Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) is a designation for mental health counseling practitioners who hold a master’s degree in counseling and have met other requirements for licensing in their state. Unlike social work, where there is a division between practitioners who provide individual and/or group therapy and practitioners who do not, psychotherapeutic counseling is central to the field of counseling and most states require all types of mental health counselors to be fully licensed. Similarly, mental health counselors are generally only permitted to provide clinical services under formal supervision during their training, after which they must apply for a state license.
