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

What This Bill Actually Does

Currently, getting a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) designation in Colorado is a rigid process. Under existing law, you have to complete a master's or doctoral degree that specifically baked an internship or practicum right into the academic curriculum. If your degree program didn't offer one, you're essentially locked out of licensure in Colorado—even if you're otherwise highly qualified. Once you graduate with that specific type of degree, you register as a candidate and have to log at least 1,500 hours of supervised clinical practice before getting your official, independent license.

House Bill 26-1228, introduced by Representatives Rebekah Stewart and Lisa Feret, aims to fix this bottleneck by creating a secondary, alternative pathway to licensure. The core of the bill addresses those candidates whose master's or doctoral programs skipped the internship or practicum. Instead of telling those graduates they can't practice in Colorado, the state will let them register as LMFT candidates. But there is a very deliberate trade-off to ensure public safety and clinical competence.

To compensate for the lack of an academic practicum, these candidates will have to complete an additional 700 hours of supervised clinical work on top of the standard requirement. That means they will need a total of 2,200 hours of face-to-face, direct client contact under clinical supervision before they can earn their full LMFT license. Importantly, this supervision can happen in person or through telesupervision (remote video), which makes it a lot easier for candidates living in rural areas to actually rack up those hours. This new rule would officially apply to folks applying for their license on or after March 1, 2027.

What It Means for You

If you are a Coloradan trying to find a marriage counselor or family therapist right now, you know how incredibly frustrating the process can be. Waitlists are months long, and finding someone who takes your insurance and actually has an opening feels like winning the lottery. By opening up an alternative pathway for licensure, HB26-1228 is directly aimed at increasing the sheer number of therapists available to you and your family. More therapists eventually mean shorter wait times, more diverse options for care, and potentially more competitive rates if you are paying out of pocket.

If you are someone actually considering a career in therapy, or perhaps you're a student looking at out-of-state or online graduate programs, this bill gives you a massive safety net. Right now, picking a master's program without an embedded practicum is a career death sentence for Colorado licensure. If this bill passes, you have a viable fallback plan. You'll just need to plan for a longer post-grad residency period—an extra 700 hours, which roughly translates to an extra four to six months of full-time supervised work.

This isn't an overnight fix. Because the new pathway wouldn't accept applications until March 1, 2027, you won't see a sudden flood of new therapists opening up shop tomorrow. But it's a long-term play to build out Colorado's mental health infrastructure so that when you need a professional, one is actually there.

Action Items:

• Check your degree program: If you are currently enrolled in a psychology or therapy master's program, check with your academic advisor about whether your curriculum includes a formal practicum to see which track you'll fall into.
• Contact your representative: If you've struggled to find a therapist and support expanding the workforce, email the Business Affairs & Labor Committee members to share your story before their first hearing.

What It Means for Your Business

For those of you running behavioral health clinics, private counseling practices, or community mental health centers, HB26-1228 is a very big deal for your recruiting pipeline. Right now, hiring managers have to toss out resumes from candidates whose degrees didn't include a formal academic practicum, no matter how great the candidate looks on paper. By allowing these individuals to register as LMFT candidates, you are going to see a broader pool of applicants available to hire for entry-level, supervised roles.

However, taking on these alternative-pathway candidates comes with a heavier supervisory burden. Because they need 2,200 supervised hours instead of the standard 1,500, they are going to be under your roof as unlicensed candidates for a longer period. You will need to ensure your clinic has the capacity to provide that extended clinical supervision. The good news is that the bill explicitly allows for telesupervision, meaning your senior licensed staff can supervise these candidates remotely. This is huge for rural clinics or hybrid telehealth businesses trying to scale up their operations without forcing everyone into a physical office.

If your business models rely on billing for candidate-level services, having candidates stick around longer before getting fully licensed might actually stabilize your workforce. They will need your supervisory sign-off for an extended period, which could reduce turnover in your junior ranks. Just make sure your compliance departments are ready to track these two distinct tiers of candidates—those who need 1,500 hours versus those who need 2,200 hours.

Action Items THIS WEEK:

• Audit your supervision capacity: Look at your current roster of fully licensed LMFTs and determine how many extra candidate hours they could realistically supervise.
• Update your hiring projections: Factor in the March 1, 2027 effective date for this new applicant pool. You can start recruiting from non-traditional master's programs with an eye on that timeline.
• Review your telehealth tech stack: Ensure your remote video software complies with state board standards for telesupervision, as you'll likely be relying heavily on it to manage these additional candidate hours.

Follow the Money

The official fiscal note for HB26-1228 hasn't been published yet, but we can make some highly educated projections based on how the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) operates. Typically, creating a new pathway to licensure doesn't cost the state general fund a dime. DORA operates on a cash-fund basis, meaning the costs of reviewing applications, issuing licenses, and handling complaints are covered entirely by the fees paid by the applicants themselves.

Because this bill will likely increase the number of people applying to become LMFT candidates, DORA might actually see a modest bump in fee revenue. However, they will also need to update their internal tracking systems and rulebooks to monitor the two different hour requirements (1,500 vs. 2,200). That administrative setup cost will likely be absorbed into existing budgets or covered by slight adjustments to licensing fees down the road. For the everyday Colorado taxpayer, this bill is essentially a freebie—it aims to expand the healthcare workforce without asking for public tax dollars.

Where This Bill Stands

HB26-1228 is fresh out of the gate. It was officially introduced in the House on February 18, 2026, and assigned to the House Business Affairs & Labor Committee. This is exactly where you want a workforce and occupational licensing bill to start.

Right now, we are waiting for the committee to schedule its first public hearing. Because this bill is relatively straightforward, tackles a known workforce shortage, and doesn't ask for a massive chunk of the state budget, its trajectory looks very promising. The real test will be whether traditional, established therapy associations push back against lowering the academic barrier to entry, even with the extra supervised hours acting as a buffer. If you care about this one, keep an eye on the legislative calendar—the first committee hearing will be your prime opportunity to submit written testimony or speak directly to lawmakers.