When can I apply for my NY LMFT?

When you have 1,500 hours of supervised experience (under your limited permit, plus any from your MFT program), all of them direct contact with clients; there is no minimum number of months, but your permit lasts up to 24 months, with up to 2 extensions of 12 months.

• At least 1,500 clock hours of supervised experience, all of them direct contact with clients; supervision, notes and other work don't count toward them (8 NYCRR 79-10.3(a)). With a degree in marriage and family therapy, supervised client contact from your program's practicum can count; with an allied degree, only hours after it (79-10.3(b), (c)). Program hours count toward the license, not the diagnostic privilege.
• NYSED's limited permit FAQ says only direct face-to-face sessions with clients count, and doesn't say whether a session by video or phone is face-to-face. The State Board’s draft minutes of October 22, 2021 say client contact hours “completed through distance technology may be submitted on Form 4B”. Until NYSED confirms, the app keeps client hours by video or phone apart, and so does the calculator: they're left out of the dates.
• NYSED sets no weekly maximum, but its requirements page says “hour calculations are based on a typical 40-45 hour work week” and that experience gained “in an unreasonable amount of time is not acceptable”. Like the app, the calculator counts no faster than 45 hours a week from your first week under the permit. Supervision: an average of one hour a week, or two hours every other week, individual or group, in person or by secure video (79-10.3(d)); the calculator mentions it when your usual week has less, and it never changes the date. Your supervisor: an LMFT, a physician, a physician assistant, a psychologist, an LCSW, a registered nurse, or a nurse practitioner, competent in marriage and family therapy. A licensed mental health counselor can't supervise these hours.
• The limited permit is valid for not more than 24 months, and NYSED may extend it for no more than 2 more 12-month periods, 48 months in all (8 NYCRR 79-10.4); extensions are at NYSED's discretion, and NYSED asks for one at least 60 days before the permit expires. Without the expiry printed on your permit, the calculator estimates one: the day before the 24-month anniversary of the issue date; the printed date is the one that counts. You may not practice until the permit is issued (NYSED's requirements page), so the calculator counts hours from its issue date. When you leave a job, your employer must return the permit; NYSED voids it and the “clock will stop” (NYSED's requirements page), and the time left is available for a future permit.
• The diagnostic privilege needs at least 2,000 hours of supervised direct client contact that includes diagnosis, psychotherapy and assessment-based treatment plans (8 NYCRR 79-10.6), under an LCSW, a psychologist or a psychiatrist who qualifies, or (from June 24, 2024) an LMFT who holds the privilege. The calculator doesn't count your program's hours toward it: NYSED hasn't said so for LMFTs specifically, so ask NYSED.
• It assumes the same hours every week from now on, at one job, under one supervisor named on your permit. Weeks off move your date later. It leaves out experience in another state, which counts only if NYSED accepts it; the app keeps such hours apart. It doesn't check your supervisor or your setting, and NYSED decides every application.

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Sources

• 8 NYCRR Subpart 79-10, marriage and family therapy (opens in a new tab)
• NYSED: LMFT license requirements (opens in a new tab)
• NYSED: limited permit FAQ (opens in a new tab)
• NYSED: diagnostic privilege (opens in a new tab)
• NYSED: the 2027 extension (Chapter 140 of 2025) (opens in a new tab)