Naturopathic doctors are licensed or registered as health care providers in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Legal provisions allow the practice of naturopathic medicine in several other states. Naturopathic doctors are also recognized in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan.
Efforts to gain licensure elsewhere are currently under way. Forty-two states and territories in the United States have professional associations for naturopathic medicine. Canada has 11 provincial and territorial professional associations.
States that legally recognize naturopathic medicine (in blue):
Licensure Requirements for Naturopathic Doctors
All states and provinces with licensure laws require a resident course of at least four years and 4,100 hours of study from a college or university recognized by the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education (CNME). A copy of the CNME handbook is available in the Bastyr Library. To qualify for a license, applicants must satisfactorily pass the Naturopathic Physicians Licensing Examinations (NPLEX), which include basic sciences, diagnostic and therapeutic subjects and clinical sciences.
Applicants must satisfy all licensing requirements for the state or province to which they have applied. Please consult the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians’ website for current information on U.S. licensing.
