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For licensed California therapists · the practice years

Everything after the license number, in one place.

In short

What do I need now that I am licensed in California?

Take-home at your rate and caseload, panel arithmetic per payer, the entity decision, and the CE clock

36 CE hours per renewal, and an audit most fail on paperwork

11 guides for the years the license actually pays — what your rate and caseload put in your bank account after expenses and tax, what each insurance panel actually reimburses per code, whether the professional corporation beats the sole proprietorship on your numbers, and the 36 CE hours every renewal demands. Every figure comes from a named source, and the whole site is free.

Free, no account · nothing you read or type here is stored or sent anywhere

Where to startEvery guide for this stageSources

Start here

Four questions bring most licensed therapists to this page.

Written for the solo LMFT in private practice. Where a rule differs for a group practice or another license, the page says so and links the difference.

What will my practice actually pay me?Your rate and caseload run live — gross to net, after expenses and taxAre insurance panels worth joining?What each payer actually reimburses per code, against your private-pay rateSole proprietorship or professional corporation?The whole decision worked on your numbers, with the payroll gap most comparisons skipWhat insurance does the practice itself need?Eight malpractice programs compared on what they publish and what people actually pay

All 11 guides

Everything on this site written for somebody already licensed.

The line under each title is not the page’s summary — it is what that page tells a licensed clinician specifically. The same page says something different to a student or an associate counting hours.

California LMFT continuing education: the 36 hours, exactly36 hours per renewal, and the audit 62% fail - what counts, what does not, and the paper to keep.California Therapy Practice SimulatorWhat your practice actually pays you at your rate and caseload, after expenses and tax - live, in the browser.Can a California Therapist Work Remotely? The Board says yesThe same practice run from eight places - what moving does to your license, your taxes and your clients.Cost of Living for California TherapistsWhat a month costs where you practice, against what your caseload brings in - the relocation arithmetic.Grow Your Therapy PracticeWhat a client is worth at your rate, and which of three channels actually fills a caseload.Headway for California therapistsWhat Headway pays and what it keeps, priced at real caseloads - read before signing.Liability insurance for a California therapy practice — Therapist SupportEight malpractice programs compared on what they publish and what people actually pay.SimplePractice for California therapistsWhat the software actually costs all-in at your caseload, including the fees the pricing page skips.Therapist Tax Strategy CaliforniaThe whole tax decision worked on your numbers - sole prop against the corporation, with the payroll gap most comparisons leave out.What actually gets a California therapist disciplined48 real Board decisions and what each one cost - most begin with paperwork, not with clients.What insurance actually pays a California therapist per sessionWhat each payer actually reimburses, computed per code - before you decide which panels are worth it.

Cannot find it?

Ask, and the answer becomes a page.

This site grows by what people cannot find. A question that reaches us gets researched against the statute and the Board’s own documents, and the answer is published here for the next person who has it.

Nothing else is collected, and the question is not published with your name. Please do not include client details.

Received. If it can be answered from a checkable source, it becomes a page.

Where every figure came from

Sources.

The statutes the practice runs on

  1. Corporations Code § 17701.04 — why a licensed therapist cannot form an LLC for clinical work, and what the real entity choice is
  2. § 13401.5 — who may own shares in a marriage and family therapy corporation
  3. Business and Professions Code § 4980.54 — the 36 hours of continuing education every renewal requires

This page is a door, not advice. Every rule above is quoted and sourced in full on the pages it links; where this stage touches money or law, those pages link the statute rather than summarizing it. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.

Figures checked, narrative not re-read

The numbers are current. The argument around them has not been reviewed since it was written.

You should not have to work this part out on your own.

Once a month: free tools and apps worth having, better ways to run the admin side of a practice, what other California therapists are actually doing, and anything new here that might save you an afternoon.

About monthly. One click to leave. Never sold, never shared. The consent box is separate and unticked because California requires it — and because it should be.