For Associate Licensed Counselors & Graduate Students
Board-approved LPC-S supervision toward Alabama licensure — structured around the hours, documentation, and progress reports the Board will actually ask you for, so nothing you earn gets disallowed later.
The Difference
Alabama does not simply count your hours. If a supervision progress report fails to meet the minimum requirements, the Board disallows all of the direct and indirect client service hours reported for that period — not a portion of them. Two years of good clinical work can be reduced by a supervision record that was never set up correctly.
So supervision here runs on two tracks at once. We do the real clinical work — case conceptualization, treatment planning, ethics, countertransference, the cases that keep you up at night. And we keep your record audit-ready: the Proposed Plan of Supervision written correctly the first time, a running hour log with the individual and group split kept straight, and progress reports that are complete before they are due.
The second track is where I spend more time than most supervisors, because it is where the field trains people least. You will learn to write documentation that satisfies medical necessity, holds up to a behavioral health payer audit, and reads clearly to the next clinician — the skill that determines whether you can actually get paid once you are independently licensed.
Supervision is provided by John Preston Gunn, LPC (#02770), LPC-S (#SC03158), an ABEC-approved supervisor. Credentials can be verified through the Alabama Board of Examiners in Counseling.
The Requirements
The rules that govern your path from ALC to LPC, in plain language, with the citation for each one. Verify anything here against the Board directly before you rely on it.
Split as 2,250 hours of direct counseling service with individuals, couples, families, or groups and 750 hours of indirect service — documentation, consultation, referral development, and similar work.
Rule 255-X-3-.01(3)(b)1
"No accrual of required supervised experience shall occur until the Associate Licensed Counselor license has been issued." Only experience supervised by the counselor named on your ALC license accrues toward the requirement.
Rules 255-X-3-.01(3)(a) & 255-X-3-.02(4)(b)2
Your supervisor must personally provide a minimum of 100 total hours annually, of which at least 50 hours must be one-to-one, face-to-face, in-person individual supervision. For any period shorter than a full year, a minimum weekly average of two hours, at least half of it individual.
Rule 255-X-3-.02(4)(a)
Group and other non-individual formats can make up at most 50% of your supervised time. Group hours are valuable and cost less per hour, but they cannot replace the individual requirement — a plan built mostly on group hours will not certify.
ABEC Direct / Other supervision ratio guidance
Reports that meet the minimums allow accrual of 100% of reported service hours. Reports that fail the minimums disallow 100% of the direct and indirect service hours reported. This is the single most expensive mistake in the process.
ABEC Policy Manual
Summarized from the Alabama Administrative Code, Chapter 255-X-3, the ABEC supervision FAQ, and the ABEC Policy Manual. Rules change. Confirm current requirements with the Board before making decisions about your licensure.
What's Offered
Most supervisees use a combination — individual hours as the backbone, group hours to broaden exposure and manage cost within the 50% ceiling.
One-to-one, in person, and structured around your caseload — the hours that satisfy the 50-hour individual minimum. Case review, treatment planning, ethical decision-making, and direct feedback on your documentation.
A small cohort of ALCs reviewing live cases together. You learn from presentations you would never encounter on your own caseload, and the cost per hour is lower than individual supervision — within the 50% cap on non-individual formats.
Site supervision for graduate counseling students, coordinated with your university's affiliation agreement and evaluation schedule. Real adolescent and family caseloads, plus the documentation habits your program does not have time to teach.
Included
We complete the Proposed Plan of Supervision together before your first hour, so the plan you submit reflects what we will actually do and does not have to be amended later.
Individual, dyad, and group hours tracked separately with a running total, so the required split is visible at any moment rather than reconstructed at year end.
Annual and final supervision progress reports prepared ahead of deadline, verifying the hours in the form the Board expects to receive them.
Treatment plans, progress notes, and assessments reviewed against behavioral health payer standards — the difference between clinical work that is reimbursable and clinical work that gets denied.
If you work with teenagers, school-referred clients, or families in conflict, you are supervised by someone whose entire program is built around that population.
Clinical and ethical questions do not wait for the next scheduled hour. Terms for reaching me between sessions are set out plainly in the supervision agreement.
Rates
ABEC requires 100 hours of supervision per year — roughly 8.3 hours a month. An hour a week is 52 hours a year, and it does not get you licensed. Both plans below are built to clear 104 hours annually, so a missed week does not cost you a year.
Plan A — most supervisees
$475/month
Blended cost of about $46 per hour of supervision.
Plan B — higher acuity
$625/month
Also the right plan if you are behind on individual hours and need to catch up.
Setup & hourly
Hourly rates are intentionally higher than the plans: eight hours a month bought individually costs more than Plan A covers. If you are accruing toward licensure, take a plan. Hourly exists for consultation and for supervisees finishing out a short remainder.
Terms. Rates, cancellation terms, emergency contact expectations and record-keeping responsibilities are set out in a written supervision agreement signed before the first hour, and the monthly rate is held for the length of your agreement. Sessions cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice are billed; sessions I cancel are rescheduled at no charge. Supervision is free of charge for counselors employed by Mentors LLC.
Budget context: ABEC's own approval and filing fees are separate and paid to the Board (ABEC fee schedule). Over a full two-year accrual period, Plan A totals roughly $11,550 including setup — near the middle of what Alabama ALCs are commonly told to budget for private supervision.
Fit
Supervision is a two-year professional relationship. It is worth being direct about it before either of us commits.
A strong fit if you
Probably not a fit if you
Questions ALCs ask
Where these answers state a Board requirement, the rule is linked. Verify anything that affects your licensure directly with ABEC — including what you read here.
Not by default. For the required direct individual hours, ABEC states that the supervising counselor and the ALC “must be physically present in the same location unless an exception is authorized in the approval of the PPoS” (ABEC supervision FAQ).
Plan on traveling to Headland for your individual hour. If you are counting on a remote arrangement, get it authorized in writing through your plan of supervision before you accrue anything you are hoping will count.
Once the paperwork is in place — not once we shake hands. The rules are explicit that “only counseling experience supervised by the Supervising Counselor whose name appears on the ALC’s license may accrue” toward the supervised experience requirement, and that all supervision must be provided by the supervising counselor identified on your license certificate (Rule 255-X-3-.02).
Nothing accrues before your ALC license has been issued, and nothing accrues under a supervisor who is not named on it. Practically: your Proposed Plan of Supervision goes to the Board and my name goes on your license before hours count. We handle that first, deliberately, because hours accrued outside that structure are the single most common way people lose a year.
Hours you legitimately accrued under a prior supervising counselor named on your license belong to you — but they have to be documented by that supervisor. The rules require a final supervision report from the supervising counselor when the required hours are met “or if the approved plan of supervision is terminated for any reason” (Rule 255-X-3-.02).
If you are leaving a supervisor, get that report filed while the relationship is still cordial. Do not wait until you need it.
Yes — site supervision is available for graduate counseling students placed for practicum or internship, coordinated with your university’s requirements and evaluation forms. Adolescent, family, and school-referred casework is the strength of this site, so it suits students who want that population rather than a generalist rotation.
No, and no supervisor can. Every licensure decision rests with the Alabama Board of Examiners in Counseling. What is offered here is competent supervision, accurate and timely documentation, and honest feedback — including telling you plainly if your readiness is the issue rather than your paperwork.
Availability
Because supervision requires a minimum of 100 hours per supervisee per year, the number of people I can carry at once is genuinely capped. Send a short note and we will schedule a call to talk through fit, scheduling, and cost.
Currently 3 individual supervision slots open · next cohort begins
Rate & terms
Rates are published in full above — $475 a month for Plan A, $625 for Plan B, plus a one-time $150 plan development fee. Cancellation terms, emergency contact expectations and record-keeping responsibilities are set out in a written supervision agreement signed before the first hour.
Plan A $475/mo · Plan B $625/mo · hourly $110 individual, $50 group
One honest caveat
No supervisor can guarantee licensure. Approval of your Plan of Supervision, your hours, and your application rests entirely with the Alabama Board of Examiners in Counseling. What I can commit to is supervision that meets the Board's minimum requirements and a record that will withstand review.
Looking for counseling, not supervision?
A structured three-month program of individual, group, and family counseling — in office in Headland or by telehealth anywhere in Alabama.
