A Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) is one of the licenses required for taking insurance as a therapist in the state of Pennsylvania. There are also Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT) and Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) who are relatively on the same level and can practice in nearly identical ways within the therapy space. Some exceptions exist when it comes to taking Medicare insurance, which an LPC is unable to do at this time. I will speak primarily on the process and requirements to become an LPC as that is my specialty.
It can be easier to understand working backward from the license through each earlier requirement. However, I think it is easier to explain from the bottom up rather than top down. For a top down approach, here is the outline. An LPC needs two years of supervision by a supervisor who holds that same license for at least five years while practicing. To start the process of this supervision, you must have a masters degree with 60 credit hours. A masters degree often requires a bachelors degree in nearly any field as long as specific classes are taken such as: Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, and statistics. Other required classes might also include Developmental Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Personality Theory, or a Techniques class. The requirements will be based on each masters program.
Now for a bottom up approach. You are in high school and want to pursue a career with the goal of one day becoming a therapist. Your first step is to look at colleges to receive a bachelors degree that will lead to entering a masters program later. This can sometimes be combined at the same school, or there might be different programs at different schools. If you want to study more than psychology, look forward to your goal program and see the requirements for psychology courses. You may be able to get a decent BA/BS without devoting it to psychology completely. There are not a large number of jobs for bachelors level in psychology if counseling is the goal.
You have now completed the bachelors level and the requirements are met for a masters program. You apply to the masters program and take 60 credit hours to complete the degree. You also take the specific classes required for licensure: Career development, Assessment, Human Development, Marriage and Family Therapy, Techniques 1 and 2, Research Methods (again), Group Therapy, Multicultural Counseling. These specific classes may have other names or be updated/changed by the time you apply. This masters program will also need to have a practicum and two semesters of internship to meet the hourly requirements for the degree.
Now you have finished the education requirements for licensure. Next, you will need to find a supervisor while also planning to meet the other requirements for the license and apply for the Licensed Associate Professional Counselor (LAPC). Supervision is likely the most time consuming and difficult part of this process. You need a minimum of two years of supervisions with at least 3,000 hours over that time. You may only count 1,800 hours per calendar year. This supervisor will need to provide two hours of supervision per week with at least one of those hours being individual supervision. You can either pay someone to do this, or work for a facility that has supervisors available to provide this service. Supervision can be expensive, and places that offer supervision can often pay poorly.
While working on your supervision, you will need to take a test like the National Counselor’s Exam (NCE) or the exam for certification as a Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CAADC) among others. As you approach the end of supervision and prepare to apply for licensure, more paperwork will be required. This is the easy part: transcripts, background checks, verification the board has never punished you, along with all the supervision paperwork and some minor things listed on your application. The board typically takes two months to approve or deny each submission. If everything went well, congratulations. Next comes the headache of credentialing with insurance companies…
I hope this laid out the ground work required to become an LPC. In short it is High School (4yrs) > Bachelors Degree (4yrs) > Masters Degree (2-3yrs) > LAPC/Supervision (2yrs) > LPC. This can be done in shorter time with accelerated or combined programs if that is the goal.