How do I become a Substance Abuse Counselor in North Carolina?

Question by Penelope: How do I become a Substance Abuse Counselor in North Carolina?
I have my Masters Degree in Speech-Language Pathology, but I am very interested in a career change. My brother died a year ago from a drug overdose and even before he died, I was considering changing professions to become an addiction/substance abuse counselor. I can’t find any helpful advice on the internet given my situation. Do I need to start from scratch or does having a Masters Degree help me? Do I just need a certification, or do I need a second Masters Degree? What are my options? If I could participate in online courses, that would be the most ideal for me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

Best answer:

Answer by OldChair
If you already have a Master’s, a drug and alcohol certification would be sufficient in most cases and then you pursue that to the the highest level. This process can be very time consuming as you will see in the link there is 6000 hours of experience involved to get certified by your state.

This is, in my opinion, always the best way to go if you want to work in substance abuse, specifically. It gives you the proper tools to perform the work and is more attractive to employers of this field because you don’t go get certified in D/A unless you want to do the work.

Do some furthered research because every state is different. Things you want to search are phrases like “drug and alcohol certification north carolina” “CSAC north carolina” etc.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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