Arizona’s Board of Behavioral Health Examiners issues two counseling licences on one ladder. The Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC) needs a 60-credit degree and a passed exam but no post-degree experience; the Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) adds 24 months and 1,600 direct client hours. The board approves three exams for both: the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE), the NCE and the CRC.
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The board approves the National Counselor Examination, the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (both from NBCC) and the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor Examination, for both the associate (LAC) and professional (LPC) licences.
If I already hold an LAC, do I sit the exam again for the LPC?
No. The board’s rules deem an LPC applicant to meet the exam requirement if they hold an active associate counselor licence in good standing issued by the board.
How much supervised experience does the LPC require?
At least 24 months of supervised post-master’s work experience, including at least 1,600 hours of direct client contact and at least 100 hours of clinical supervision. The LAC has no supervised work experience requirement.
Do psychoeducation and crisis hours count?
Partly. Under Arizona’s statute, no more than 400 of the 1,600 direct client contact hours may be psychoeducation, and the board’s rules also cap crisis response at 400 of those hours.
What degree does Arizona require?
A master’s or higher degree with a major emphasis in counseling, from a regionally accredited college or university, in a program of at least 60 semester or 90 quarter credit hours. The program must be CACREP- or rehabilitation-education-accredited, or have a curriculum approved by the board or meeting its rules.
Test yourself: 3 NCMHCE practice questions
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Question 1
Terry now has some willingness to try, and you introduce behavioral activation. How do you best guide it?
▸ Why B is the answer
Behavioral activation works when the steps are small, meaningful, graded to current energy, and chosen together, and when mood is tracked so the client discovers for himself that doing a little lifts him a little. One ten-minute walk he can actually complete beats an ambitious plan he cannot, because the early win is what powers the next step.
Question 2
Terry states it flatly: 'A man who can't provide is nothing, and losing my spot proved I'm a failure.' What is the best cognitive intervention at this point?
▸ Why C is the answer
Cognitive work changes a belief most durably when the client tests it himself, so you guide rather than tell: What does worth rest on? What is the evidence on both sides? Would you judge a friend this harshly? Reaching the more balanced view through his own reasoning both loosens this specific hot thought and teaches him the skill of questioning the next one. That collaborative, discovery-based stance is the heart of the method.
Question 3
It is time to set treatment goals with Terry. What is the best approach?
▸ Why D is the answer
Goals stick when they are the client's own, so you draw them from what he wants back, sleep, energy to fish, feeling less like a burden, and shape those into concrete objectives you both endorse. That collaboration gives a depressed man some ownership and momentum, and it keeps the plan anchored to a life he actually wants to return to.
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