs	Listed as a resource organization directly on the Colorado Board of Licensed Professional Counselor Examiners’ own site
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)	LCSWs	Listed as a resource organization directly on the Colorado Board of Social Work Examiners’ own site
APA-approved sponsors / American Psychological Association	Licensed Psychologists	Listed as a resource organization directly on the Colorado Board of Psychologist Examiners’ own site
Colorado Counseling Association (CCA)	LPCs	State branch of the American Counseling Association; operates CCACE, a dedicated continuing education division offering self-paced trainings
Colorado Psychological Association (CPA)	Licensed Psychologists	State-level CE through its Learning Management Center, plus licensure information specific to Colorado
NASW Colorado Chapter	LCSWs	State-level CE and advocacy for social workers, listed as a resource organization by the Board
Colorado Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (COAMFT)	LMFTs	State division of AAMFT; also helped establish the Rocky Mountain Family Therapy Network for broader regional CE and networking

Since Colorado’s Boards don’t maintain a formal pre-approval list, the practical standard is whether an activity genuinely fits within one of the recognized Professional Development Activity categories and supports your documented Learning Plan — not whether a specific provider carries a state approval number. 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.

Colorado-Specific Considerations

A few details worth knowing beyond the base CE requirements:

Interstate Compact Status

Colorado has enacted the Counseling Compact for LPCs and participates in PSYPACT for psychologists, with the Board of Psychologist Examiners maintaining its own dedicated PSYPACT resources page. There is no compact yet covering LMFTs or LCSWs nationally. Confirm current live/operational status directly with each compact before assuming privileges are usable, since enactment and full operational status are different milestones.

The Learning Plan Is the Real Requirement

Because Colorado doesn’t pre-approve courses, the actual compliance obligation isn’t “complete 40 hours of anything” — it’s building and following a documented Learning Plan that ties your Professional Development activities to genuine goals in your practice. Clinicians moving to Colorado from a state with a traditional pre-approved CE model should budget time to understand this structure before their first renewal, rather than assuming any 40 hours of coursework will satisfy the requirement.

Jurisprudence Exam Recurs Every Cycle for LPCs

Unlike states where a jurisprudence or law exam is a one-time requirement, Colorado LPCs retake the jurisprudence exam every renewal period — a recurring obligation that’s easy to overlook if you’re used to “pass it once and you’re done” rules elsewhere.

New Licensee vs. Renewing Licensee

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

• Newly licensed psychologists have their 40-hour PDH requirement prorated based on how many months they were actually licensed during the initial renewal cycle, rather than owing the full 40 hours regardless of when they were licensed.
• LCSWs beginning a new renewal cycle complete a Professional Practice Rubric and Self-Assessment first, using it to inform the Learning Plan they’ll build and document activities against for that cycle.
• Clinical supervisors — including LPC supervisors, who now face updated minimum qualification requirements under recent Colorado Counseling Association guidance — take on real added responsibility, and having a clear clinical supervision agreement in place from the outset helps define expectations for both parties.

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 on Colorado CE Requirements

Colorado’s CPD model is genuinely one of the more distinctive continuing education structures in the country, and it’s worth approaching with a different mindset than a checklist of hours and categories. The self-directed Learning Plan puts real trust in clinicians to identify their own growth areas — but that trust comes with the responsibility of documenting your reasoning, not just your hours, in case of an audit.

If you’re relocating to Colorado from a more traditional CE state, or vice versa, don’t assume your existing habits transfer cleanly in either direction. Clinicians who treat their continuing education and licensure landscape as an ongoing practice, rather than a once-every-two-years scramble, tend to navigate structural differences like this with far less disruption (Neimeyer & Taylor, 2010).

References

• Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. (n.d.). Professional Counselor Program. Resource
• Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. (n.d.). Social Work Program. Resource
• Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. (n.d.). Marriage and Family Therapist Program. Resource
• Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. (n.d.). Psychology Program Resources. 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.