Find out more about the ins and outs of choosing a career in Substance Abuse Counseling:
Substance abuse counseling is a demanding but ultimately rewarding branch of social work that requires patience, compassion and the motivation to help people in crisis. Substance abuse counselors typically refer patients to a variety of other services to create a holistic approach to solving the complicated problems of drug and alcohol addiction.
Substance abuse counselors form a specialized category of social workers, whose other primary areas include child, family and school social workers, and medical and public health social workers. They work closely with other health and human service professionals including psychologists, social workers, family counselors, career counselors, lawyers, welfare agents and other state employees.
Like all kinds of social workers, general skills that will make substance abuse counselors more effective in their jobs include:
- Active listening skills
- Effective oral communication skills, with the ability to communicate well with a variety of people
- Genuine desire to help other people, especially in a crisis
- Inductive reasoning and the ability to combine pieces of information into related conclusions
- Sensitivity to recognizing problems or situations when something is likely to go wrong
- Social perceptiveness
- Time management
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Your career opportunities will vary widely depending on your ultimate level of education, work experience and place of employment.
America’s Career Infonet and the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook (2008-2009 edition) give detailed information about the skills, abilities, work activities and recommended education for jobs in fields that would use skills gained through the Substance Abuse Counseling or Social Work programs, which might include:
According to America’s Career Infonet job statistics, occupations include the following salaries across the nation:
| Job |
Hourly Rate |
Annual Salary |
Projected Growth Through 2016 |
| Social and human services assistants |
$12.80 |
$26,600 |
+34% |
| Social workers |
$22.02 |
$45,800 |
+18% |
| Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselor |
$17.10 |
$35,600 |
+34% |