Choosing a College Major to Fulfill a Career in Substance Abuse Counseling?
Question by carcar: Choosing a college major to fulfill a career in substance abuse counseling?
I want to become a substance abuse counselor, which requires 2 years of grad school. I also want to become a certified art therapist which requires 2 years of grad school. I’m just confused as to what major/college types I should be looking into in order to pursue this career path?
Best answer:
Answer by Emily M
Social work perhaps, with an art minor?
Answer by jannsody
You’re correct in that a lot of licensed addiction counselors (CAC) have a master’s degree. The CAC or other credentialed addiction specialists also need many clinical experience hours while having an actual patient caseload. Someone mentioned art therapy or art, in general, as a minor, and perhaps that is an option. However, please talk with art therapists in the field and/or a career counselor at university, too.
This site is supposed to have a listing of the few accredited programs in art therapy: http://www.arttherapy.org/aata-educational-programs.html
For more information about certification in the field of addictions: http://www.naadac.org/certification
General career info: http://www.bls.gov/oco and can search “counselors”, “recreational therapists” (art therapy may be briefly mentioned) or such.
With regard to schooling, please avoid those private overly priced For-profit schools such as kaplan, U of P, strayer, argosy, devry, ITT tech, keiser, everest, concorde career, brown mackie, westwood and others as they are merely out to “make a profit” (** and their course credits usually do NOT transfer to other schools). Please instead consider the more affordable community college and/or the state/public university as long as the program is accredited within the industry.
For U.S. colleges: http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ
Substance Abuse Therapist, Career Video from drkit.org – Watch more videos on drkit.org! In this interview, a Substance Abuse Therapist discusses her typical day at work, the qualifications needed for the job, the …