VISTAS Substance Abuse

VISTAS Online is an innovative publication produced for ACA by Dr. Garry R. Walz and Dr. Jeanne C. Bleuer of Counseling Outfitters, LLC. Its purpose is to provide a means of capturing the ideas, information and experiences generated by the annual ACA Conference and selected ACA Division Conferences. Papers on a program or practice that has been validated through research or experience may also be submitted. This digital collection of peer-reviewed articles is authored by counselors, for counselors. VISTAS Online contains the full text of over 900 proprietary counseling articles published from 2004 to 2017.



An Examination of Educational and Training Requirements in Addiction Counseling

Christine L. Chasek and Ryan Kawata

2016

Addiction is a serious and growing problem in the United States and the demand for adequately trained addictions professionals has never been greater. The growing need for addiction counselors and the mandate that counselor training is rigorous, competency based, and inclusive of clinical training experiences in the field has implications for training programs. The purpose of this study was to begin to understand the training requirements for addiction counselors across the United States to begin to lay the groundwork needed to move the field forward in the pursuit of uniform licensure laws. A total of 78 programs were
reviewed, examining the course requirements in addiction counseling training. The findings in this study indicate a continued lack of uniformity in educational training across the United States in the area of addiction counseling and a lack of skills based training.
To address these concerns, advocacy for the profession regarding the need for uniform training standards based on accepted accreditation standards is needed.
Keywords: addiction counseling, training, education

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