Free Sample
The Complete Guide to Becoming A Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselor
What the job really involves, what it pays, how to get licensed, and whether you have what it takes to do it well
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Does a Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselor Actually Do?
The first thing you should know is that substance abuse and behavioral disorder counseling is not one job. It is a category of jobs, and the differences between them matter more than you might expect. On any given day, a counselor might be sitting across from a courtroom-mandated client in a county clinic, running a group session in a residential detox facility, or walking a high school hallway to check on a student who just came back from treatment. The title is the same. The work is not.
That said, there is a common core to all of these roles, and once you understand it, you understand what the job actually is. At its simplest, a substance abuse counselor helps people change their relationship with drugs, alcohol, and the behaviors that often come with them. That sounds straightforward, but it involves far more than just talking to people about their feelings. You are part therapist, part case manager, part documentarian, and part boundary-enforcer. You are the person who holds the line when a client is minimizing their drinking, and the person who sits quietly while a client cries about losing custody of their children. You do both in the same hour, and then you write a note about it.
Let's start with the concrete tasks. A typical day as a counselor in an outpatient clinic will include individual counseling sessions. These are usually scheduled for forty-five to