Facing Legal Deadline, Many Addiction Counselors to Opt for Graduate School
 August 15, 2005 – Sacramento -- New state rules for alcohol and drug counselors are likely to lead many into graduate school. Counselors have until October 1 to register with a state-approved certifying organization. They then must complete certification requirements within five years. The changes are part of a state law that took effect in April.
“The new law really adds legitimacy to the profession,” said Benjamin Caldwell, Assistant Director for Marital and Family Therapy at Alliant International University’s Sacramento campus. “It ensures that all addiction counselors will be thoroughly trained and have a great deal of supervised experience.”
Currently, drug and alcohol counselors have varying levels of education and training, a situation the new law aims to correct. Many drug and alcohol counselors are former addicts themselves, and utilize their own experience in helping others recover.
“These counselors know from experience--often both personal and professional--the connections between family dynamics and addiction,” Caldwell said. “We expect many of them will find a graduate degree in family therapy to be a very natural fit with the work they’re already doing.”
Licensure as a marriage and family therapist, social worker, psychologist or psychiatrist makes drug and alcohol counselors exempt from the new certification requirements. “Licensure as an MFT or as a social worker broadens the scope of what these counselors can do, for an investment of time and training that is not that much more than what new counselors would need to do for certification,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell added that the expected influx of drug counselors to graduate training is one reason why Alliant International University has added a marital and family therapy program to their local offerings here in Sacramento. The marital and family therapy master’s degree program opens this fall, and is currently accepting applications.
About Alliant International University
An independent, not-for-profit institution of higher education with a history distinguished by innovation, Alliant International University focuses on preparing upper-division undergrads and graduate students for professional careers in psychology, education, business and other social science fields. Alliant was formed in July 2001 through the combination of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and United States International University (USIU). CSPP, which was founded in 1969 with help from the California Psychological Association, was the nation’s first free-standing professional school of clinical psychology. CSPP has trained more than half of the practicing clinical psychologists in California. USIU, which has a San Diego history that stretches almost 50 years, founded multiple foreign campuses, including Alliant’s current Mexico City campus, the only University in Mexico whose programs are all approved by an American accrediting agency.
For more information
Benjamin Caldwell, Assistant Program Director
Marital and Family Therapy
Alliant International University
425 University Ave., Suite 201
Sacramento CA 95825
bcaldwell@alliant.edu
(916) 565-3510
Nicolette Toussaint, Alliant Communication Director
One Beach Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 955-2037
ntoussaint@alliant.edu
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