Continuing education is a fact of life for licensed or certified substance use disorder (SUD) counselors in just about every state. You’ll need to come up with anywhere from 10 to 60 hours annually depending on where you are located and what level of license you hold. Your state licensing or certification board will need to see the evidence and approve the training in order for you to hold on to that license.
But continuing ed isn’t just about checking boxes to hold on to a piece of paper. Really, it’s about the constant evolution of addiction counseling in America. It’s about your own drive to maintain and even improve your professional skills. It’s about finding new techniques and new information to help more people, more effectively.
Continuing education hours are something that deserve to be taken seriously by every substance use disorder (SUD) counselor at every level.
To help you understand the options and strike a balance between time, costs, and high quality training, we’ve put together this list of resource for substance abuse counseling continuing education nationally.
Ensuring Your Education Hours Count Toward License Renewal
Not everything advertised as continuing education is necessarily the right thing for your license renewal. The ultimate resource is going to be your state board or licensing agency, most of which offer their own lists of approved providers. While they may accept high-quality training from options that aren’t pre-approved, you can save yourself a lot of trouble by checking before you sign up for a class.
Many states also have specific requirements for the kinds of CEUs you have to turn in during your licensing period. For example, in California, at least 6 of your required 50 hours have to be in ethics education.
In general, license agencies or certification boards look for specific qualities in approved continuing education.
- They want to see that it is directly related or supporting common skills and knowledge required in substance use disorder counseling.
- It has to be offered by professionals who are qualified to teach the subject.
- It should serve to enhance your professional development and competency as a substance abuse counselor
Of course, you’ll probably want to apply your own standards when you evaluate your many CE options. You will want to be building up expertise in areas that are important to your career and laying the groundwork for your next move. The right kind of continuing education will give you not only credits toward maintaining your license, but genuine knowledge and skill that help your clients and enhance your value as a counselor.
Classroom Instruction Isn’t the Only Kind of Continuing Education Activity
Not all continuing education comes through specific classes designed for the purpose. Most licensing agencies or professional boards have a range of different experiences or activities that you can count toward CE.
Those typically include:
- Credits for official college coursework, with a specific conversion from semester credits to CEUs
- Teaching an academic program or continuing education course
- Specific credits for publishing papers in a reputable industry journal
- Credit for published book reviews or abstracts
- Publishing your own book on substance abuse counseling topics, with a specific number of credits awarded for chapters contributed to works with multiple authors
- Presenting at an industry conference
- Attending industry conferences
Each of these has some kind of translated value to turn the activity into a certain number of hours to count toward your requirements. That allows you to mix these types of activities with more typical kinds of CE coursework.
Some boards may limit the total number of hours you can claim through these kinds of alternate activities. This ensures that you will need to pursue a range of different educational choices rather than going all-in on research or conference hopping.
Online Continuing Education Is Fast Becoming the Standard for Substance Abuse Counselors Everywhere
While you will still find plenty of continuing education resources available that involve driving across town and parking yourself in a community college classroom or a conference space for an hour or two, most continuing education options today are delivered online.
This is a huge benefit for the same reason that online college courses are — you can conveniently fit your CE coursework into your otherwise busy day, from any location, at any time. It also opens up your options for finding relevant courses—you’re not restricted to providers in your state, but can explore coursework from big national providers (assuming they are approved by your state board to provide CE).
Some CE providers are even starting to provide their material in primarily audio format, so you can catch up with your course even while you are driving.
It makes it a snap to stream a webinar during your lunch hour, or catch up on course notes after dinner. And you don’t have to take time off work to attend a conference across town or carve out an evening for a workshop at the local community college.
Of course, not everyone has a learning style that meshes well with online classes. And not all kinds of CE are a good fit for online formats. But it’s a valuable option for most counselors, and it’s increasingly the standard in the industry.
Professional Addiction Counseling Organizations Lead the Way on High-Quality Continuing Ed Options
Your first stop for continuing education resources will probably be the major professional organizations that are dedicated to representing the interests of addiction treatment professionals.
NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals
NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, offers the dedicated online NAADAC Education Center. From their platform, members have access to hundreds of hours of continuing education from a library that is constantly expanding with the state of the art in substance use disorder treatment. Everything from clinical skills to technology support to professional self-care and wellness are covered. You’ll even find dedicated sections for specialty education in areas like becoming a U.S. Department of Transportation Substance Abuse Professional or conducting substance abuse advocacy.
The NAADAC also helps counselors get valid and useful CEUs through the NAADAC Approved Education Providers Program. Various public and private training organizations, employers, and even colleges can make the list by opening up their programs to being evaluated by the National Certification Commission for Addiction Professionals. Each provider has been found to offer coursework that is relevant to professional addiction counseling practice, meeting NAADAC standards as well as those of most state licensing or certification bodies.
Their online directly of approved providers allows for a quick ZIP-code based search so you can line up courses near you that you can count on.
International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium (IC&RC)
The International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium (IC&RC) is the other major professional organization for substance abuse counselors. While IC&RC itself does not coordinate or offer CEU training, the organization is made up of member boards in nearly every state. And almost every single one of those state boards puts together resources for members to earning CEU credits, all of which can be found in the IC&RC Board Directory.
Other Professional Organizations That Offer Continuing Education Resources Useful for SUD Counselors
NAADAC and IC&RC are the largest and most directly affiliated professional groups for substance use disorder counselors in the United States, but they are not the only ones. There are non-profit groups that are either SUD-treatment adjacent that also offer continuing education opportunities, or that are smaller and more focused.
National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers
NAATP is a group for companies and non-profit service providers that work in direct SUD treatment, transportation, and aftercare. They primarily conduct research and policy advocacy for SUD treatment, but also offer clinical and operational resources. Among other things, they conduct an Addiction Leader Webinar Series with monthly trainings that offer CEUs. Attending their annual national conference may also be eligible for CE credits depending on your state licensing board regulations.
National Association for Behavioral Healthcare
SUD counseling is one aspect of the larger system of behavioral healthcare in America. So it makes sense that the professional association focused on that larger mission would also be a resource for CEUs for addiction counselors. Webinars offered through their Education and Research Foundation may offer CEUs. Like NAATP, their annual meeting and various presentations available there may also be accepted as continuing ed.
American Society of Addiction Medicine
As the title says, this is a group primarily for medical providers specialized in treating addictions. However, certain master’s-qualified SUD counselors, or those with clinical licensure, may also qualify for membership. With it comes access to some of the highest quality continuing ed opportunities in addiction treatment available today. ASAM has a dedicated eLearning center that provides over 300 hours of accredited education no matter where you are located. Their annual conference offers 70 or more sessions in best practices and the latest research for you to study.
National Board for Certified Counselors
NBCC is the organization that covers more general kinds of career and mental health counseling providers, but they also have their own Master Addiction Counselor credential that is accepted for licensing requirements in many states. They offer a deep bench of resources for continuing education, with an accreditation process similar to NAADAC. You can count on their resources to offer high-quality content and accepted CEUs in most states.
American Counseling Association
Approved by NBCC and NAADAC as well as a range of state-level boards, ACA offers both in-person events and online trainings for CE credits. Strongly dedicated to professional development for counselors, courses range from video-based to webinars to text-based instruction, offering something for every learning style. The annual ACA Conference and Expo offers more opportunities for CE as well as networking.
Of course, there are many state or regional organizations that are also focused on addiction and behavioral health professionals along these same lines. Many of them sponsor or offer conferences or training sessions that can apply to your CEU requirements. Just as important, because they are local, they are frequently already on the approved lists for your state credentialing authority.
Big Government Agencies Support Continuing Education for Substance Abuse Counselors
Ultimately, the responsibility for dealing with America’s drug epidemic comes back to the American government. Agencies at all levels, federal, state, and local, have various responsibilities for assessing, planning, and managing substance use disorder responses.
That includes training. Local government agencies may sponsor workshops for SUD counselors or distribute training material to help conduct such workshops. States sometimes have entire training programs. And, at the federal level, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and National Institute on Drug Abuse are constantly putting out resources for study and coordination in substance abuse treatment.
In many cases, these government training opportunities will come with valid continuing education hours toward your licensure renewal.
While the state and local resources will depend on where you are practicing, you can tap into various federal efforts from agencies like SAMHSA and the CDC that are available nationwide to help substance abuse counselors stay sharp and on top of the latest developments.
Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network
SAMHSA’s ATTC is a multidisciplinary resource for professionals in addiction treatment and recovery that offers toolkits, multimedia presentations, webinars, print resources, and face-to-face training opportunities across the country. With ten regional centers, you can locate both the most appropriate resources and accessible opportunities for in-person training. The network is also a good pointer to other local and regional resources for training. Although it’s set up more for knowledge distribution than awarding CEU credits, credits are available for many of the courses and events that are offered.
National Institute on Drug Abuse CME/CE Activities
NIDA makes it easy to find their available resources that can be applied to continuing education hours, as well as linking out to high-quality resources from universities and professional associations that meet their standards. These resources primarily deal with the opioid crisis but you may also find more general or adolescent-focused training material here.
National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare
NCSACW is entirely focused on kids and substance abuse issues. As a joint project between the Administration for Children and Families and SAMHSA, the Center offers a range of tailored learning materials including webinars and online tutorials that dive into the details of handling both kids using drugs directly and the risks they face from environmental and cultural substance use around them.
Providers Clinical Support System
PCSS is actually a collection of resources focused on different aspects of substance use disorders. One works primarily with colleges and universities, but the other two are aimed at medication use in the treatment of alcohol and opioid disorders. Both provide free training, guidance, and mentoring to multidisciplinary healthcare professionals working in those fields, and may be eligible for CE credits in your area.
Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Regional Centers
ROTA-R is not a single, unified federal resource for substance abuse training, but rather a SAMHSA initiative to push those resources out closer to the providers and counselors working on substance use disorders in rural communities. You’ll find links here to the ten regional centers; if there is one in your area, it can offer education and pointers to high-quality training in this often overlooked type of SUD treatment.
Private Providers of Continuing Education Are Devoted To Offering New Courses All the Time
With CEUs required to renew every kind of SUD counseling license in every state, there are a lot of counselors taking a lot of classes every year. That makes continuing education a business, and there are no shortage of private, for-profit companies that offer professional training to help you click in those credits.
Some of these companies are dedicated to providing addiction counseling education—in fact, some of them may offer certificates that cover the educational hour requirements for counseling credentials in certain states as well as CEUs. Other companies have a broader focus, offering classes for healthcare professionals, behavioral health professions, or for mental health in general.
The most critical consideration if you decide to take this route is quality. You’ll want to look for providers that, first and foremost, are pre-approved by your state authority for continuing ed. After that, you should also consider:
- Whether or not the provider is listed as an approved provider by national professional organizations in counseling or substance use disorder treatment
- Whether the provider is accredited to provide CEUs by your state licensing or certification board
- The credentials of the instructors who conduct the training
These companies come and go, and there are too many to provide a truly comprehensive list for every state and certification. But you’ll find the larger and more significant providers on this list, as well as a sampling of some of the smaller companies that are examples of what you can find in the market in your area today.
AAACEUs
Offering courses in case management, nursing, rehab, social work, and more, AAACEUs courses are also accepted for educational hours for various state SUD counseling credentials. You can purchase course bundles, packages, or take a la carte options from their 224 published courses delivering nearly 1500 training hours. Everything from cultural competency to neurobehavioral theories of decision-making in addiction can catch you up on the latest counseling expertise.
Addiction Counselor CE
With more than 570 courses devoted to addiction counseling continuing education, this is the place to be for specialization. Addiction Counselor CE has a who’s who of accreditations and approvals, including from NBCC, NAADAC, and the APA. With a try-before-you-buy option, you can check out a sample course with no risk. And clear guidance for CE maintenance for popular credentials like the MAC and NCAC ensures you are taking exactly the amount of courses you need to in order to stay qualified.
CE4Less.com
With an annual subscription rate, you can access all available courses at CE4Less with a single payment each year. Founded by mental health professionals, the organization understands the challenges counselors face. They make online access easy, and provide a state-by-state breakdown for CE approval. Courses are approved by the APA, NBCC, and NAADAC.
Quantum United CEUs in Substance Abuse
NAADAC-approved and enormously affordable, these online modules are easy to sign up for and access. Both national and state board CE approval lists make it easy to see where these credits are accepted. Quantum covers a wide range of continuing education for various professions, so if you are interested in content for edge cases in social work, mental health, or even HR, chances are you’ll find something here.
Addiction Academy Counselor Certification Training
Addiction Academy is smaller than some of the major online providers, but they offer something that most don’t: the option to have on-site training or to put on educational events in addition to their online courses. Approved by NAADAC and FCB, the Florida Certification Board, they are primarily active in the Southeast.
CEUnitsAtHome – Addiction Professional
Serving a variety of mental health and social services professions, CEUnits At Home is exactly what it advertises: an online option for getting your CEUs covered from the comfort of your own home. NAADAC-approved, this company has the advantage of only requiring payment when you actually pass the course, so you won’t be wasting any money.
At Health Online Continuing Education
Offering online continuing ed courses for psychologists, nurses, MFTs, social workers, and more, you can expect a diversity of topics available for your training here. A number of their courses are offered in audio format so you can listen and learn on the go, whether you are commuting or out for a jog. Each course has individual approvals listed from organizations like NAADAC, NBCC, and ATTC, so you can see specifically where your credits are good.
AllCEUs
With more than 600 CEU courses and approvals from NAADAC and a range of major state-level certification boards, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding options for continuing education here. The company also offers required educational coursework for certification in certain states, so you can be sure that the content and instructors know what they are talking about.
CEU Academy
CEU Academy claims their credits are accepted in all 50 states, courtesy of their accreditation from the American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders (AAHCPAD). The organization offers 30 hours of online CEU training from highly qualified healthcare professionals and Emmy Award-winning producers.
Mindful Continuing Education
Approved by NAADAC and CCAPP (California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals), Mindful also has a convenient list of other state boards they have pre-approval from so you won’t waste your time. At only $6 per credit hour, this is some of the most affordable continuing education on the market today.
Hazelden Betty Ford Continuing Education for Professionals
As one of the premier private graduate schools for addiction treatment education, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation can be expected to bring the same professionalism and comprehensive training resources to the continuing education process. While the organization offers online webinars accessible from anywhere, there are also a range of in person events at facilities across the country for those who prefer more in-person instruction.
CE-Credit.com
With courses both for addiction counselors and other behavioral health professionals, CE-Credit helps you stay on top of the latest developments with easy and affordable online courses. You can search state-by-state for CEUs that are accepted in your area, or rely on their NAADAC and AAHCPAD approvals to support your ongoing training for national credentials.
CEUByNet
Courses that revolve around that all-important TAP21 standards are what you will get at CEU By NET, ranging from assessment to human trafficking to harm reduction. Based around SAMHSA models and with approvals from NAADAC, IC&RC, and NBCC, you can get an all-you-can eat subscription for $49 per year. A range of new courses are released regularly so you won’t have to worry about missing out on the latest developments, even as you keep your credentials current.
Aspira Continuing Education
Aspire is an example of many of the smaller providers in the CEU space. Currently approved by California and Oklahoma credentialing boards, it has a niche role in the continuing ed space. But sometimes that sort of focus allows more attention to detail and the specifics that are required in those states. And although courses are not pre-approved in other states, if you find one that you truly find valuable, you can always petition your credentialing board to accept it for credit.
A College Degree Can Cover Continuing Education Requirements and Take Your Career to the Next Level
You probably noticed above that college courses in substance abuse topics are often accepted for continuing education credits. Certification bodies don’t care one way or the other if you are auditing that class as a one-time deal or as part of a full degree. But at some phases of your career, it makes a lot of sense to fill up your CE hours while pursuing a higher degree level in substance abuse counseling.
Climbing the career ladder is extremely common in substance abuse counseling. The structure of certification and licensing in most states allows you to become a substance abuse counselor with an undergraduate degree or even an undergrad certificate.
But few counselors stop there. You’re likely to start building on your initial credentials and experience with additional degrees, whether that’s a bachelor’s after you earn a certificate in substance abuse counseling, or a full-on master’s degree in substance use disorder counseling, addiction studies, or a similar concentration.
In either case, you’ll get a double dip with that extra education since it is almost always applicable to your ongoing continuing education requirements.
Most states offer some specific formula that translates actual college credits earned to equivalent continuing education units.
This is a great way to keep your skills topped up while moving your career forward. But whether you are at the top of your game or just starting out, you’ll find that continuing education in some form or another can always make you sharper. And a sharper you means patients who get better faster.