North Dakota Continuing Education Requirements for Mental Health Professionals

North Dakota’s counseling structure is tiered rather than flat — the base LPC credential requires 30 CE hours, but the more advanced LPCC designation adds another 10 hours specifically in clinical content on top of that. Social work, marriage and family therapy, and psychology are each governed by entirely separate boards, so this isn’t a state where one set of rules covers everyone.

The detail most worth flagging up front: North Dakota psychologists renew their license every single year, with a November 15 deadline, even though their CE hours are only reported on a two-year cycle. That’s a genuinely easy structural detail to miss if you’re assuming psychology follows the same biennial rhythm as counseling and social work in this state.

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

North Dakota Continuing Education Requirements

North Dakota uses a tiered structure for counselors, where the advanced LPCC credential requires additional hours on top of the base LPC requirement, while social work, MFT, and psychology are each governed by their own separate boards (North Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners, n.d.; North Dakota Marriage and Family Therapy Licensure Board, n.d.; North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners, n.d.; North Dakota State Board of Psychologist Examiners, n.d.).

License Type	CE Requirements	Renewal / Special Requirements	Official Licensing Board
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC)	40 CE hours every 2 years	Base LPC requirement is 30 hours; LPCCs need an additional 10 hours specifically in clinical content. Minimum 3 hours ethics. No more than 15 hours may come from any single source, event, or topic. Live/interactive webinars count as face-to-face; passive online formats generally do not.	North Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)	30 CE hours every 2 years	Confirm current content-area requirements directly with the Board.	North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)	30 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 6 hours ethics — notably higher than the 3-hour minimum for LPC/LPCC in this state.	North Dakota Marriage and Family Therapy Licensure Board
Licensed Psychologist (PhD / PsyD)	40 CE hours every 2 years	Minimum 3 hours ethics. Up to 20 hours may be completed via correspondence or online.	North Dakota State Board of Psychologist Examiners

Clinical Note: North Dakota’s LPCC tier is a good reminder that “highest license level” doesn’t always mean “highest CE total” everywhere — but here it does, at 40 hours versus the base LPC’s 30. The 15-hour cap on any single source or topic is also worth knowing before you plan an entire renewal cycle’s CE around one conference or provider.

North Dakota License Renewal Requirements

North Dakota’s four boards run on genuinely different cycles — counseling and MFT share a biennial rhythm, social work runs on its own biennial calendar, and psychology stands apart as the only annual renewal among the four.

LPCC License Renewal

Administered by the North Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners. LPC and LPCC licenses renew every two years and expire on the same date, with online renewal available August 15 through December 31 of odd-numbered years. The Board mails renewal notices at least two months before expiration, though ultimate responsibility for renewing on time rests with the licensee. Renewal fees run $150 for LPC and an additional $75 specifically for the LPCC designation; a separate $75 supervision registration fee applies to those approved to supervise.

LCSW License Renewal

Administered by the North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners (note: the link commonly associated with this board leads to the North Dakota NASW chapter rather than the Board’s own site — confirm you’re on the Board’s official renewal portal, ndbswe.com, when renewing). Licenses run on a fixed biennial cycle from January 1 of the even-numbered year through December 31 of the odd-numbered year, with online renewal available August 15 through December 31. The renewal fee is $75, consistent across LBSW, LMSW, and LCSW license levels. North Dakota has joined the Social Work Licensure Compact, streamlining multistate practice for social workers starting in 2026.

LMFT License Renewal

Administered by the North Dakota Marriage and Family Therapy Licensure Board. Renewal is biennial, following the same general cycle as LPC/LPCC. Confirm your specific current renewal fee directly with the Board; a $75 supervision registration fee applies to approved LMFT supervisors, consistent with the counseling board’s structure.

Psychologist License Renewal

Administered by the North Dakota State Board of Psychologist Examiners. Unlike the other three licenses covered here, psychologist renewal is annual, with a November 15 deadline every year — even though CE hours (40 total) are only reported on a two-year cycle, with a minimum of 3 hours in professional ethics, law, or jurisprudence. The renewal fee is $250, submitted along with an attestation of completed continuing education; the Board may request supporting documentation or a full report.

North Dakota Approved CE Providers

Whether you’re looking for North Dakota online continuing education or in-person North Dakota continuing education courses, North Dakota recognizes CE from national accreditors alongside active state associations:

Accreditor / Association	Who It’s For	Recognized For
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)	LPCCs	Widely accepted for LPC/LPCC renewal
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)	LCSWs	Accepted for social work renewal; live real-time webinars count as face-to-face hours rather than independent learning
American Psychological Association (APA)	Licensed Psychologists	The standard for psychologist CE in North Dakota
North Dakota Counseling Association (NDCA)	LPCs, LPCCs	Genuinely active state association hosting monthly member webinars and an annual conference
North Dakota Psychological Association (NDPA)	Licensed Psychologists	Established in 1954, offering affordable CE workshops and conferences for North Dakota psychologists
North Dakota Chapter of NASW	LCSWs	State-level advocacy and CE, part of the NASW Heartland region
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT)	LMFTs	Board-approved national source for LMFT CE

North Dakota’s counseling board draws a real distinction between live and passive formats: interactive webinars that allow real-time questions and dialogue count as face-to-face hours, while pre-recorded or non-interactive online content generally does not. 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.

North Dakota-Specific Considerations

A few details worth knowing beyond the base CE requirements:

Psychology’s Annual Renewal Doesn’t Match Its Biennial CE Cycle

This is worth stating plainly since it’s easy to get backwards: North Dakota psychologists must renew their license every single year by November 15, but only need to report their 40 CE hours every two years. Don’t assume that a two-year CE cycle means you only interact with the Board every other year — the renewal itself, and its $250 fee, comes due annually regardless.

North Dakota Has Joined the Social Work Licensure Compact

As of 2026, North Dakota social workers have access to the ASWB Social Work Licensure Compact, which is intended to streamline multistate practice. Confirm current operational status and how to apply for compact privileges directly with the Board, since implementation details continue to develop nationally even after a state formally joins.

Live and Passive CE Formats Are Treated Very Differently

North Dakota’s distinction between interactive, real-time webinars (which count as face-to-face) and passive, pre-recorded content (which generally doesn’t) applies across the counseling and social work boards. If you’re used to a state where any “online” course counts the same regardless of format, don’t assume that applies here — confirm a specific course’s format classification before relying on it to satisfy your live-hour requirements.

New Licensee vs. Renewing Licensee

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

• Newly licensed social workers face a prorated CE requirement depending on when in the two-year cycle they were licensed — 15 hours are required if initially licensed between January 1 and June 30 of the odd-numbered year, rather than the full 30-hour total.
• LPCC candidates must complete an additional two years (2,000 hours) of supervised post-master’s clinical experience beyond standard LPC requirements, along with passing the NCMHCE, before earning the advanced designation.
• Approved supervisors for both LPC/LPCC and LMFT licensees pay a separate $75 supervision registration fee, distinct from their standard license renewal fee.
• Supervisors more broadly take on real responsibility in North Dakota’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

North Dakota’s mix of an annual psychology cycle, a biennial counseling/social work cycle, and a hard 15-hour cap on any single CE source makes this a state where planning ahead genuinely pays off. Knowing exactly how your hours are distributed across sources — not just how many you’ve completed — helps you avoid running into that cap late in a renewal period.

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.

Final Thoughts on North Dakota CE Requirements

North Dakota’s tiered LPC/LPCC structure and its split renewal calendars — annual for psychology, biennial for everyone else — are the two details most likely to trip up a clinician who assumes this state follows a single consistent pattern. Neither is complicated once you know it’s there, but both are easy to miss if you’re transferring assumptions from a previous state.

Given the hard 15-hour cap on any single CE source, spreading your continuing education across a few different providers or topics over your renewal cycle — rather than relying heavily on one conference or course series — is a genuinely practical habit worth building into your planning here specifically.

References

• North Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners. (n.d.). License renewal. Resource
• North Dakota Marriage and Family Therapy Licensure Board. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• North Dakota State Board of Psychologist Examiners. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• North Dakota Counseling Association. (n.d.). Home. Resource
• North Dakota Psychological Association. (n.d.). Home. Resource