MA in CMHC with Addiction Counseling

Be the help your community needs.

The Addiction Counseling Concentration (ACC) prepares you to feel competent in assessing and treating addiction in a variety of settings. The provision of integrated mental health and addiction treatment services are vital to communities. The ACC has been created to meet the Washington State Department of Health education requirements for the alternative training track to become a Chemical Dependency Professional (CDP). The Addictions Counseling Concentration curriculum is based on the most current neuroscience of addiction, attachment injury, and trauma, as well as cutting-edge techniques to address these issues, provided by the leaders in the field. The ACC also includes learning experiences designed to expand awareness of the larger socioeconomic and political issues connected to treating addiction. Get started in helping your community today and begin your journey to becoming a chemical dependency professional (CDP).

This degree is offered by AU Seattle.

Program Overview

The Addiction Counseling Concentration covers the WA State DOH required topic areas, to become a CDP via the “alternative training track”. This is a graduate-level concentration and therefore the course material and learning experiences are advanced and address the complexity of treating addiction, as well as treating addiction and other mental health issues. There are many approaches to treating addiction, and it is the purpose of the ACC to enable students to feel confident and competent working in a variety of settings using a variety of techniques and approaches. The curriculum is heavily influenced by family systems theories allowing students to be effective in working with couples, families, children, and adolescents touched by addiction. The concentration is 15 credits.

Degree Requirements

Coursework

The Addiction Counseling Concentration is combined with the MA in Counseling with Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) degree. The degree offers you comprehensive clinical training for a career as a licensed mental health counselor. With a focus on developing multicultural counseling competencies, you accomplish these goals through a combination of required coursework, electives, and a supervised internship. The concentration combines online and in-classroom time to allow for the flexibility and convenience of completing course work using digital resources, as well as benefiting from the face-to-face interaction of in-classroom instruction and peer discussion.

Core Addiction Counseling Courses:

• Survey of Addiction: Intro to Addiction Counseling Fundamentals: 3 credits offered as all classroom or online hybrid
• Physiology and Pharmacology in Addiction Counseling: 3 credits offered as all online course
• Advanced Theory and Practice in Addiction Counseling: 3 credits offered as online hybrid
• Advanced Assessment, Ethics, and Case Management in Addiction Counseling:  3 credits offered as online hybrid
• Advanced Clinical Skills in Addiction Counseling:  3 credits offered as all classroom

“Survey of Addiction” must be taken before any other courses. Once you have completed “Survey of Addiction”, you can complete the other courses in whatever order you would like.

For detailed curriculum, degree requirements, and course descriptions, please visit the AUS catalog.

Career Outlook

Community mental health agencies, For-Profit and Non-Profit treatment centers, hospitals, schools, and other community organizations need dually credentialed providers. The alternative training track approved by the WA State DOH is now available to licensed mental health counselors and licensed marriage and family therapists, and other specific professions. The alternative training track significantly reduces the education requirements and work experience needed to become a CDP, for certain advanced degree professionals. You may complete the CDP education requirements and work experience hours before you are licensed as and LMHC or LMFT, and then submit your CDP application documenting your completed coursework and experience hours once you have obtained your LMHC or LMFT. Being a dually credentialed provider affords you the ability to provide a wider range of services and more effective services to clients. In some settings, dually credentialed providers receive increased compensation.

For more detailed information on the requirements for obtaining a CDP via the alternative training track please visit: doh.wa.gov.