Author: A. Ant, CADC-II, Licensing & Accreditation Expert
Disclaimer: This content is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, regulatory, or licensing advice. Requirements change frequently. Consult qualified professionals for guidance specific to your situation.
The Wyoming Mental Health Professions Licensing Board describes its own law in nine words: “Wyoming is a Practice Act and Title Protection state.” For an outpatient mental health practice, that board, and the licenses it issues to each clinician, is most of the state regulation there is. Wyoming’s facility licensing statute does not apply “to any person providing health care services within the scope of his license in a private office” (W.S. 35-2-901(b)), and the Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Division says in its March 2026 handbook that it “does not currently issue certification for non-contracted mental health providers.” The picture changes only when a practice wants court-referred substance use clients, which this guide covers further down.
Where a Wyoming Outpatient Practice Fits
Built from W.S. 35-2-901, W.S. 9-2-2701 and the Division’s rules and handbook. The “none found” license entries are our reading of the statute.
| Item | Private therapy practice or group | Practice that adds court-referred SUD clients |
|---|---|---|
| State facility license | None found | None found |
| BHD certification | Not issued | Required under W.S. 9-2-2701(c) |
| National accreditation | Not required | Optional. Chapter 2 state standards apply without it |
| State fee | None | None found |
| Clinician oversight | Mental Health Professions Licensing Board and other boards | Same, plus the Division’s clinical supervision rules |
The Licensing Board Does the Regulating
From the Board’s home page and W.S. 33-38-102 and 33-38-106.
Created in 1987, the Board licenses professional counselors (LPC), marriage and family therapists (LMFT), clinical social workers (LCSW) and addictions therapists (LAT), and also issues the CSW and CMHW credentials and the two supervised addiction tiers, the CAP and CAPA. For the four independent licenses the statute’s route is a master’s or doctorate, an exam and “three thousand (3,000) hours of supervised clinical experience including a minimum of one hundred (100) hours of face-to-face individual clinical supervision.” A provisional license bridges the gap while those hours are earned, and W.S. 33-38-106(d)(v) says it “shall expire thirty-six (36) months after issuance” unless extended. Because Wyoming protects both the practice and the titles, a practice should check every clinician’s license status before the first appointment, not at the first audit. The Board takes appointment calls at 307-777-3628.
“Community Mental Health Center” Means Something Specific Here
Two state pages use the term, and neither describes a private practice. HLS’s Community Mental Health Center page covers federal Medicare certification only: “Healthcare Licensing and Surveys (HLS) certifies and periodically recertifies providers of services to assure Medicare Conditions of Participation are met.” The Behavioral Health Division lists “Provide Community Mental Health Center services” among the reasons a program needs its certification, and that path runs through a state funding contract, which sits outside licensing and is not work we take on. In our reading, a private group gains nothing from the label and invites confusion with both programs, so we would leave it off the sign.
When a Mental Health Practice Adds Substance Use Clients
A private-pay practice can treat substance use within its clinicians’ scope without any state approval, in our reading. Court referrals are the trigger. W.S. 9-2-2701(c) says “courts shall not refer individuals for substance abuse or related treatment to programs, providers or facilities which are not certified to provide those services for which the individual is referred,” and BHD’s certification page adds “Provide substance use disorder assessments for court-ordered or referred clients” to the list of activities that need certification. In our experience, court referrals can make up much of a small Wyoming town’s substance use caseload.
An outpatient provider serving court clients may meet the requirement through accreditation by The Joint Commission, CARF or NIAHO, or through the state standards in Chapter 2, Sections 8 to 14. Those standards are concrete. An intensive outpatient program must “Consist of nine (9) to nineteen (19) hours per week of structured programming for adults,” impaired driving education runs at least eight hours, and a non-accredited provider needs clinical oversight from a qualified clinical supervisor of at least one contact per month. The application goes through the Behavioral Health Management System (BHMS), the Division decides within 30 calendar days of a complete application, we found no fee, and a new provider is certified for a provisional six months first. The certification program answers at (307) 777-5253 and wdh-certification@wyo.gov. More on the substance use side is in Wyoming Drug and Alcohol Outpatient Treatment Licensing.
Ketamine and Spravato in a Wyoming Therapy Office
No Wyoming licensing statute or rule we read mentions ketamine. The conclusions below apply the private office exemption, the controlled substance statutes and federal DEA and REMS terms to a therapy practice, and they are our reading.
Because the facility statute exempts a licensed person working within scope in a private office, we see no state facility license for a practice whose psychiatrist or nurse practitioner gives ketamine on site. The work is in the drug registrations. DEA moved ketamine into federal Schedule III by a final rule effective August 12, 1999. Federal rules say “A separate registration is required for each principal place of business or professional practice” (21 CFR 1301.12), and Wyoming’s W.S. 35-7-1024 asks for its own Board of Pharmacy controlled substance registration, renewed every two years by July 1, with a separate registration per location. A late renewal is cancelled after September 30 and DEA is told. A group with a second office that also stocks ketamine is therefore tracking two federal and two state registrations.
Before first prescribing any Schedule II to V drug to a patient, W.S. 35-7-1060(b) requires the prescriber to “search the prescription tracking program for prior prescriptions issued to the patient.” The statute does not say how in-office doses that are administered rather than prescribed get reported, so put that question to the Board of Pharmacy before the first order arrives.
Wyoming’s APRN definition, W.S. 33-21-120, lets an advanced practice registered nurse prescribe and administer medications “except schedule I drugs,” and we found no collaboration requirement in that definition, which in our reading means a psychiatric APRN on staff can be the practice’s ketamine prescriber with no physician arrangement required by that section. RNs who sit with patients after a dose have less guidance, because none of the Board of Nursing’s posted advisory opinions addresses ketamine. Spravato brings the clearest rules of all: the office must be certified in the Spravato REMS, and patients “are required to be monitored by a healthcare provider for at least 2 hours,” so the schedule has to hold a room and a monitoring clinician for two hours or more per patient. Ownership of a stand-alone ketamine practice, including Wyoming’s professional corporation rules, is covered in the ketamine section of Wyoming Drug and Alcohol Outpatient Treatment Licensing.
What a Small Wyoming Practice Pays Its Clinicians
Wyoming pays its counselors somewhat more than the country does. In BLS’s May 2025 OEWS data, the state’s substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health counselors earn a $62,980 median. A quarter of them make less than $46,300 and a quarter more than $80,310, while the national median is $59,350. Hire one therapist at each published point, the 25th percentile, the median and the 75th, and annual base pay totals $189,590 before benefits (our arithmetic). Few Wyoming practices carry that number, because the licensing statute builds in a paid apprenticeship. Provisional licensees can practice for up to 36 months while they earn the 3,000 supervised hours an LPC, LMFT or LCSW requires, and CAPs and CAPAs work under a qualified clinical supervisor by definition, so pairing one fully licensed supervisor with provisional clinicians at their lower pay commonly trims what a practice spends on therapists by 40 to 60 percent, compared with hiring only independent licensees. If the practice later adds medication management, our reading is that one RN can supervise LPNs rather than every nursing slot going to an RN. Your appointment volume will shape the total more than any wage table.
Time Sinks for Wyoming Outpatient Practices
Most of the lost time goes to searching the Department of Health’s site for an outpatient license that does not exist. The next biggest delay comes later, when a practice accepts its first court-referred client and learns that its clinicians’ licenses are not enough under W.S. 9-2-2701, so the certification file starts from scratch while the referral waits. The third is a naming problem: a sign that says community mental health center points reviewers toward Medicare certification and the Division’s contract certification, neither of which a private group needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a state license required for a Wyoming outpatient mental health practice?
Not a facility license, in our reading. W.S. 35-2-901(b) keeps the facility licensing law away from a person providing care within the scope of a license in a private office, and the Behavioral Health Division does not certify non-contracted mental health providers. The clinicians themselves must be licensed, mostly through the Mental Health Professions Licensing Board.
When does a Wyoming therapy practice need Behavioral Health Division certification?
When it wants to assess or treat court-ordered or court-referred substance use clients, because W.S. 9-2-2701(c) bars courts from referring to uncertified providers. The practice then meets the Chapter 2 state standards or holds Joint Commission, CARF or NIAHO accreditation. The Division decides within 30 calendar days of a complete BHMS application, and we found no fee.
Can a nurse practitioner give ketamine in a Wyoming outpatient practice?
In our reading, yes. W.S. 33-21-120 lets an APRN prescribe and administer medications other than Schedule I drugs, with no collaboration requirement in that definition. Ketamine is federal Schedule III, so the practice needs a DEA registration and a Wyoming Board of Pharmacy registration for each location, and Spravato requires a REMS-certified office with at least two hours of monitoring.
Thinking about taking court-referred clients at your Wyoming practice? Ask us what certification would involve.
Sources
- Wyoming Mental Health Professions Licensing Board: Board home (checked October 20, 2026)
- Wyoming Statutes, Title 33, W.S. 33-21-120 (APRN prescribing) and W.S. 33-38-102 and 33-38-106 (counselor credentials): Title 33 (PDF) (checked October 20, 2026)
- Wyoming Statutes, Title 35, W.S. 35-2-901, 35-7-1023, 35-7-1024 and 35-7-1060: Title 35 (PDF) (checked October 20, 2026)
- Wyoming Statutes, Title 9, W.S. 9-2-2701 (certification, court referrals): Title 9 (PDF) (checked October 20, 2026)
- Wyoming Department of Health, Behavioral Health Division: Certification program and New provider certification (checked October 20, 2026)
- WDH Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services Rules, Chapters 1 to 5, 7 and 8: Rules and regulations and Chapter 1 (PDF) and Chapter 2 (PDF) (checked October 20, 2026)
- BHD, MHSA Certification Program Handbook (March 2026): Handbook (PDF) (checked October 20, 2026)
- HLS, Community Mental Health Center (Medicare certification): Community Mental Health Center (checked October 20, 2026)
- Wyoming State Board of Nursing, practice and advisory opinions: Practice (checked October 20, 2026)
- DEA final rule placing ketamine in Schedule III, 64 FR (July 13, 1999): Federal Register (checked October 20, 2026)
- 21 CFR 1301.12, via Cornell LII: Separate registration for each place of practice (checked October 20, 2026)
- Spravato REMS: Certified healthcare settings and two-hour monitoring (checked October 20, 2026)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025, SOC 21-1018: Wyoming and National (checked October 20, 2026)
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