How To Become a Peer Support Specialist

Peer support specialists occupy a unique role in addiction treatment. But it’s a role that has become increasingly more important with the rise of substance use disorders (SUDs) across the United States, and a growing body of evidence that peer support can be key to beating those disorders over the longterm.

Along with the unique role they play in the recovery process, there’s also a unique path to becoming a certified peer support specialist. The steps mirror those of other substance abuse counselors, but also have important differences.

We lay out all the qualifications and a step-by-step process for you to learn how to become a peer support specialist in almost every state.

How Peer Support Specialists Play a Serious Role in Addiction Treatment Throughout the Country

Peer support specialists are qualified assistants, advocates, counselors, and helpers for individuals attempting to recover from substance use disorders. In fact, they are uniquely qualified by way of real world experience. You see, peer recovery specialists have themselves recovered from a substance use disorder or gone through the process with someone close to them.

It may seem like a no-brainer that people who have gone through recovery themselves offer important knowledge and perspectives that other counselors who may have not had those experiences can’t. But substance abuse counseling today is very much an evidence-driven field of practice, so just saying it’s a no-brainer isn’t enough.

Instead, it turns out that research has been backing up the idea that individuals supported by peer recovery specialists:

On top of the benefits to patients, peer counselors are a big hit with other substance abuse counselors. They offer insights and an ability to connect with patients that can’t be had through any amount of college or experience.

Still, for peer counselors to be available, they have to go through the right set of steps to get credentials to work with patients. Forty-seven states have official paths to becoming a peer recovery counselor.

What Qualifications Are Required To Become a Peer Support Specialist?

While each of those states has their own rules, the basic qualifications to become a peer specialist are simple:

Those are a lower bar to clear than other substance abuse counseling positions. But they are also just the basic requirements you have to meet to get your foot in the door. The actual process of getting a certification to practice as a peer support specialist takes a little more effort.

7 Steps To Becoming a Peer Support Specialist

The steps to becoming a peer support specialist are faster and more straightforward than the steps to become a regular substance abuse counselor. But that doesn’t mean they are any easier—just hard in a different way.

Each state regulates peer support specialists differently and so the specific details of this process will shift slightly depending on where you are located. You will find all of the basics are similar, though. And these steps will walk you through each of them.

1. Fully Recover From Your Own Experience with Addiction

This is the first step, the hardest, and the one that no one wishes they had taken… you, or someone close to you, must have experienced a substance use disorder.

In some states, personal lived experience in recovering from a substance use disorder is required.

This is not a step you plan, but it’s critical to becoming a peer support specialist. What you bring to the table that no one can teach is the hard-earned experience of clawing your way to recovery.

With that behind you, you have the ability to share your story, to serve as a role model, and to offer advice and guidance to others who are still stuck in addiction. Just as important, you have empathy and compassion to offer that is based in genuine understanding. While other addiction counselors can feel for patients, only you can identify with them with this step under your belt.

2. Undergo and Pass a Criminal Background Check

Undergoing a criminal background check is a common part of licensing or certification for all substance abuse counselors. It can take on a different weight if you are applying to become a peer support specialist, however.

That’s because, in many cases, you wouldn’t be qualified to apply for a peer support certification if you weren’t disqualified by criminal activity at some point. It’s tough to get through many kinds of addiction without running afoul of the law at some point.

If you’re going to be any good at being a peer specialist, the odds are good you have a criminal record behind you.

That’s why you will typically find a specific list of disqualifying offenses for peer support background checks. States understand that it can be your experience with the justice system itself that makes you a good peer counselor. So having a stack of DUIs or even theft or robbery isn’t necessarily going to trip you up. A more serious criminal background might—although you can also apply for a pardon or exception in many cases.

Certification boards understand that who you are before and after recovery can be very different people. Your own understanding of the same principle will be part of what makes you a valuable ally for patients in the midst of their own attempts at recovery.

You’ll also need to be done with your time as a prisoner or parolee. If you are still under supervision, you’ll probably need to wait until your probation or prison term has been fulfilled.

3. Go through Peer Support Specialist Training Required in Your State

You only need a GED or high school diploma to become a peer support specialist. Most people have that out of the way long before they get to the point of considering the job.

But while you don’t need a college degree, you do need specific training to become a peer counselor.

That boils down to between 40 and 100 hours of specialized classroom instruction in subjects covering:

Depending on where you are located, you may get this in a state-run training program, through verified private training organizations, or have the option of going either way.

Finding Free Peer Support Specialist Training Online

A quick search will turn up all kinds of peer support specialist certification online programs, even some from various colleges. But you have to be careful when looking to these programs to make sure they provide training that is accepted by your state certification board.

Certified peer support specialist training is similar from state to state, but far from identical.

Some states do, in fact, offer free state-run peer support specialist training, both in-person and online. But those programs are the exception rather than the rule. You also can’t count on training offered in one state to fulfill requirements elsewhere.

Your best bet in every case is to consult the state licensing agency or authorized certification board for a list of recognized training providers.

4. Build Experience Offering Support to Substance Use Disorder Patients

The majority of states with peer support credentials require some number of practice and supervision hours to earn them. You can stack up practice hours before or after your training in most cases, working as a volunteer in treatment organizations.

In some states, work experience in behavioral health services may substitute for required training hours.

Practice hours are just basic time in contact with patients, usually assisting a substance abuse counselor or already-qualified peer support specialist. Supervision hours are different—this is a measure of time you spend working directly with a qualified supervisor to discuss cases and go over treatment techniques and processes.

You can expect to need around 500 practice hours in most states and about 25 hours under supervision. In many cases, these requirements will be fulfilled with the assistance of your employers while you are in the process of getting your certification.

5. Take and Pass a Standardized Test of Peer Support Skills

The IC&RC (International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium) International Peer Exam is the most common test used for peer support certification.

Unsurprisingly, the exam tests you on material that closely mirrors what you will have studied in the required training hours. There are four sections on the exam:

Ethical responsibility is the section that is weighted most heavily in the scoring of the IC&RC International Peer Exam, so study up on your professional responsibilities!

There are 75 scored questions plus another 10 for a warm-up, which you will need to complete within two hours. Exams are offered either by computer or old-fashioned pen and paper, but each state board is allowed to choose whether to offer both or only one format.

The scoring system is not based on a straight percentage of correct answers, but using a more complex formula that takes into account the difficulty of various questions.

States that require a test but don’t use the IC&RC exam usually cook up their own version that is pretty similar.

6. Get Continuing Education and Consider Earning a Professional Certification as a Peer Recovery Support Specialist

It’s not strictly necessary to earn national professional certification as a certified peer support specialist. On the other hand, it’s a great way to both hone your expertise and stand out among your peers for going the extra mile.

Professional certification is different than the state certification you will already have earned simply to become a peer support specialist in the first place. The state credentialing process gives you the approval you need to actively practice and bill for peer counseling services. A national certification is a higher bar, looking at your validated experience, expertise, and knowledge to show employers and clients you are on top of your game.

You will also find peer support specialist certification online that is aimed at mental health peer counselors rather than peer recovery specialists in substance abuse.

The gold standard in peer support professional certs is the National Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist (NCPRSS) from NAADAC, the Association of Addiction Professionals.

You’ll find the requirements pretty familiar:

Have a high school diploma or GED
Have a minimum of two years of recover from a substance use or co-occuring mental health disorder
Have at least 200 hours of direct practice in supervised peer recovery support
Have attained at least 60 contact and training hours of peer recovery support education
At least 6 of those hours must be in ethics education and another 6 in HIV and other pathogen prevention training
Must agree to adhere to the NAADAC/NCC AP Peer Recovery Support Specialist Code of Ethics
Submit at least two references, at least one professional
Take and pass the NAADAC NCPRSS exam

The NAADAC exam is more intensive than the IC&RC test for peer support counselors. It consists of 125 multiple choice questions that go into testing your knowledge of:

Both because of the experience and educational requirements, it’s common to pursue professional certification only after you’ve been on the job for a while in peer support work.

Continuing Education Hours Can Contribute to Your Professional Certification

With continuing education requirements to maintain your credentials, you can easily build up the additional expertise needed to pass the NAADAC exam.

Pretty much every state that offers a credential for peer support work also requires that you fulfill ongoing continuing education to keep it.

Continuing ed is a process similar to earning your original required education hours. During each renewal period—typically two years—you will have to spend a set amount of hours in classes that continue to enhance your skills as a peer recovery specialist.

The big difference is that while the state or licensing board requires you to obtain these hours from approved providers, the subject can be almost anything related to addiction counseling. You can find courses that build your skills in crisis management, in co-occuring disorders, in identifying pharmacological substances, or even in self-care and mental wellness. Most states allow hours to come from professional conferences or presentations, or even publishing articles yourself.

It’s entirely up to you, and that gives you the flexibility to both pursue additional professional certification and develop expertise that goes far beyond just your personal experiences with addiction.

7. Get a Job as a Trained Peer Support Specialist

Ultimately, your goal as a peer support coach will be helping other SUD patients recover with the benefits of your own knowledge and experience.

But you’ll need to get a job to give you that opportunity.

Fortunately, careers in peer recovery support are going strong across the United States. They are available in all the same kinds of organizations and agencies that employ other substance abuse counselors:

Peer support salary levels are lower than those of full SUD counselors, but that’s to be expected with less training and fewer types of specialized treatments that peers can offer. On the other hand, peer counselors can make connections with patients that other counselors have a tough time reaching. As part of the larger system of addiction treatment, it’s a vital role that has been proven effective in study after study.

If you happen to be among those who have recovered from your own addiction and qualify, this is an important position to consider. It can be the on-ramp, with education and experience, to much longer and more high-level careers in addiction counseling. Yet it’s also a vital job in its own right, one that only select people can fill.

The kind of satisfaction that comes with being one of those few, and giving back to honor your own struggles to recovery, is something more than money can buy.