Certified Addiction Counselors provide education, therapeutic care and recovery support to addicts seeking help. CACs help their clients adopt healthy lifestyle practices as well as coping skills to stop substance dependency and prevent relapse. Counselors can aid in the recovery of thousands of people over the course of a single career. If you are considering becoming a certified counselor, you may already realize the significant impact you can make on those who are suffering from this disease. In this blog, I will get to into many things you may not know, including: the kinds of skills and knowledge you will be expected to have, how to receive certification and training and potential uses and benefits of choosing addiction counseling as a career path.

 

Necessary Skills

In the publication,  Addiction Counseling Competencies: The Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes of Professional Practice, 123 competencies are listed are listed as essential for counselors to have. Out of this list, they identify seven as the most crucial.

  • Patient assessment and screening
  • Treatment planning
  • Patient referral
  • Coordination of client care and services
  • Individual client and group counseling
  • Family education
  • Cultural competency

Organization and human connection are key themes which apply to many items on the list.

 

Becoming Certified

Certification for addiction counseling differs from state to state and are subject to change. It is becoming increasingly popular to require a master’s degree in addition to a specified amount of credit hours in a relevant field. In a few states, this is already a requirement. Often states will also require an internship or clinical supervision of some kind. Finally, you will be required to pass the state’s credentialing exam. While several states only require a bachelor’s degree or even a high school diploma or associate’s degree to go along with hours of supervised training and a passing grade on the test, the entire field is moving toward requirement of a master’s degree and it is likely that this will be needed in all states to become certified in the near future.

 

Here are links for the credentialing requirements for the state of Colorado:

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/Professional_Counselor

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/Addiction_Counselor

 

Uses and Benefits

Substance abuse counselors are projected to see a 22 percent job growth rate over the course of the next 6 years according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. This kind of growth would be significantly larger than other occupations. Part of the reason for this is the increased insurance coverage of behavioral and mental health care services. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has reported that only a small fraction of people in this country are receiving the substance abuse treatment they need. An increase of awareness and diagnosis of addiction will undoubtedly increase the access of treatment by Americans. There is a growing need for certified staff in this field on the horizon.

 

The main places of employment for addiction counselors is at drug treatment centers, but there is a wide array of other places who are currently employing counselors. The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation has put together this list of possible workplaces in the field of addiction treatment:

 

  • K-12 schools
  • College and university systems
  • Mental health centers
  • Hospitals and healthcare systems
  • Insurance and managed care organizations
  • Probation and parole agencies
  • Employee assistance programs
  • Private practice (e.g., therapist)
  • Human services (e.g., social services worker)

 

If you have interest in becoming a Certified Addiction Counselor please visit the link below for more details: https://www.odysseycenter.com/faqs/