Addiction Counseling – Virginia
Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioner (LSATP)
Virginia requires that applicants for this licensure have a graduate degree from a CACREP accredited program or from a regionally accredited program that prepares individuals to practice substance abuse treatment or a counseling related discipline; and complete 60 graduate hours or 90 quarter hours of graduate coursework requirements in the 15 core content areas.
Course Requirements
The 60 graduate hours or 90 quarter hours must include a minimum of three (3) semester hours, or four (4) quarter hours of graduate coursework completed in each of the following core areas
- Professional identity, function, and ethics
- Theories of counseling and psychotherapy
- Counseling and psychotherapy techniques
- Group counseling and psychotherapy, theories and techniques
- Appraisal, evaluation, and diagnostic procedures
- Abnormal behavior and psychopathology
- Multicultural counseling, theories, and techniques
- Research
- Marriage and family systems theory
Additionally, the 60 graduate hours or 90 quarter hours must include a minimum of twelve (12) semester hours, or eighteen (18) quarter hours of graduate coursework completed in the following core substance abuse treatment competency hours
- Assessment, appraisal, evaluation, and diagnosis specific to substance abuse
- Treatment planning models, client case management, interventions and treatments to include relapse prevention, referral process, step models and documentation process
- Understanding addictions: the biochemical, sociocultural psychological factors of substance use and abuse
- Addictions and special populations including, but not limited to, adolescents, women, ethnic groups and the elderly
- Client and community education
- Supervised internship of at least 600 hours to include 240 hours of direct client contact of which 200 hours in treating substance abuse-specific treatment problems. Only internship hours earned after completion of 30 graduate semester hours may count toward residency hours
Internship Requirements
Applicants must complete a supervised internship of six hundred hours to include 240 hours of direct client contact, of which two hundred hours shall be in treating substance abuse-specific treatment problems. Only internship hours earned after completion of thirty graduate semester hours may count towards residency hours.
Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC)
Virginia requires that applicants for this certification have a bachelor’s degree; and 240 clock hours of didactic training in substance abuse education from one of the following programs: a regionally accredited college or university or seminars or workshops from one of the approved providers. 120 of the required 240 hours must be completed prior to registration of supervision.
Course Requirements
The 240 hours of didactic training in substance abuse must include a minimum of 16 clock hours in each of the 13 areas listed below
- Dynamics of human behavior
- Signs and symptoms of substance abuse
- Counseling theories and techniques
- Continuum of care and case management skills
- Recovery process and relapse prevention models
- Professional orientation and ethics
- Pharmacology of abused substances
- Trauma and crisis intervention
- Co-occurring disorders
- Cultural competency
- Substance abuse counseling approaches and treatment planning
- Group counseling
- Prevention, screening, and assessment of substance use and abuse
Additional Requirements
For LSATP, applicants must have a total of 60 credit hours, including two semesters of internship (600 hours of experience).
For CSAC, applicants must take ADCN 606 Pharmacology of Addiction and Recovery as an elective.
For more information:
https://www.dhp.virginia.gov/Boards/Counseling/ApplicantResources/ApplicationHandbooks/