Guide

License Number and Supervised-By Lines: Which States Require Them

Summary

Whether a license number and a supervisor's name have to appear on a therapist's website and business cards is a state question, and the answers differ. California requires the license or registration number in every advertisement. Florida and Texas require the credential in words and name no number. Pre-licensed clinicians carry more: a Texas LPC Associate prints the supervisor's name, and California registrants name their employer. Find your board's advertising rule before you print.

By Gale Editorial · Updated 2026-09-01. Every figure cited to a dated source. How we write.

Does your state require the license number on your website?

It depends on your state, and there is no national rule to fall back on. California is the strict case: 16 CCR 1811(a) makes the license or registration number one of the items every Board of Behavioral Sciences licensee and registrant must include in any advertisement, alongside the name as filed with the board and the complete license title or an acceptable abbreviation 1. Florida and Texas ask for the credential in words and name no number 23.

Florida is the plainest words-only version. Section 491.0149 requires a licensed mental health counselor to put the words licensed mental health counselor or the letters LMHC on all promotional materials. The statute's list of those materials (cards, brochures, stationery, advertisements and signs) is introduced by the word including, and parallel clauses cover clinical social workers and marriage and family therapists 2. Nowhere in that section is a license number named.

Texas splits by profession, the first sign that this question has no single answer even inside one state. For counselors, 22 TAC 681.49(g) requires advertisements and announcements of counseling, telephone directory listings included, to clearly state licensure status by a title such as Licensed Professional Counselor or LPC 3. Social workers sit under a separate rulebook, where 22 TAC 781.316(c) asks for the licensure designation and any specialty recognition 4.

But the number is the easy half. The line naming a supervisor is the one that changes as your status changes.

The supervised-by line belongs to pre-licensed clinicians

If you are pre-licensed, expect a heavier disclosure than a fully licensed clinician carries, and expect it to vary by state. Texas requires an LPC Associate to mark that status, using the term LPC Associate, on all advertisements, billings and announcements of counseling treatment, and then requires the supervisor's name to follow the Associate's own 3. California requires a registrant to name their employer 1.

California is mid-change here, and the change is easy to miss because both texts are printed together. The January 2026 edition of the board's laws and regulations volume carries two versions of 16 CCR 1811, one that goes inoperative on April 1, 2026 and one that becomes operative the same day, and the line saying the registrant is supervised by a licensed person appears only in the operative version 1. The statute underneath is less ambiguous: B&P 4980.44(b)(1) requires any advertisement by or on behalf of a registered associate marriage and family therapist to include, at a minimum, the associate status, the registration number, the employer's name, and that they are supervised by a licensed person 1. That is the text as read on September 1, 2026, and California amends often.

Florida asks its registered interns to spell the credential out instead. A registered mental health counselor intern includes those exact words on all promotional materials naming the intern, with no abbreviation offered and no supervisor named 2.

New York answers a narrower question. Its Education Department states that the Education Law specifies no title or abbreviation for a mental health counseling limited-permit holder, suggests wording such as Permit Holder in Mental Health Counseling, and bars any implication of being licensed 5. That page says nothing about a number, so treat New York as settled on the title and unanswered on the number.

What the card says and who pays the associate are governed by different rules, and supervised hours under direct client payment raise a problem of their own.

What counts as an advertisement

Broadly, and in two of these states the rule says so in its own words. The Texas social work rule reaches advertisements or announcements of professional services, including website pages, social media communications, or telephone directory listings 4. The Texas counseling rule reaches announcements and telephone directory listings 3. Florida's list of cards, brochures, stationery, advertisements and signs is introduced by the word including, so it opens rather than closes 2.

None of these texts names a specific therapist directory, so a profile on a third-party listing site is covered only so far as the definition reaches it. The working convention among solo practices is to treat any listing a client can find and read as covered, then update all of them the week a credential changes.

The outer edge is unsettled here. An email signature and a conference badge are resolved by none of these texts, so how far to carry the same string is a call to make with your board.

State by state, what the material has to say

Four jurisdictions, eight situations, and no two of them ask for the same string. The table sets out what each cited authority requires on the material itself. It covers only the states these sources name, so a state missing from it is not a state without a rule.

WhereWhoWhat the material must say
CaliforniaBBS licenseeName as filed, complete license title or acceptable abbreviation, and the license number 1
CaliforniaBBS registrantThose items plus the employer's name, and, in the text operative April 1, 2026, supervised by a licensed person 1
FloridaLMHC, LCSW, LMFTThe title words or letters on all promotional materials 2
FloridaRegistered internThe registration spelled out in full 2
TexasLPCLicensure status by title, such as Licensed Professional Counselor 3
TexasLPC AssociateThe term LPC Associate, with the supervisor's name following 3
TexasSocial workerThe licensure designation and any specialty recognition 4
New YorkMHC limited permitNo title specified by the Education Law; nothing implying licensure 5

How to find your own board's rule in one sitting

Go to the rule text rather than the board's frequently asked questions, and search it for one word. Most requirements quoted here live in a numbered section whose subject is advertising or promotional materials: 16 CCR 1811 in California, 22 TAC 681.49 and 781.316 in Texas, Florida Statutes 491.0149. Your state has its own numbered equivalent.

  • Open your profession's chapter of the state administrative code, or your board's rulebook PDF, and search for advertising, promotional and announcement. Those words find nearly every version of this rule.
  • Read the subsection for your own status separately. Licensee and associate subsections ask for different strings, which is how a newly licensed clinician circulates a card that was correct last year.
  • Look for two versions of the same section. California prints an inoperative and an operative 16 CCR 1811 side by side 1, and a rule that turns over on a date is invisible if you stop at the first.
  • Write down the date you read it, and read it again at renewal.

Where the rule names no number, none is required. Printing one anyway is a choice these texts neither require nor forbid, so make it with your board's guidance.

Displaying the license is a separate duty from what your ad says

Two duties get collapsed into one question, and they live in different places. Florida's same section requires the license itself to be displayed at each practice location, which is a premises duty 2. New York requires a mental health counseling limited permit displayed at the work site 5. Neither duty is discharged by a website footer, and neither governs what the footer says.

California nurse practitioners have the sharpest example of a premises duty that reads like an advertising rule. A nurse practitioner in the categories the Board of Registered Nursing implemented after Assembly Bill 890 must prominently post a notice, in at least 48-point Arial font, in a conspicuous location accessible to public view on the premises, and must verbally inform all new patients that a nurse practitioner is not a physician and surgeon 6. The Board created no new initials or title 6, so nothing there dictates the line on a card.

Nothing in these sources says whether a nurse practitioner must name a collaborating physician in advertising, and this page asserts neither. That question sits alongside prescribing under a collaborator's DEA number, a separate lane with its own rules.

What to put on the card, and what a mismatch costs

Build the card out of the rule text, then keep it true. The compliant version carries the credential in the form your own rule names it, the number where your state asks for one, and in California the name as filed with the board 1; a pre-licensed clinician adds the status term, and in Texas the supervisor's name follows their own 3.

Maintenance is where a solo practice loses this. Cards printed as an associate keep circulating a year after licensure, a site footer keeps a former supervisor's name for months after the supervision ended, and a directory profile nobody has logged into keeps whatever it said three years ago. Each is a public statement about your current status.

The worst version is the lapsed license still advertised as current, where the claim and the registry disagree in public and the gap is board-discipline territory, not a printing error.

Diary one review of every surface carrying your credential (the footer, the cards, the intake paperwork, the directory profiles) on any status change and again at renewal.

Common questions

In California, yes: the board regulation lists the license or registration number among the items every licensee and registrant includes in any advertisement, with the name on file and the license title. Florida's promotional materials statute and the Texas counseling and social work advertising rules require the credential in words and name no number. Read your own board's advertising section before assuming either pattern applies to you.

In Texas it does if you are an LPC Associate: the rule requires the term LPC Associate on advertisements, billings and announcements, and the associate's name must be followed by the supervisor's name. California registrants name their employer, and the version of the regulation operative April 1, 2026 adds a line stating they are supervised by a licensed person. Florida's registered interns spell the registration out and name no supervisor.

No cited rule names a directory by name, so the answer comes from the definitions. Texas social work rules reach website pages, social media communications and telephone directory listings, and Florida's list of promotional materials is open rather than closed. The common practice among solo clinicians is to treat any listing a client can find and read as covered, and to update all of them the week a credential changes.

The pre-licensure string comes off and the licensed one goes on, everywhere at once. That means the status term, any supervisor line your state required, and any employer name tied to your registration. Reprint the cards, edit the site footer, update every directory profile and the intake paperwork in the same pass, and keep the old files so you can show what changed and when.

They are a different duty. Florida requires the license to be displayed at each practice location and New York requires a limited permit displayed at the work site, both of which are about the physical setting. Neither is satisfied by a footer, and neither one determines the wording on your site. The advertising rule governs what you say; the display rule governs what hangs where you practice.

None of the sources on this page answers that, so this page does not claim it either way. What California's nursing board does require of nurse practitioners in the categories created after Assembly Bill 890 is a prominently posted notice in at least 48-point Arial font on the premises, and a verbal statement to every new patient that a nurse practitioner is not a physician and surgeon. Both are premises duties, not advertising content.

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References

  1. 1.California Board of Behavioral Sciences (2026). Statutes and Regulations Relating to the Practice of: Professional Clinical Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy, Educational Psychology, Clinical Social Work. California Department of Consumer Affairs, Board of Behavioral Sciences. link ✓The California advertising content requirements for Board of Behavioral Sciences licensees and registrants: 16 CCR 1811(a) naming the name as filed, the complete license title or acceptable abbreviation and the license or registration number; 16 CCR 1811(b) on the registrant's employer and the supervised-by line, which appears only in the version operative April 1, 2026 printed alongside the inoperative version in the January 2026 edition; and the statutory associate advertising list at B&P 4980.44(b)(1).
  2. 2.Florida Legislature (2026). 491.0149 Display of license; use of professional title on promotional materials. The 2026 Florida Statutes, Title XXXII, Chapter 491. linkFlorida's promotional materials requirements: the title words or letters a licensed mental health counselor, clinical social worker or marriage and family therapist must include on cards, brochures, stationery, advertisements and signs; the registered intern's duty to spell the registration out in full; the absence of any license number or supervisor name in the section; and the duty to display the license at each practice location.
  3. 3.Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council and Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors (2026). Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council and Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors Rules. Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (rulebook updated 03/25/2026; 22 TAC Chapters 681, 881-885). link ✓The Texas counseling advertising rule at 22 TAC 681.49: that advertisements and announcements, telephone directory listings included, must clearly state licensure status by a title such as Licensed Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor or LPC, and that an LPC Associate must use the term LPC Associate and be followed by the supervisor's name.
  4. 4.Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council and Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners (2026). Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council and Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners Rules. Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (rulebook updated 03/25/2026; 22 TAC Chapters 781, 881-885). link ✓The Texas social work advertising rule at 22 TAC 781.316(c): that advertisements and announcements of professional services expressly include website pages, social media communications and telephone directory listings, and must clearly state the social worker's licensure designation and any specialty recognition.
  5. 5.New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions (2026). Frequently Asked Questions for Mental Health Counselors - Limited Permits. NYSED Office of the Professions. link ✓New York's treatment of a mental health counseling limited permit holder: that the Education Law specifies no title or abbreviation, that the holder may not imply licensure, the suggested Permit Holder wording, and the requirement that the permit be displayed at the work site.
  6. 6.California Board of Registered Nursing (2026). Assembly Bill 890 — Nurse Practitioners: Scope of Practice: Practice Without Standardized Procedures (program page and frequently asked questions). California Board of Registered Nursing (rn.ca.gov). link ✓The California nurse practitioner disclosure duties attached to the categories created after Assembly Bill 890: the prominently posted premises notice in at least 48-point Arial font, the verbal statement to new patients that a nurse practitioner is not a physician and surgeon, and the Board's decision to create no new initials or title change.

https://www.gale.care/for-providers/pq-license-number-supervised-by-ads · 6 sources. Competitor details are cited to dated public sources and maintained as they change; figures are estimates, not commitments. Synthetic demonstration.

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