Become a Washington State Approved Supervisor

Updated August 2026

This page is informational and reflects the rules as of August 2026. It is not legal advice and it is not a substitute for the Washington Department of Health. Verify your own requirements with DOH and your credential's rules before you rely on them.

Becoming an approved supervisor in Washington takes two things, and most clinicians only know about one of them. You need 15 clock hours of training in clinical supervision, and you need 25 hours of experience in supervision of clinical practice. Your license also has to be unrestricted and in good standing for the previous two years. The training is the part that gets advertised. The 25 hours is the part people find out about later.

What the rule says

The requirement appears three times in chapter 246-809 WAC, once for each license type, and the language is the same in all three. WAC 246-809-134 covers marriage and family therapists, WAC 246-809-234 covers mental health counselors, and WAC 246-809-334 covers social workers. Fifteen hours and twenty-five hours, whichever license you hold.

The 15 clock hours can come through coursework, continuing education, or supervision of supervision. The 25 hours you complete on the job, supervising. Training alone does not make you an approved supervisor, and no provider can shortcut that for you.

A Washington approved supervisor is not an AAMFT Approved Supervisor

This is the most confused question in the category, so here it is plainly.

The Washington State approved supervisor designation is what chapter 246-809 WAC describes. It is what allows you to supervise associates working toward licensure in Washington.

The AAMFT Approved Supervisor designation is a national credential awarded by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. It runs through a 30-hour Fundamentals of MFT Supervision course provided or pre-approved by AAMFT, plus a mentored process, and a state continuing education training does not confer it.

Both designations are real and they are not substitutes for each other. If someone is selling you a 15-hour training, it is for the Washington pathway.

Where to get the 15 hours

Several Washington providers run this training and they are not interchangeable, so match the format to your life before you match it to anything else.

Cascadia Training runs a three-day version on Zoom several times a year and posts dates well ahead, which makes it the most flexible option if travel or scheduling is the obstacle.

Shelterwood Collective runs a hybrid two-day version in Seattle with an embodied and somatic emphasis, so you can attend in the room or remotely.

Envision offers a virtual two-day version.

Telehealth Certification Institute offers a self-paced bundle if you would rather work through it on your own schedule.

Lovewell Initiatives runs Becoming an Approved Supervisor: A Relational Supervision Intensive, two days in person in Federal Way, taught through a systemic and anti-oppressive lens by two AAMFT Approved Supervisors who are also Washington approved supervisors. It carries 15 NBCC continuing education hours.

The part worth checking before you pay

Most supervisor trainings give you the supervision hours and leave your renewal categories for you to chase separately. Washington asks fully licensed clinicians for 32 continuing education hours every two years, and within that total it asks for specific categories.

The Lovewell intensive is built so the same 15 hours do both. Six hours of professional ethics and law, two hours of professional roles and boundaries taught as its own block, and two hours of health equity meeting the implicit bias standard, with the remaining five hours counting as general continuing education. So one purchase covers the supervisor training requirement and all three renewal categories.

Every clinician is responsible for confirming that their own credential and reporting requirements are met. If you are comparing providers, ask each one which categories their hours report under, because the answers differ more than the marketing suggests.

What the two days cover

Supervision is a relationship before it is a compliance activity, and most supervisor training treats it the other way round.

The intensive opens by putting everyone on the same systemic ground, so a family systems background is not needed to follow it. From there the two days work through mapping the supervisory systems you sit inside and locating yourself in them, applying the Person-of-Supervisor framework through differentiation of self, attachment, and self-regulation, building supervisory relationships that are safe and rigorous at once with written contracts that hold, tracking the patterns that move between the therapy room and the supervision room, carrying the legal and ethical duties chapter 246-809 WAC places on you, evaluating fairly and handling gatekeeping with care, and naming and interrupting implicit bias, power, and social location without shame.

The last stretch is about supervision as leadership, because that is what it becomes.

Dates, pricing, and registration for the next cohort are on the training page. Practices sending four or more clinicians have a group rate.

Who can become an approved supervisor

Licensed mental health counselors, licensed clinical social workers, licensed advanced social workers, and licensed marriage and family therapists. Associates and students are welcome to take the training and learn from it, though the approved supervisor designation itself requires full licensure.

The training carries nationally recognized continuing education through our NBCC approval, so clinicians outside Washington take it for the content and for CE hours their own board accepts. The regulatory content is Washington-specific, and supervisor eligibility rules differ from state to state, so confirm your own board's requirements before relying on this toward a supervisor designation elsewhere.

Documentation

Keep your certificate of completion. WAC 246-809-650 requires you to retain a transcript, a letter from the instructor, a certificate of completion, or another formal record confirming you finished the training.

Primary sources

Common questions

Does completing a 15-hour training make me an approved supervisor?

Not on its own. The training covers one of two requirements. You also need 25 hours of experience in supervision of clinical practice, which you accumulate on the job, and your license has to be unrestricted and in good standing for the previous two years. Most people are surprised by the 25 hours, because the training is the part that gets advertised.

How long does the whole process take?

The training itself is two days. The 25 hours of supervision experience is the variable, and it depends entirely on how much supervising you are doing and how quickly those hours accumulate.

Is a Washington approved supervisor the same as an AAMFT Approved Supervisor?

No, and this is the most confused question in the category. The Washington designation is what chapter 246-809 WAC describes, and it is what allows you to supervise associates working toward licensure in this state. The AAMFT Approved Supervisor designation is a national credential from the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, earned through a 30-hour Fundamentals of MFT Supervision course provided or pre-approved by AAMFT, plus 180 hours of supervision under an Approved Supervisor mentor, 36 hours of mentoring, and a minimum of 18 months. A state continuing education training does not confer it. Both of our facilitators hold both designations, which is why we can tell you plainly where one ends and the other begins, and we wrote the whole comparison out on a separate page.

Where can I take the 15 hours?

Several Washington providers run this training and they are not interchangeable, so it is worth matching the format to your life. Cascadia Training runs a three-day version on Zoom several times a year, which is the most flexible option if travel is the obstacle. Shelterwood Collective runs a hybrid two-day version in Seattle with an embodied, somatic emphasis. Envision offers a virtual two-day version. Telehealth Certification Institute offers a self-paced bundle if you would rather work at your own pace. Lovewell's version, Becoming an Approved Supervisor, runs in person over two days in Federal Way, taught through a systemic and anti-oppressive lens, and it is the one we know of that also carries all three of Washington's renewal categories inside the same 15 hours.

Which Washington CE categories does the Lovewell intensive cover?

Six hours of professional ethics and law, two hours of professional roles and boundaries taught as its own block, and two hours of health equity meeting the implicit bias standard. The remaining five hours count as general continuing education. Every clinician is responsible for confirming that their own credential and reporting requirements are met.

What licenses qualify?

Licensed mental health counselors, licensed clinical social workers, licensed advanced social workers, and licensed marriage and family therapists. Associates and students are welcome to attend and learn, though the approved supervisor designation itself requires full licensure.

Does this only matter in Washington?

The regulatory content is Washington-specific. The training carries nationally recognized continuing education through our NBCC approval, so clinicians elsewhere take it for the content and for CE hours their own board accepts. Supervisor eligibility rules differ from state to state more than CE acceptance does, so confirm your own board's requirements before relying on this toward a supervisor designation outside Washington.

How do I document it?

Keep your certificate of completion. WAC 246-809-650 requires you to retain a transcript, a letter from the instructor, a certificate, or another formal record confirming you finished the training.

Who we are

Lovewell Initiatives, LLC is a continuing education provider in Tacoma, Washington, offering training for mental health professionals grounded in reflexive, anti-oppressive, systemic practice.

Lovewell Initiatives, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7776. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Lovewell Initiatives, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7776