Need a Therapist? Colorado is Changing the Rules to Fix the Shortage.

The Bottom Line

If you've tried booking a marriage or family therapist lately, you know there's a massive shortage. This bill creates a new pathway for out-of-state or non-traditional graduates to get licensed in Colorado by trading a college internship requirement for 700 extra hours of supervised, on-the-job training.

What This Bill Actually Does

Colorado has a well-documented mental health provider shortage. Right now, to become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in our state, the law requires your master’s or doctoral degree to include a formal internship or practicum. If you went to a program that didn't include one—or if you're an experienced professional moving from a state with different educational standards—you essentially hit a bureaucratic brick wall. You can't get licensed here, even if you are otherwise highly qualified.

HB26-1228 creates a practical workaround. Under this legislation, if your degree didn't include that specific internship or practicum, you aren't automatically disqualified from working in Colorado. Instead, the state will let you substitute that academic requirement with real-world experience. Specifically, the bill amends Section 12-245-504 of the Colorado Revised Statutes to allow these applicants to register as LMFT candidates, provided they complete an additional chunk of supervised clinical practice.

Let's break down the math of how this actually works in the field:

• The Standard Pathway: Candidates whose degree included an internship must complete 1,500 supervised clinical hours post-graduation.
• The New Alternative Pathway: Candidates without the internship must complete 2,200 supervised clinical hours post-graduation.

This clinical supervision can happen in person or via telesupervision. The result is a system that demands the same—if not more—rigorous, face-to-face client contact, but offers flexibility in how future therapists acquire it.

What It Means for You

For the average Coloradan, this bill is fundamentally about access. If you are a parent trying to find a family counselor for a struggling teen, or a couple looking for marriage therapy, you know the waitlists can stretch for months. Providers are completely tapped out. By opening up a new pipeline for therapists who might have graduated from non-traditional or out-of-state programs, this law aims to slowly but surely increase the sheer volume of professionals legally allowed to take your appointment.

You might wonder if changing the licensing rules means lowering the bar for the person sitting across from you on the therapy couch. The short answer is no. The trade-off is strictly mathematical: the state is swapping a college-coordinated internship for 700 extra hours of closely supervised, post-graduate clinical work. That equates to roughly four to six months of full-time, heavily monitored client interaction. When you sit down with a newly minted LMFT who used this pathway, they will still have thousands of hours of vetted experience under their belt.

If you are currently a student, a recent grad, or someone considering a career change into mental health counseling, this gives you a lot more breathing room. Starting March 1, 2027, you won't have to panic if your online or out-of-state degree program doesn't perfectly align with Colorado's historical internship mandates. You can still build a career here, provided you're willing to put in the extra supervised hours on the back end. It removes the risk that you might spend years getting a master's degree only to find out you can't actually use it in your home state.

What It Means for Your Business

If you own or manage a mental health clinic, private practice, or a larger healthcare facility, this legislation directly impacts your hiring pool. Right now, recruiting is one of the biggest bottlenecks for behavioral health businesses. Starting March 1, 2027, your HR department will have a wider net to cast. You can begin recruiting candidates who hold master's or doctoral degrees from programs that previously wouldn't have met Colorado's strict practicum requirements.

This also creates an operational shift for clinics that provide clinical supervision. Because these new candidates will need 2,200 hours of supervised clinical work rather than the standard 1,500, clinics that employ fully licensed supervisors will see an increased demand for those supervisory hours.

Here is how that impacts your business model:

• Longer Retention: Pre-licensed associates will likely stay with your clinic longer while they grind out those extra 700 hours, giving your business a more stable, predictable workforce.
• Remote Flexibility: The bill explicitly allows for telesupervision, meaning you can integrate remote supervisors into your business model to handle the extra load without needing more physical office space.
• No New Red Tape: From a compliance standpoint, there are no new state reporting requirements placed on business owners. The burden of tracking and proving those 700 additional hours falls on the applicant and the state.

However, if your clinic employs unlicensed candidates on this new track, you will want to proactively review your internal tracking software. Ensure your licensed supervisors are accurately logging these expanded hours so your employees don't face bureaucratic hiccups when they finally submit their paperwork for full licensure.

Follow the Money

You won't see a price tag attached to this one. According to the nonpartisan fiscal note, HB26-1228 requires $0 in state funding and doesn't add a single new government job. The Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) will have to do a little bit of administrative housekeeping—like updating their rulebooks and application forms to reflect the new 700-hour requirement—but they can easily absorb that minor workload using their existing budget.

There is also zero financial impact on local governments, city budgets, or taxpayer wallets. Licensing fees paid by the therapists themselves will continue to fund the state's regulatory oversight. It is a relatively rare piece of legislation that manages to expand a state program and increase the workforce without asking taxpayers to foot the bill.

Where This Bill Stands

HB26-1228 is currently Signed Into Law. The latest official action came on 05/26/2026: Governor Signed.

That means the legislative process is complete and the bill is now law. The remaining questions are about implementation timing and how agencies, businesses, or local governments respond.