About 1 in 5 Michigan marriage and family therapists with a recorded state license number holds a limited LLMFT license

Picture opening three therapist profiles in a row. One says LMFT, one says LLMFT, and one lists no letters at all. The difference is real but narrower than it looks: the LLMFT has finished graduate training in marriage and family therapy and is completing supervised postgraduate hours before full licensure. We used the Michigan license numbers that therapists record in the federal NPI registry to see how the workforce divides between the two.

About 1 in 5 Michigan MFTs with a recorded license number is a limited licensee

Michigan has 730 individual NPI records for marriage and family therapists with a Michigan practice location. Of those, 556 list a Michigan MFT license number. 450 begin with 4101, the fully licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT), and 106 begin with 4151, the educational limited license (LLMFT). Limited licensees are therefore 19.1% of MFTs with a recorded license, about one for every four fully licensed therapists.

The remaining 174 records list no 4101 or 4151 number. Some list a counseling, social work or psychology license instead, and some list no license at all, so we leave them out of the split rather than guess.

If the LLMFT credential is new to you, our explainer what is an LLMFT? covers Michigan’s training, supervision and exam rules. In short, under MCL 333.16903 a limited licensee practices under the supervision of a fully licensed MFT, in an approved setting, and may not represent independent practice.

Where limited licensees practice: metro Detroit stands out

Limited licensees are not spread evenly. Among the ten counties with at least 10 recorded licenses, Wayne County has the highest LLMFT share at 30.6% (15 of 49), followed by Livingston (29.4%), Macomb (24.1%) and Oakland (22.4%). Oakland also has the most LLMFTs of any county, 26. Kalamazoo (22.2%) and Ottawa (20.0%) are above the state share, while Genesee (17.6%), Ingham (16.2%), Kent (12.0%) and Washtenaw (10.0%) are below it.

Put another way, Oakland, Wayne and Macomb together hold 48 of the 106 LLMFT records (45.3%) but 280 of all 730 MFT records (38.4%). Agencies and group practices that can provide supervision are part of the picture in large metros, though NPI records cannot show who supervises whom. For Detroit and the rest of Wayne County, where overall density is below the state figure, limited licensees make up a meaningful part of local MFT capacity.

Outside the big metros the limited license is rare. Only 22 of 83 counties have any LLMFT record, and the 15 Upper Peninsula counties have one between them, in Marquette County. Three small counties, Monroe, Sanilac and Leelanau, have more LLMFT than LMFT records, which on counts of five or fewer mostly reflects small numbers.

Fully licensed and limited licensed MFTs, largest Michigan counties

Methodology, including how we checked the license prefixes

The starting set is every individual NPPES record with taxonomy 106H00000X (Marriage & Family Therapist) and a Michigan practice location, retrieved October 8, 2026, assigned to counties by practice ZIP centroid. Providers can record state license numbers on their NPI record. We classified a record as LMFT if any Michigan number begins with 4101, otherwise as LLMFT if one begins with 4151. Five records list both, and they are counted as LMFT, the later stage.

How the prefix meaning was verified. LARA’s own pages confirm that its license numbers are 10 digits and begin with a four-digit code for the license type; for example, its instructions say a professional investigator agency number begins with “3701.” We could not find a LARA page that publishes the 4101 and 4151 codes, so the mapping is an inference, supported by the registry itself. Of the 4151 records whose credential text names an MFT credential, 63 of 70 say “LLMFT”; of the 4101 records that do, 208 of 267 say “LMFT.” The 59 records with a 4101 number but “LLMFT” in the credential field fit therapists who upgraded to full licensure without editing their NPI profile, though we cannot confirm that for each one. The authoritative check for any individual remains LARA’s license lookup, where the limited license appears as Marriage and Family Therapist Educational Limited.

Limitations of a license-prefix count

• License numbers on NPI records are self-reported and are not updated automatically when a license changes or lapses.
• A quarter of records (174 of 730) cannot be classified, so county shares rest on the 556 that can.
• This is a single snapshot. It cannot show whether the limited-license pipeline is growing or shrinking.
• Therapists who bill only under an organization’s NPI are not in the data.

What this means for couples and families choosing a therapist

A larger limited-license share does not mean lower-quality care in a county, and it does not mean anyone there needs therapy more. It shows where newer MFTs are building their supervised hours, often in agencies and group practices. For clients, the practical points are simple: an LLMFT has graduate training in relational therapy and works under a fully licensed supervisor, and you can always ask how supervision works. Our overview of therapist credentials compares MFTs with counselors and social workers.

In the interest of transparency: Iryna Morhunova-Sutton is herself an LLMFT, and she meets with individuals, couples and families online anywhere in Michigan. For where all MFTs practice, see our therapist density ranking, and for Kalamazoo or Grand Rapids, see the city pages.

Update schedule

We re-pull NPPES records quarterly and will add a trend line once several quarters of license-prefix data exist. County populations update with each ACS 5-year release.