Mississippi Continuing Education Requirements for Mental Health Professionals

Mississippi splits its licensing structure in a way that’s worth understanding before anything else: counselors answer to their own dedicated board, while social workers and marriage and family therapists share a single combined board, and psychologists sit entirely separate from both. That structure alone tells you a lot about which requirements are likely to overlap and which aren’t.

The biggest thing to flag honestly about Mississippi is that the LMFT ethics-hour requirement isn’t consistently reported across sources — some cite 4 hours, others 6, and we weren’t able to fully resolve that discrepancy even after digging into multiple current sources. That’s genuinely unusual for this guide, and it’s worth a direct confirmation call to the Board before finalizing your renewal plan if you’re an LMFT.

This guide explains the current Mississippi continuing education requirements for LPCs, LCSWs, LMFTs, and psychologists, including required CE hours, ethics requirements, renewal deadlines, approved providers, and other Mississippi-specific rules to help you stay compliant.

Mississippi Continuing Education Requirements

Mississippi licenses counselors separately from social workers and marriage and family therapists, who share a combined board (Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors, n.d.; Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists, n.d.; Mississippi Board of Psychology, n.d.).

License Type	CE Requirements	Renewal / Special Requirements	Official Licensing Board
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)	24 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 6 hours ethics/legal issues. Supervisors need 2 hours in supervision; those with a Distance Professional Services designation need 2 hours in telemental health.	Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)	30 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 4 hours ethics (LMSW/LCSW level; LSW level requires 9 of 30 hours in ethics-related content).	Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)	24 CE hours every 2 years	Reported ethics-hour minimums vary by source (4 hours face-to-face per one source, 6 hours per another) — confirm the current figure directly with the Board. Board-approved supervisors need 2 hours in supervision.	Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists
Licensed Psychologist (PhD / PsyD)	20 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 2 hours ethics/legal issues.	Mississippi Board of Psychology

Clinical Note: Mississippi combines social work and marriage and family therapy licensing under one board, which is convenient if you’re dual-licensed, but the specific ethics-hour figures for LMFTs weren’t fully consistent across our sources — this is one worth a direct confirmation call to the Board before you finalize your renewal plan, rather than relying on any single secondary source.

Mississippi License Renewal Requirements

Mississippi’s counseling board offers a genuinely low-cost, well-documented renewal process; the combined social work/MFT board and psychology board are administered separately with their own fee schedules.

LPC License Renewal

Administered by the Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors. Renewal is biennial, due by June 30 of the renewal year, with a renewal fee reported between $50–$220 depending on the source (confirm the current exact figure directly with the Board). Mississippi uses CE Broker as its official CE tracking system, and LPCs report their completed hours through that platform. A required Mississippi Jurisprudence Examination (available through CCE Academy) must be completed each renewal and itself counts toward your ethics-hour total: 3 hours of ethics credit for LPCs, or 2 hours ethics plus 1 hour supervision for LPC-S supervisors. A $100 late fee applies if renewal is missed. Provisional LPCs (P-LPC) renew annually by June 30 at a $50 fee, completing 6 CE hours per year including 2 in ethics, and may renew for up to 4 years before needing a special Board extension.

LCSW License Renewal

Administered by the separate Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists. This Board runs two fixed renewal cycles per year rather than one date per licensee: licenses expire either April 30 or September 30, depending on which cycle you’re assigned to, with online renewal windows opening March 1 (for April renewals) and August 1 (for September renewals). Renewal fees are tiered by license level: $70 for LSW, $100 for LMSW, and $110 for LCSW. A $55 late fee applies for applications received within 30 days after expiration; beyond that, reinstatement is required rather than simple renewal, and a license lapsed for more than 2 years cannot be renewed or reinstated at all. Worth flagging directly: multiple current sources, including the Board’s own 2024-and-beyond renewal instructions, now cite a total requirement of 40 CE hours (4 ethics, 2 cultural diversity, 1 mandated reporting, plus 2 supervision hours for supervisors) — this appears to supersede the 30-hour figure that some older sources still report. Confirm your current exact requirement directly with the Board if you’re relying on an older source.

LMFT License Renewal

Administered by the same Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists as LCSW, sharing the identical April 30/September 30 fixed-cycle structure. The late fee for MFT specifically is $50 (versus $55 for social work) if submitted within 30 days after expiration. One source cites a $300 renewal fee for the two-year cycle, though — consistent with the ethics-hour discrepancy noted above — fee figures should be confirmed directly with the Board before you rely on them.

Psychologist License Renewal

Administered by the separate Mississippi Board of Psychology. Renewal is actually annual, not biennial — the Board’s own site confirms the renewal period begins each April, with licenses expiring every year on June 30. The 20-hour CE figure in the table reflects the biennial reporting cycle for content purposes, but the license itself must be renewed with the Board every single year.

Mississippi Approved CE Providers

Whether you’re looking for Mississippi online continuing education or in-person Mississippi continuing education courses, Mississippi recognizes CE from national accreditors alongside a genuinely active roster of state associations:

Accreditor / Association	Who It’s For	Recognized For
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)	LPCs	Listed directly among the Board’s own affiliated organizations
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)	LCSWs	Accepted for LCSW renewal
APA-approved sponsors	Licensed Psychologists	The standard for psychologist CE in Mississippi
Mississippi Counseling Association (MCA)	LPCs	Listed directly among the Board’s affiliated organizations; parent organization of MLPCA
Mississippi Licensed Professional Counselor Association (MLPCA)	LPCs	The only organization working exclusively for the mental health counseling profession in Mississippi, offering CE, networking, and legislative advocacy
Mississippi Psychological Association (MPA)	Licensed Psychologists	State-level CE, legislative advocacy, and an annual convention
NASW Mississippi Chapter	LCSWs	Over 700 members, offering an annual conference each March plus Code of Ethics consultations

Accepted CE for LPCs may also come from the American Mental Health Counselors Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the American Association of State Counseling Boards — all listed directly among the Board’s own affiliated links. 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.

Mississippi-Specific Considerations

A few details worth knowing beyond the base CE requirements:

The LMFT Ethics-Hour Figure Isn’t Fully Resolved by Public Sources

This is worth stating plainly rather than glossing over: we found genuinely conflicting figures for the LMFT ethics-hour minimum (4 hours face-to-face versus 6 hours) across multiple sources, and couldn’t confirm which is currently accurate from publicly available materials alone. If you’re a Mississippi LMFT, treat this as a direct-confirmation item with the Board rather than relying on any single source, including this one.

The Jurisprudence Exam Doubles as Ethics Credit for LPCs

Mississippi’s required Jurisprudence Examination isn’t just a compliance hurdle — completing it through CCE Academy automatically counts toward your ethics-hour requirement (3 hours for LPC, or 2 ethics plus 1 supervision hour for LPC-S). This is a genuinely efficient design worth taking advantage of rather than treating the exam and your ethics CE as two separate obligations.

Mississippi Uses CE Broker for Counselor Tracking

LPCs report their CE totals through CE Broker, Mississippi’s official tracking system. Registering early and confirming your provider reports completions there directly can simplify renewal significantly compared to manually compiling certificates.

Mississippi’s Combined Board May Have Updated Its Hour Requirement to 40

The Board’s own “Special Instructions for All Renewals 2024 and Beyond” notice cites a 40-hour total (4 ethics, 2 cultural diversity, 1 mandated reporting) for social work and MFT licensees — different from the 30-hour figure reflected elsewhere. This could reflect a genuine rule change since older sources were published, or inconsistency in how different sources describe the requirement. Either way, confirm your current exact hour total directly with the Board rather than relying on any single published figure, including the one in the table above.

Mississippi Psychology License Renewal Is Annual, Even Though CE Reporting Is Biennial

This is a genuinely easy detail to miss: the psychology license itself must be renewed every single year by June 30, even though the CE hour requirement is structured on a two-year cycle. Don’t assume that a 2-year CE cycle means you only interact with the Board every other year — you’ll need to complete the renewal process annually regardless.

New Licensee vs. Renewing Licensee

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

• Provisional LPCs (P-LPC) renew annually rather than biennially, completing 6 CE hours per year (including 2 in ethics) and may renew for up to 4 years before requiring a special Board extension to continue in provisional status.
• LPC-S supervisors receive a different ethics/supervision credit split than standard LPCs when completing the Jurisprudence Exam — 2 hours ethics and 1 hour supervision, rather than the standard 3 hours ethics.
• LSW-level social workers (as opposed to LMSW/LCSW) face a notably higher ethics-content requirement — 9 of their 30 hours — reflecting the additional oversight appropriate to an earlier career stage.
• Supervisors more broadly take on real responsibility in Mississippi’s system, 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 Mississippi CE Requirements

Mississippi’s counseling board stands out for being genuinely well-documented and low-cost — a $50 renewal fee and a Jurisprudence Exam that pulls double duty as ethics credit is about as efficient as licensing renewal gets. The combined social work/MFT board is a different story, where publicly available information is less consistent, particularly around LMFT ethics hours and fees.

If you’re an LMFT in Mississippi, don’t treat any single source (again, including this one) as final on your ethics-hour requirement — a quick call or email to the Board is worth the few minutes it takes to avoid submitting an incomplete renewal.

References

• Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors. (n.d.). LPC. Resource
• Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors. (n.d.). Affiliated links. Resource
• Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists. (n.d.). Special instructions for all renewals 2024 and beyond. Resource
• Mississippi Board of Psychology. (n.d.). Renewing a license. Resource
• Mississippi Counseling Association. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• Mississippi Licensed Professional Counselor Association. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• Mississippi Psychological Association. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• NASW Mississippi Chapter. (n.d.). Home. Resource