Counselor: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A provider who is trained and educated in the performance of behavior health services through interpersonal communications and analysis. Training and education at the specialty level usually requires a master's degree and clinical experience and supervision for licensure or certification.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 38,130 records, or 30.2%, are flagged as sole proprietors in NPPES. Because the field is self-reported, this percentage is an imperfect proxy for private practice and does not by itself show whether a counselor owns a practice, works independently, or is currently accepting patients.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• - An active NPI record is not a headcount of practicing counselors, patient volume, or current availability.
• - First-enumeration year indicates NPI registration timing, not necessarily when a counselor began practicing.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions