Florida registered interns

Florida Registered Intern: What You Can Do on Day One

Your registration came through. Now what?

Most advice for therapists about getting paid and finding clients assumes you are licensed. You are not. Not for about two more years. So here is the other list: what you can do today, what it costs, and what has to wait.

By Gabriel Benaim, LMHC | Checked: September 21, 2026

This works for all three registrations

Florida uses one application for all three licenses: mental health counseling, clinical social work, and marriage and family therapy. The requirements after your master’s are the same for each. So this page works whether you are an RMHCI, an RCSWI, or an RMFTI.

Your registration lasts five years and you cannot renew it. In that time you need 1,500 hours of face-to-face therapy and 100 hours of supervision. Those supervision hours have to spread across at least 100 weeks. That last rule is what really sets your timeline.

1. Check that your supervisor is Board approved

Do this before your first session.

Hours only count if your supervisor is Board approved. If they are not, the hours are gone. Not “gone unless you explain.” Gone.

This is the most expensive mistake you can make today, because you will not find out until you are two years in and filling out your application.

So check it yourself. Do not take someone’s word for it. “She supervises all our interns” is not proof. And a supervisor approved for a different profession is not automatically approved for yours.

Search the Florida qualified supervisor directory to check a name, or to find someone if you are still looking.

2. Set up your hours log before your first session

Every intern plans to keep good records. The ones who struggle later did not get sloppy on purpose. They kept notes in three places. Or started properly in month four. Or rebuilt three months from memory and an old calendar.

Today is the only day this is free. Every week you wait, you have more to rebuild.

Get the Florida hours tracker. It follows the Board’s own categories and the 100-week rule.

3. Take the Laws and Rules and HIV/AIDS courses now

Two courses stand between you and your license, no matter how your hours go:

• A Board-approved 8-hour Laws and Rules course
• A 3-hour HIV/AIDS course from an approved provider

You need both before you can be licensed. You can take both the day your registration is approved. And the application sets no expiry date, so taking them early does not waste them.

For HIV/AIDS there is another option. You can sign a notarized affidavit promising to finish it within six months of getting licensed. But that just moves eleven hours of work into the busiest month of your career.

Here is why the timing matters. The week you are chasing supervisor signatures, transcripts, and fingerprints is a bad week to learn you still owe eleven hours of class.

One thing to check. Your provider has to be Board approved and report to CE Broker. CE4Less is, under tracking number 50-10860. That is the box that matters. Check that both courses are still in their catalog before you pay, because catalogs change. My CE4Less review covers whether the unlimited plan is worth it, or whether you should just buy the two courses.

I earn a commission if you sign up through the CE4Less link above, at no additional cost to you. I only list providers I have used myself, and I say where they fall short. Program terms change, so check the current details before you buy.

4. Get your NPI

Your NPI is free. It usually takes about a day. Registered interns can get one.

You will need it for almost everything on the insurance side later. There is no reason to be applying for it the same month you apply for your license.

Apply through NPPES directly. If a site asks you to pay for an NPI, it is a scam. It has never cost anything.

5. List on Psychology Today, if your job allows it

Psychology Today takes registered interns. It costs about $29.95 a month. It is a directory listing, not an insurance panel, which is why you can use it when the insurance platforms are closed to you.

Check two things first.

Your contract. If you see clients through an agency or a group practice, those referrals usually belong to them. Your own listing may break what you signed.

Your profile. It has to say clearly that you are a registered intern, and who supervises you.

Why start now? Not for money right away. A profile builds up reviews, response history, and search position over time. A two-year head start is worth more than the fee.

Why not? If every client you see belongs to your employer anyway, you are paying $30 a month for nothing. Be honest about which one you are.

Is Psychology Today worth it for therapists? has the full breakdown, including my own results.

6. Look at Zocdoc too

Zocdoc also takes registered interns, and it charges differently. There is no monthly fee. You pay for each new patient who books. The fee depends on your specialty and where you are, and you are charged when they book, not when they show up.

That is a different kind of risk. A monthly fee costs the same whether it works or not. A per-booking fee costs nothing in a slow month, but you pay for people who never turn up.

Which is better depends on your no-show rate. As a new intern, you do not know that yet.

The same contract warning applies here as with Psychology Today.

What you cannot do yet

Headway, Grow Therapy, Rula, SonderMind, and Alma all need you to be fully licensed.

That is not them being picky. Insurance companies only credential clinicians who can practice on their own. These platforms exist to get you onto insurance panels and bill for you. They cannot do that while you are supervised. Asking nicely will not change it.

While you are supervised, your sessions get billed through your employer or your supervisor, not under a contract of your own. Good to know now. It means you can read the platform comparisons as planning, not as choices you can make today.

Best platforms for therapists covers all seven and marks the two that are open to you now.

What this all adds up to

Look at the list again. Items 1, 2, and 4 are free. Items 3, 5, and 6 cost somewhere between a one-time course fee and about $30 a month.

None of that is the expensive part.

The expensive part is your licensure date slipping. Because you rebuilt your hours from memory. Because your supervisor was not approved. Because eleven hours of class turned up in the wrong week.

Everything on this list does the same job. It means no surprises when you finally apply.

Related reading

Florida registered mental health counselor intern requirements covers what the Board needs before it approves your registration. The licensure application checklist is what day one is getting you ready for.