- For anyone with a bachelor’s degree in any human services or behavioral science field, a master’s can provide a natural path to advanced certification and independent clinical practice in substance use disorder counseling.
- In about half the states, a master’s is required for clinical practice, which typically includes the ability to perform clinical evaluations and diagnoses, treatment planning, referrals, and service coordination for co-occuring mental health issues.
- In the majority of states, a master’s is required to attain the highest-level certification available in addiction counseling, necessary to practice as an independent or supervising clinical substance use disorder counselor.
- For career changers that hold bachelor’s degrees in entirely different fields, a master’s in addiction counseling can dramatically reduce experience hour requirements for certification, streamlining the path to initial certification.
It’s easy to explain what a master’s degree in addiction counseling does for you. It’s right in the name: if you want to truly master the art and science of helping people with substance use disorders (SUD), this is your destination.
Today there are more people with more complex addiction and chemical dependency problems than ever, and the help they need most often comes from SUD counselors licensed at this level. According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, at least half of Americans have used illicit drugs at least once in their lives. Almost 60 million of them did so within the last year, and that doesn’t count the 90 million or so experiencing alcohol or nicotine use disorders.
That has lead to around 70,000 overdose deaths in the country annually. Those are just the last, worst step in lives that often leave a trail of wreckage and despair behind them… not to mention other victims.
If there’s ever a challenge that needs more people with mastery of the most effective treatments, diagnostics, and prevention approaches, it’s substance abuse.
How a Master’s in Addiction Counseling Fits in With the Licensing and Certification Structure in Your State
It’s safe to say that a master’s degree in substance abuse counseling gives you the education to qualify for absolutely any position in addiction treatment in the country.
According to SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a master’s degree should qualify therapists for licensure as both clinical SUD counselors and as supervisors and independent practitioners.
Every state will accept the right master’s as qualification for those license levels, and some require it.
Even in states where a master’s degree is not a firm requirement for substance abuse counselor licensing, it often can be used to reduce the number of practice hours you are required to have for a particular license level. This makes it an effective path to both initial certification for career changers and advanced licensure for those already working in a human services field.
In these states, a master’s degree is a requirement for independent substance use disorder counselor and supervisor licensing:
State | Titles |
Arkansas | Licensed Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Counselor |
Colorado | Licensed Addiction Counselor |
Connecticut | Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Delaware | Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Georgia | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Iowa | International Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Indiana | Licensed Clinical Addiction Counselor |
Kansas | Licensed Clinical Addiction Counselor |
Kentucky | Licensed Clinical Alcohol & Drug Counselor Associate/Licensed Clinical Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Louisiana | Licensed Addiction Counselor |
Massachusetts | Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselor I/II |
Maryland | Licensed Clinical Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Minnesota | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Missouri | Certified Reciprocal Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Mississippi | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
North Carolina | Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist |
North Dakota | Licensed Master Addiction Counselor |
New Hampshire | Master Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
New Jersey | Licensed Clinical Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Nevada | Licensed Clinical Alcohol & Drug Abuse Counselor |
Ohio | Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor |
Oklahoma | Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Oregon | Certified Alcohol Drug Counselor III |
Pennsylvania | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Rhode Island | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
South Dakota | Licensed Addiction Counselor |
Texas | Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Virginia | Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioner |
Vermont | Licensed Alcohol & Drug Abuse Counselor |
West Virginia | Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Wyoming | Licensed Addictions Therapist |
In these states, you’ll need a master’s to engage in any kind of clinical practice. States set their own strict definitions for clinical substance abuse counseling, though it typically includes the ability to perform clinical evaluations and diagnoses, treatment planning, referrals, and service coordination for co-occuring mental health issues.
State | Titles |
Alabama | Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Arkansas | Advanced Certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Arizona | Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
California | Licensed Advanced Alcohol Drug Counselor |
Delaware | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Florida | Certified Master’s Level Addiction Professional |
Idaho | Advanced Certified Alcohol / Drug Counselor |
Illinois | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Other Drug Counselor |
Indiana | Licensed Clinical Addiction Counselor Associate / Certified Co-Ocuring Disorders Professional Diplomat |
Kansas | Licensed Masters Addiction Counselor |
Kentucky | Licensed Clinical Alcohol & Drug Counselor Associate |
Louisiana | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Other Drug Counselor/Licensed Addiction Counselor |
Maryland | Licensed Graduate Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Michigan | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Mississippi | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Nevada | Licensed Alcohol & Drug Abuse Counselor |
New York | Master Credentialed Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Counselor |
Virginia | Certified Advanced Alcohol & Drug Counselor |
Wyoming | Provisional Addictions Therapist |
If you graduate with a master’s degree in substance use disorders, you are coming out with qualifications that can land you in some of the highest-level jobs in the field. You can expect your compensation to reflect that status.
According to 2023 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the top ten percent of counseling jobs paid an average salary of more than $89,920.
How Addiction Counseling Master’s Degrees Prepare You for Leadership Roles in Substance Abuse Treatment
Qualifying for the lead roles in substance abuse and addiction therapy can be surprisingly fast once you have your undergraduate degree out of the way. Master’s programs in addiction studies can typically be completed in one or two years, with around 30 credits of required coursework.
These advanced graduate studies put addiction counselors on the same level as social workers, therapists, and licensed mental health counselors, all of which routinely require a master’s for licensing. To gain access to the top level of credentials in substance abuse counseling and to master the toughest parts of a tough job, this kind of education is critical.
There aren’t always specialized schools or departments at each university in substance abuse the way that there are for psychology, social work, or human services. So you will find these programs put together in different ways from a combination of interdisciplinary departments at various universities.
And you’ll quickly notice that there are no master’s degree programs that fall under the substance use disorder or substance abuse headings. The most common title is simply MS/MA in Addiction Counseling.
But they do come with a range of variations on that title, reflecting the diversity that comes with the interdisciplinary nature of these degrees:
- Master of Science in Addiction Counseling
- Master of Addiction Science
- Master of Arts in Addiction Counseling and Prevention
- Master of Science in Christian Addiction Counseling
- Master of Arts in Addiction Studies
- Master of Professional Studies in Addictions Counseling
- Master of Science in Addiction Psychology
- Master of Addiction Counseling in Psychology
In some cases, these programs build off existing master’s studies in psychology, behavioral health, counseling, or social work programs.
Additionally, you’ll find other kinds of graduate degrees that offer specializations in substance abuse counseling. They include degrees like:
- Master of Arts in Psychology and Addiction Studies
- Master of Health Science in Addictions Studies
- Master of Science in Psychology with a Concentration in Addictions
- Master of Arts in Professional Mental Health Counseling - Specialization in Addictions
- Master of Social Work and Addictions Counseling in Psychology
This all fits in with the different ways that people come to graduate studies in substance abuse counseling:
- Currently licensed substance abuse counselors looking to gain higher licensing levels that allow for independent practice and supervisory roles
- Recent bachelor’s graduates from a substance abuse or human services major looking to jump straight into advanced practice
- Professionals already licensed in other counseling or therapy fields who want to expand their abilities with a credential in substance use disorder counseling
- Career changers from entirely different fields electing to earn a master’s in addiction counseling with reduced experience hours required for initial certification
The right choice of degree for you will depend on where you fit into those categories, as well as what level and in what state you plan to practice.
Evaluating These Different Master’s Options in Terms of State Licensing Requirements
There’s no hard and fast rule about which of these programs are precisely right for SUD counselor career preparation. Any of them may be a good option to prepare you for SUD counseling in various areas of practice.
Each state has separate licensing tracks, and sometimes completely separate licensing boards, for mental health and other counselors versus substance use disorder counselors. While each might require a master’s degree, they also each have their own unique set of coursework and educational hours in certain subjects that are required. The expectation is that states seek to align the requirements in these different areas, but there’s no guarantees.
So an MA in Mental Health Counseling that meets state standards for LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor) or LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor) credentials, should also meet the requirements for Licensed Advanced Substance Use Disorder counseling. But the only way to be 100% certain is to make a quick call to the respective licensing boards in your state to verify exactly how the curriculum requirements align.
Some states allow psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, and mental health counselors to perform addiction therapy without additional qualification under their current licenses.
From Specializations and Electives to Your Final Project: A Closer Look at Master’s in Addiction Counselor Curriculum
At the master’s level, your coursework will be mostly focused on honing skills you have already developed earlier in your education. These classes go deeper into theory and help build up your practice skills to the most advanced levels.
In general, classes will fall into three buckets:
Clinical Skills Development
You’re likely to have several classes that focus specifically on developing your individual and group counseling skills. They’ll come both through deeper theoretical understanding of the goals and challenges of counseling, like Social and Cultural Diversity in Counseling, Addiction Treatment With Families, or Adolescent Addiction Assessment and Treatment, and in specific types of therapeutic approaches, like Group Counseling, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing.
You may also have coursework in Assessment and Treatment Planning, Evidence-Based Interventions, and general Counseling Theory.
The Science and Psychology of Substance Use Disorders
Master’s graduates in addiction counseling come out with a more advanced understanding of the physiological bases of addiction and the pharmacology of various drugs and other substances. Courses like the Pharmacological Actions of Alcohol and Other Drugs, Medication Assisted Treatment, and Treatment of Co-Occuring Disorders help develop a more in-depth perspective on the mechanisms of addiction.
This level of study also brings in more advanced psychological studies. You’ll probably have courses like Relapse Prevention, Comorbidity in Substance Use Related Problems, and Psychopathology that develop your grasp of what is going on in the minds of your patients.
Handling the Ethical and Practical Issues of Addiction Treatment
Independent practice licenses are what master’s programs lead to in SUD counseling. But the very fact there is no supervision means that graduates at this level have to meet the ultimate in professional and ethical standards in a field that is notoriously thorny. So coursework in Advanced Legal and Ethical Issues, Professional Orientation and Identity, and Counseling Ethics are certain to be required in your master’s studies.
Many programs also give you extra preparation for dealing with the day-to-day challenges of working in a human resource system that is notoriously hard to navigate. Classes in Planning and Case Management help you better understand the process, and coursework like Foundations of Growth and Development and Addiction Profession Supervision set you up to help oversee other counselors through the process as well.
Exploring Specializations and Elective Options in Master’s in Substance Abuse Counseling Programs
You get a shot at customizing your studies in master’s programs as well, tuning your degree toward specializations that hold your interest.
In some cases, this may come through formal specializations that are offered as part of the degree program. Substance abuse counselor master’s graduates have more options than just going into counseling, and some degrees reflect that by offering tracks that go into areas like:
- General - An overview of addiction science that touches on all the angles, this kind of path doesn’t specialize in any particular aspect of SUD counseling, but lays the groundwork for positions in policy, advocacy, or more general human services administration.
- Research - Research specializations offer more training in data collection, experimental design, and data analysis. These are aimed at students who plan to go into academic roles, developing new techniques for assessment and therapy in substance use disorders.
- Clinical - The clinical path focuses more on managing substance use disorder cases and offering direct treatment to patients. These may also dive into even more specialized clinical applications, such as a specializing in co-occuring disorders, or in addiction prevention.
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- Advanced Rural Telehealth
- Native Americans and Substance Use and Addiction
- Substance Use and Addiction in Diverse Populations
- Advanced Co-Occuring Trauma and Addiction
While much of your coursework is designed to hit the requirements of licensure, you’ll find there is considerable flexibility in most master’s programs to investigate your own particular interests. Research projects, internships placements, and class projects can all be designed around topics that inspire you.
Master’s in Substance Abuse Counseling Degrees Help Build Your Required Experiential Training Hours
Master’s studies usually come with both practicum and internship requirements as well as classroom study. These are placements in active treatment facilities or with outreach organizations that put you in the thick of real-world counseling action.
Under the supervision of both your instructors and active SUD counselors, you’ll have a chance to put theory to the test with real patients.
These experiential hours come in two types:
Practicum Courses
A practicum is generally treated as a college class where you perform real-world work functions under the supervision of your instructor and also working professionals in actual practice settings. These tend to involve more and closer supervision, and may be shorter in length than internships.
Internship Opportunities
An internship is generally a longer and more integrated work placement that occurs primarily outside the academic environment. These occur primarily under the supervision of actual counselors at the organization, with only occasional check-ins with college instructors. They often involve more independent work than a practicum class.
Some schools offer one or the other of these kinds of experiential placements, while others may require both. Often, you will have multiple placements which will put you in a variety of different treatment or case management settings. You’re expected to get a well-rounded exposure to various kinds of addiction therapy to help inform both your future career choices and your ability to practice in various settings.
In some cases, there are enough hours in these programs to satisfy license requirements for various states. And, as noted earlier, in some cases simply having earned the degree itself can reduce the required hours. For example, in Washington state, a master’s drops your target from 2,500 to only 1,500 hours, shaving at least six months off your time commitment.
Bringing Together Your Education and Experience With a Culminating Project
A master’s degree in an American university comes with some sort of culminating experience to tie your studies together and offer a final assurance that you have put all the pieces together as an advanced professional counselor.
Traditionally, master’s programs involved researching, writing, and defending a master’s thesis to a committee of professors and experts. Thesis papers run to a hundred pages and require original thinking and analysis of a relevant topic in the field.
But more often today, particularly in programs with a clinical focus, the culminating projects is an applied capstone project. These projects still involve research and original thinking, but revolve around more practical expressions of your knowledge. Those can include innovations in outcome monitoring, developing or evaluating evidence-based treatments, or spinning up new programs among certain populations.
You may have an option of choosing either a thesis or a capstone project. In either case, you’re expected to demonstrate an ability to take in the information you’ve studied, combine it with your own ideas and investigations, and create something new and valuable for the field.
Making Sure Your State Accepts Your Master’s in Substance Abuse Coursework Is Critical
One key piece of every master’s degree in addiction counseling program is whether or not the course of instruction has been approved by state licensure or certification agencies. Without that critical approval, all your work could come to nothing.
States may either accredit addiction studies programs directly via their licensing agency, or outsource that approval process to a state association, or the NASAC.
In some states, like California, there may even be multiple organizations that approve degree programs in substance abuse counseling. On the national level, NASAC is the major player here. The National Addiction Studies Accreditation Commission is affiliated with NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals. You’ll also run across programs that are accredited by CACREP, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, although that’s more important for LMHC credentialing.
Your only safe path to ensuring that your master’s degree education hours will count toward licensure will be to verify that the school and program are approved in your state.
What the Student Experience is Like in a Master’s Degree Program in Addiction Counseling
Beyond the basic status of accreditation, there is a lot of different things to set schools apart in this field. A master’s degree in substance abuse counseling is a significant investment. You can be sure that a program approved by your state board will provide a return on that investment in the form of state credentials.
You’ll have your own unique experience, but you can set your expectations high that a state-approved or NASAC accredited program will knock it out of the park in terms of these criteria:
- Faculty - Who you are learning from can be every bit as important to your education as what you are learning about. Committed instructors who take you under their wing and make it their mission to help you bet the best are worth their weight in gold. You’ll be learning from professors who have both real-world experience in the field as well as strong academic and research bona fides. Publications in scholarly journals and active developments in treatment research are standard among professors at this level.
- Academic and career support - A graduate degree can help you get to the highest-level positions in the field of addiction counseling. But you won’t get there on your own. These schools offer strong academic counseling, networking opportunities, and other kinds of career support to help you get where you are going faster and more easily.
- Community relationships - Particularly at the master’s level, you’ll spend a lot of time racking up practice and supervision hours outside of school. Your options for where to fulfill those will depend a lot on the kind of relationships that your program has with local social and healthcare providers involved in SUD counseling. You can be confident that the school you pick has ties to the kind of agencies you want to work for, allowing you to do the sort of work you want to do.
- Specializations - Of course, you can’t learn a particular angle on substance abuse counseling if your school doesn’t offer it. Finding a program that has the right specializations to fulfill your career goals is wise. You’ll find that they aren’t shy about promoting those options, so you’ll typically find them presented front and center on university websites and marketing material.
- Strong departments in other human services fields - Addiction counseling is an interdisciplinary effort. Your education will count on not just substance use disorder professionals, but on experts in psychology, social work, and criminal justice. You will want to make sure that the school you pick has departments that are just as strong in those subjects as the SUD program itself is.
What Is the Typical Cost of Earning a Master’s in Addiction Counseling?
While a graduate education opens up more opportunities at higher levels of licensure, it also costs slightly more.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average cost of tuition for 2022 was $12,596 per year at public universities at in-state rates.
When you throw private schools into the mix, the rates are actually a bit less than undergraduate credits, however, coming in at $28,017 per year. Of course, you’re only paying these rates for a year or two at the master’s level, versus four years for a bachelor’s.
With the additional opportunities and higher level jobs that master’s programs can unlock, they are often well worth the cost in the long run… to say nothing of how they build your skills in helping people experiencing addiction.
A Master’s in Addiction Counseling Online to Fit Your Work and Family Life
Another feature that many grad students look for when it comes time to pick up a master’s is whether it accommodates work and family life by offering online courses.
Like every other field, online master’s degrees in substance abuse counseling got a shot in the arm during the depths of COVID. Yet the advantages that remote studies bring to the table, particularly for the kind of students that go into SUD counseling, have kept online options at the top of the ticket.
Many of those students are already involved in work in substance abuse or other human services fields. They are older on average, and may have families or other personal commitments that come before college. And they can be very price sensitive, going into a field that isn’t known for six-figure salaries.
Sound familiar to you?
Online studies can address all those considerations. By allowing you to advance your knowledge and your career by learning at home, online programs reduce costs associated with commuting or relocating. With asynchronous classes you can engage with any time day or night, they leave room in your schedule for picking up kids at soccer or attending late meetings at work.
Of course, internships and practicum placements have to be arranged locally. But with much of the classroom work shifted to remote options, you may find it easier and less taxing to go with an online master’s in addiction counseling.
Earning a master’s degree in this field shows that you are one of the people who is serious about doing something about the addiction crisis plaguing communities across the country. That’s a stance that has value you can’t measure simply by the salary you receive. But in terms of helping people who need that expertise, it’s pure gold.
2023 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary and employment figures for Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors reflect national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed April 2024.