TPC-Journal-V2-Issue1

64 The Professional Counselor \Volume 2, Issue 1 components required for the LPC). The system would eliminate the need for a professional counselor to acquire an additional and separate addiction license/certification. In addition, the national standards could promote portability of credentials. This compromise works to maintain the licensed/certified addiction counseling credentials in each state while also providing the LPC with the documented expertise required for many addiction facility positions. This tiered system also could facilitate enhanced training during the process of accruing hours for licensure by better focusing the training hours upon the interface between addiction and other mental health issues as opposed to the current parallel and disparate relationship between addiction and other mental health issues. Possible Solution #2: Nationally Recognized Addiction Counseling Concentration Curriculum There are issues regarding standardization of training that need to be addressed within the context of academia. In essence, what are the theoretical and practical skills required of an addiction counselor nationwide? There are numerous initial places to look into the process of establishing a nationally recognized addiction counseling concentration, such as the 2009 CACREP standards for addiction counseling and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment’s (2006) Addiction Counseling Competencies: The Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes of Professional Practice. By using these (and other) standards, all counseling programs (regardless of CACREP accreditation) can follow a standard recommended education experience for students who desire the addiction credential discussed in the first possible solution. Curricular issues would likely include standalone addiction courses, infusion of addiction content into other courses, faculty expertise in the addiction area and practicum and internship hours focused on addiction counseling practice. In addition, the NCE and National Clinical Mental Health Counselor Examination (NCMHCE) would require some recalibration to take into account the curricular changes to a professional counseling education that includes the addiction counseling concentration. One caution is that any discussion of these and other training issues may produce opposing forces within academia, the counseling profession, the addiction counseling profession, state licensing/credentialing boards (both professional counseling and addiction) and individual counselor education professors and college/university departments. Again, that is why a national committee comprised of all involved parties is necessary to navigate this challenging process. Concluding Comments Two students graduate with a master’s degree in counseling. Both took elective courses in their area of interest; one in mood disorders, the other in addiction, and both did an internship in a counseling setting focused on their interest area. Upon graduation, the student with an interest in mood disorders can easily be brought onto the clinical roster of a mood disorders clinic and immediately start accruing hours towards licensure. Their provisional license is all that is required during the training period. Unfortunately, the graduate with an interest in addiction may face competing licensure and/ or credentialing requirements between professional and addiction counseling, mandated extra training coupled with thousands of extra supervised hours, and/or the possibility of a denial of employment without the appropriate addiction credential. The purpose of this article is to start the dialogue on how to effectively incorporate addiction counseling into the scope of practice and accepted role of the professional counselor. We firmly believe that effective counseling focused on addiction issues requires specific and rigorous counselor training. However, we also believe the current national practice of training and credentialing for addiction counseling must change. State-by-state, burdensome (and in some instances outdated) rules and regulations are keeping countless qualified, capable, and motivated counselors from entering the addiction field. The time has come to recalibrate the rest of the counseling profession to better fit an inclusive and unifying professional counseling identity that includes addiction counseling. References American Counseling Association. (2005). Code of ethics . Alexandria, VA: Author. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Council for Accreditation of Counseling Related Educational Programs (2009). CACREP standards . Alexandria, VA: