Overview
Substance abuse counseling is more of a calling than a job. Practitioners work hard to achieve state licensure and they continue working hard to maintain their licenses. It's a career that requires passion and dedication, because working with addicts is not easy.
Many licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselors have been through the wringer of addiction and have emerged on the other side of that dark chasm. They have found a new life and a new happiness that they wish to instill in others. Others may have been touched by addiction in other ways, such as a family member who struggled with alcohol, or a friend who overdosed on prescription pills.
Work Environment
One of the chief places you might envision a substance abuse counselor working is in a rehabilitation center. If you have been through rehab you may have been inspired by a licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor CADC and wish to now walk in their footsteps. Others are also considered chemical dependency therapists, such as mental health nurses, and even medical doctors who focus their practice on addictionology.
If you choose to work in a rehabilitation center, you have a wide range of options. Some centers are housed on sprawling campuses and include things like equine therapy, meditation classes, yoga, and nutritional approaches to addiction. Some programs are conducted at sea, where addicts learn to work as part of a team that manages a sailing vessel across vast stretches of ocean. There are also wilderness encounter organizations that help people achieve sobriety through a rigorous encounter in nature.
Addictions counselors also work in private practice. Perhaps you would like to work in a small, tastefully-decorated office where clients come for weekly sessions, or in a practice with a few other counselors.
Some private-practice counselors also do things like teach DUI classes to help inform offenders about the realities of alcoholism. Others work with attorneys to help their clients stay on track with pre-trial activities such as community service, counseling, and 12-step meetings.
Duties
Substance abuse counselors have many different sorts of duty. They more often are found utilizing the methods of psychotherapy to help clients get to the underlying root of their addiction. This might be in a hospital-type setting or private practice.
You could also find yourself working with the families of addicts as a part of your career. After all, addiction is known as a family disease and the work you do with a family could be just as beneficial for an addict as a one-on-one relationship.
Substance abuse counselors also teach. In a rehabilitation setting, they might teach academic-style classes that address relapse. There are a number of steps that typically come before a relapse and patients in a rehabilitation center will need to learn them prior to discharge. You can also teach things like the chemical impact of mind-altering substances on the brain and body, or the biology of addiction.
Is Substance Abuse Counseling for You?
You might think that there's a specific type of person who is best-suited to substance abuse counseling. However, counselors are a very diverse group. After all, they need to reflect the population at large. There need to be lots of former addicts, but also people with a more active lifestyle, or whose sexual orientation makes them more trusted by their clients.
What these counselors have in common, however, is a passion for helping people escape a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. They all thus have a tolerant attitude towards the addict and see that their problem is not one of morality, but of body and spirit. They might see that we all use various crutches to get through life, but substance abusers simply chose mind-altering substances rather than shopping or overeating to assuage their negative feelings.
Counselors also need to have a large dose of patience and tolerance. Addiction is not solved overnight and many, if not most, addicts will relapse at some point. Therefore, it's important to see therapy and rehabilitation as a marathon, not a sprint. You might also need to have a great deal of tolerance and compassion for addicts who may have acted very poorly in their using days. Some addicts resort to all sorts of lying, stealing, and cheating so that they can get another fix. Rather than taking a moralistic approach to these things, you will find it more helpful to see the bad behaviors as symptomatic of the addict's larger problems.
CACREP Accredited Online Certifications
Two types of accreditation are recognized in the United States; institutional and specialized. Institutional accreditation takes the entire institution into account while the specialized focus on professional preparation programs. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) is a specialized accreditation that focuses on master’s and doctoral degree programs in counseling at colleges and universities worldwide. Only already-accredited institutions are eligible for CACREP review. The review for accreditation will center on programs offering graduate degrees in counseling.
Choosing a CACREP-accredited program ensures that the program meets the highest of quality standards. Many counseling specialties are accredited bythe CACREP, including addiction counseling. Accredited addiction counseling programs prepare individuals to work with those affected by addictive behavior and their families. Addictive behaviors include alcohol, drugs, food, gambling, sex, and anything else that negatively affects your personal or work life by creating addiction behaviors.
CACREP-accredited programs will focus on treatment models and the phases of addiction including prevention, recovery, and relapse prevention. These 60-semester hour programs will include the application of interventions. When students choose a CACREP-accredited program they can be confident that:
- the program meets or exceeds national standards
- the program will focus on professional counseling rather than psychology oreducation
- the program has an excellent reputation
- CACREP graduates statistically receive higher scores on the National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification (NCE).
- the requirements for licensure will be met.
Counselor Testing & Examination Process
In New Jersey, and other states, you must take a written exam prior to achieving either credential the state offers. You must also take an oral exam, for either the certification or license. The oral exam is administered by the Addiction Professionals Certification Board, Inc. The written exam is overseen by the International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium IC RC and the NAADAC, a national association for addictions professionals.
Renewal and Continuing Education
To maintain your license or certification with the state of New Jersey, you must take continuing education units (CEUs.) The goal is to ensure that you are actively engaged with remaining up-to-date with your profession. You can study hot topics in addiction treatments and ensure that you provide the very best care to your clients.
For the CADC, you need to complete 60 hours of CEUs every licensing period. LACDs are required to complete 40 hours every licensing period. Note that a licensing period is two years. Your CEUs must be relevant to your profession and can be administered by an accredited college or university, or through a recognized professional association, such as the NAADAC.