Continuing Education for Addiction Counselors – Full Guide and Directory to CE Providers to Keep Your Certification Current

happy in group therapy session Newly-minted addiction counselors have a lot on their plate. You have just passed an important examination, accumulated more than a thousand hours of on-the-job training, and graduated from a certificate or degree program covering everything from human biology to the pharmacology of illicit substances. Now it’s time to put it all to work.

But things aren’t going quite the way they did in the classroom.

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Why Continuing Education Is Critical for Addiction Counselors in Every Specialty

Addiction is a disorder that doesn’t stand still. In every era, there are new vices, new temptations, new cultural pressures.

If you had told an addiction counselor in the cocaine 80’s that by the early 2000s pharmaceutical-grade prescription opioids would be the face of America’s drug epidemic, they would have thought you were crazy. It would have been almost impossible to imagine in the midst of the stimulant-fueled international drug trade at the time that legions of people would be dying from fentanyl, a drug originally designed as a medical anesthetic.

Social media and gaming addictions are a new frontier that counselors have to adapt to treating.

At the same time, those treatments are constantly evolving and improving. Tell the same 1980s-era counselor that it’s possible today for magnetic beams to be used effectively to treat nicotine addictions, and they might ask what you had been smoking. But TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) is a recognized treatment, with mounting evidence of its effectiveness.

All these developments have a real impact on the day-to-day demands and capabilities of professional addiction counselors. Part of being a professional is keeping up with those developments. Which is where continuing education comes in.

What Is Continuing Education for Addiction Counselors?

Continuing education describes a process of mandatory and regular ongoing learning that is relevant to your performance as an addition counselor. It’s mandated by state credentialing agencies and by other organizations that offer certifications in counseling, such as NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals.

Continuing education may also be listed as CEUs (Continuing Education Units), PDH (Professional Development Hours),

Typically, those requirements come in the form of a specific number of hours in certain approved activities that have to be completed before your credential can be renewed.

The Mechanics of Official Continuing Education

Most official agencies make it easy enough to look up approved CE providers and activities, and also make the standards for required hours clear. But how do you prove that you met all the requirements to have your credentials renewed?

This is something that can vary from organization to organization. Some have gone high-tech, and track CE online through platforms like Certemy or CE Broker; you may upload digital certificates, or they can be submitted directly to your account by connected providers.

Many organizations, including NAADAC, are moving to an audit model for CE compliance. In these systems, you don’t have to submit any proof of training, but you do have to retain official records. Some percentage of renewals (10 percent, for NAADAC, for instance) are randomly selected for audit each year and those individuals will have to produce their records, or their certification won’t be renewed.

Other boards, like the Pennsylvania Certification Board, take a kind of half-and-half approach. You are required to submit a list of your trainings for recertification, but only retain proof of attendance in case some question comes up later.

Most states seem to settle in somewhere around 20 or 30 hours per year. NAADAC and IC&RC-aligned credentials take 20 hours. It’s common for CE to be required top-to-bottom, for every sort of credential from the humble peer support specialist all the way up to licensed and certified Master Addiction Counselors.

Even in the handful of states that do not require CE for license maintenance, most addiction counselors are dedicated enough to seek out ongoing training on their own.

Continuing Education Would Make a Lot of Sense for Your Counseling Career Even if It Wasn’t Mandatory

There’s a big regulatory aspect to continuing education, it’s true. But many addiction counselors enjoy the benefits of ongoing study in other ways, too.

The requirements of your license or certification will tell you what you need in your continuing education. But the application of that knowledge can go a long way toward improving your professional skills and getting better outcomes for your clients.

As you are doing right by your clients, you can also be doing well for yourself. Continuing education gives you skillsets and knowledge that employers want to see. You can find yourself shaping a body of professional expertise that will take you right into higher-paying positions and leadership roles in your organization and in your community.

Addiction Counseling Continuing Education Comes in a Wide Variety of Formats

Although most people think of CE in terms of after-hours lectures in community college classrooms, or conference presentations with weak coffee and a bad sound system, the fact is that there are many kinds of activities that can count toward CE for most organizations.

The specifics can vary from group to group. But in general, you will find several different categories of learning or teaching that can be counted as a CE activity.

Traditional Classroom Training – Once the most common kind of continuing education, this type of in-person, instructor-led training is on the decline—but still offers face-to-face updates on new developments in addiction therapy. Some states require that a significant percentage of CE hours are conducted in-person or in real-time.
Online Webinar Presentations/Training – The ease of access and ability to time-shift watching videos or completing coursework is making online training seminars among the most popular sources of CE today.
Self-Study Programs – Whether offered online or just through a remote format, self-paced study is often considered acceptable for CE training.
Conference Attendance – Going to a major conference sponsored by state or national addiction therapy organizations is always an opportunity to network and acquire knowledge, and typically can be counted as official CE.
Certificate Programs – Upgrades to your professional certification by earning a new specialty certificate or even a higher-level counseling credential usually will be awarded CE hours.
Teaching or Presentation – You can often learn just as much through training others as you might going through training yourself. So teaching coursework in addiction issues or making presentations at conferences usually come with CE rewards.
Professional Publication – Similarly, the process of researching or developing new thoughts in the field for publication in journal articles, scientific papers, or other industry platforms can be credited toward CE.
Degree or College Classes – Since less structured and formal coursework is already awarded CE, it’s no surprise that more in-depth, formal study toward a degree or through for-credit courses is also counted. This allows you to double up by advancing your professional credentials with higher level degrees at the same time you keep your certs current.
Attending Board Meetings – National certifications don’t include this option, but many state-level agencies offer it—credit for attending meetings of the licensing board itself.

This is hardly an exhaustive list, but it’s also a place where the devil is in the details. You’ll need to double-check the specific requirements tied to your credentials are.

Are Online Trainings Accepted for Addiction Counselor Continuing Education?

Just like online training and degree programs are making waves in the world of initial certification for addiction counselors, the ease and accessibility of online CE is shifting the entire process of racking up renewal hours for those credentials.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a single set of standards for how states are incorporating this new option in their requirements. For some, such as Louisiana, online CE hours are accepted basically at par with in-person CE. In others, like Idaho or Iowa, only half of your hours can be through remote courses.

Places like Alabama are getting past the controversy by looking at what really matters in CE, however. In 2011, the Alabama Board of Examiners in Counseling decided to allow online training, but at least 75 percent of CE hours, online or off, have to include real-time participation. They prioritize interaction, dialogue, and Q&A as part of training programs, but don’t distinguish between in-person and technologies like video-conferencing. That may be the future of online CE as other states work out how to make training hours most effective.

Many Addiction Counselors Have More Than One Set of CE Standards To Keep up With

Those details also lead to one of the most common questions about continuing education in addiction counseling: where can you find CE options that meet the standards for all your certifications?

That’s because most addiction counselors, at least after a few years of practice, end up with multiple certifications. Most of them are tied to continuing education for renewals. But not all of them have the same view about what is and is not appropriate CE. Some may require CE while you’re on a temporary credential, or cut your total hours due if you are licensed mid-cycle.

Some counselors even have multiple credentials issued by the same organization—you may be able to apply your CE to all of them, or you may be required to fulfill the requirements separately.

They may also demand a different number of credits, or even have different renewal periods to account for. Or, even if they average out at 40 CEUs per two-year renewal period, one organization might require you to actually clock 20 hours per calendar year while the other doesn’t care if you wait until the last minute and land all 40 a month before the paperwork is due.

How You Can Meet Your Addiction Counseling CE Commitments Most Efficiently

For example, a Wyoming Licensed Addictions Therapist (LAT) may also hold a NAADAC MAC (Master Addiction Counselor) certification. Wyoming requires 45 contact hours of continuing education every two years, but only 15 of those actually have to be in addiction-specific training.

That’s a challenge that can be met in two ways.

One option is simply to treat each obligation separately, and fulfill the requirements on their own terms. So if you needed 40 hours for your NAADAC MAC, you could obtain that from NAADAC-approved providers in the two-year window. Separately, you could stack up your 45 hours from almost anywhere, since Wyoming doesn’t have particularly strict rules about continuing ed providers.

Most counselors opt for another path, however; since any NAADAC-approved coursework will satisfy Wyoming requirements, they’ll take the NAADAC-approved courses and use them for both credentials. Further, they’ll make sure that 3 of those hours will be in ethics and another 3 in suicide assessment, since those are also obligations needed for the LAT, though not the MAC. In the end, they’ll only need to come up with an addition 5 hours to renew the LAT.

When an Hour Isn’t an Hour for Continuing Ed

Not only do various organizations not always agree on providers or timelines or other standards in continuing ed, but it’s pretty common to have different definitions for something you might have thought was pretty cut and dried: what exactly is an hour of education?

NAADAC requires that one hour of education will equal one continuing education credit. So is one contact hour of continuing education. But a CEU, or academic education unit, or one academic quarter unit, is equal to ten continuing education credits. And 1 academic semester hour is equivalent to fifteen continuing education credits.

A contact hour is actual time spent in structured learning, an equivalent of 60 real-time minutes in class, conference, or elsewhere.

A CEU (Continuing Education Unit) is seen as equivalent to ten contact hours, but may not actually involve 10 hours in real-time. Similarly, the academic semester hour equivalent should be understood as a rough equation, not an exact breakdown of the time involved.

These are merely the NAADAC standards, however, and other organizations and agencies may apply their own rules. It’s important to verify the actual hours and credit requirements as they apply to each of your credentials.

Of course, all this has to be balanced with your own needs and interests in growing your career and knowledge. There are probably some areas of content that you are interested in purely for reasons of personal growth, and not just because they happen to line up with requirements. That’s perfectly fine. With a lot of options on the table and only around 20 hours required each year, you don’t need to be hyper-efficient in picking your coursework.

Addiction Counseling Continuing Education Content

That really speaks to the fact that the contents of those articles, training sessions, and presentations is also important. Clearly, you’re not going to be able to count a class in artistic beadwork toward your addiction counseling credentials.

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Considering Quality in Your Addiction Counseling Continuing Education

Of course, the content itself is one thing; the quality of the presentation and the information provided is something else. No organization that mandates CE wants you to rely on low-quality instructors or outdated content when you are supposed to be maintaining your edge in information and skills.

So it’s also important, apart from the format and content of continuing ed courses, that they are being taught by qualified instructors and are using appropriate and verified materials.

Every state agency or board has their own secret sauce that goes into evaluating CE providers and courses.

It’s worth taking a closer look at the process that NAADAC uses to award coveted membership on its Approved Education Providers list as an example.

The requirements that these organizations must meet run through the National Certification Commission for Addiction Professionals. The guidelines for inclusion on the list are strict, running to 13 pages with 20 different articles worth of standards. They cover everything from instructor qualifications to what may and may not be claimed in advertisements for courses.

It requires courses to offer an evaluation to participants, and clearly outlines course attendance verification that can be used as proof for continuing ed purposes.

What Does Addiction Counseling Continuing Education Cost?

High-quality education costs money. But there are different ways of paying for that training. The funding doesn’t always have to come right out of your pocket.

Organizations like NAADAC and SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), as well as their state-level equivalents, provide some addiction counseling training completely free of charge. This sort of subsidized training is seen as a public benefit. It may be covered by grants and other charitable funding.

You might also be able to get free continuing education from or through your employer. In many states, large employers can get certified as approved training providers themselves. In-house education seminars you get paid to attend can count for renewal requirements.

But almost all addiction counselors end up paying for at least some of their own CE. That may be in the form of conference registration and attendance, college tuition costs, or just direct payment to commercial CE providers.

Many of the larger providers take some of the complication out of calculating all these costs and paying on a class-by-class basis by offering subscription plans. With these, you just cut a check once a year for a fixed amount. Then you can pick from a menu of the available classes whenever you need them.

The Importance of Approvals in Addiction Counseling Continuing Education

Various organizations tackle the problem of ensuring that your CE meets quality standards by pre-approving specific groups as accepted providers.

Fortunately, there is typically a wide range of these pre-approved providers. In many cases, even if you get CE from another source, you can go through a process to have it recognized.

The pre-approval process can be more specific for certain required content areas—Texas, for example, has a separate list of approved human trafficking training courses for meeting the required class on that topic needed during each renewal period.

Accredited colleges and universities are often accepted as an approved continuing education provider by state certification and licensing boards.

Other organizations extend their approvals to other organization’s approved providers… for instance, Texas’s Health and Human Services Commission may accept CE providers approved by other Texas professional boards, such as the Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists or the Board of Social Work Examiners. Other state and federal agencies also commonly respect one another’s approved provider lists.

It’s also very common for state licensing bodies to accept CE providers on the NAADAC list. For IC&RC, which doesn’t directly approve any sort of CE provider, state-affiliated boards may establish their own list of approvals.

Some state boards, like the Arkansas Substance Abuse Certification Board (ASACB), accept any formal substance abuse training approved by any IC&RC member board or national accreditation body.

In some cases, the process is actually more specific—boards may not give a blanket approval to a provider, but only to certain courses they offer. More rarely, some boards may specifically exclude certain courses or providers that don’t meet their criteria.

National CE Providers Make it Easy to Find Approved Addiction Counselor Continuing Education

It’s hard to find one-stop-shopping for continuing education services in the addiction counseling world. With all the different levels, jurisdictions, and types of certifications available, there’s rarely one single resource that you can rely on to find all the training you need to keep current.

But there are at least some ways you can minimize the time you spend looking and maximize the education you get along the way. We’re here to help you find them.

You can come at the question of getting approved CE credits from two directions:

Narrow down the CE classes and topics you are most interested in, then confirm they will count toward your recertification requirements
Start from the list of approved providers for your credentials and find courses you are interested in from those lists

There’s nothing magical about either approach, but one or the other may make more sense depending on your credentials. For example, in states that are most stringent about approvals, it makes sense to start with providers off the official list. In states that don’t have formal approvals, but only guidelines for acceptance, you can look to reputable providers and explore more freely.

We’ll list some resources you can use in either way.

The Association for Addiction Professionals

If there is one single place to start your search, it has to be NAADAC, the Association For Addiction Professionals.

First, NAADAC itself offers trainings that are almost universally accepted by other certification boards.

NAADAC Independent Study Courses – A set of comprehensive references available for self-study leading to nationally-approved CE credits
NAADAC Free Webinar Series – Addiction-specific webinars that are free for NAADAC members that offer CE when combined with an online quiz module
NAADAC Certificate Programs – Continuing your specialty studies to earn certificates such as Practice Management, Administration, and Operation in the SUD Field not only enhances your professional credentials, but also can go toward meeting CE requirements for your current credentials
NAADAC Specialty Online Trainings – Online webinar presentations that focus on specific populations or treatment techniques to extend expertise in the field, while earning a CE certificate

Next, many NAADAC organizational activities may count for continuing education both for their credentials and others. These include:

Publication in the NAADAC Magazine Advances in Addiction & Recovery earns a CE credit
Attendance at the National Annual Conference, the Advocacy in Action Conference, or regional or state affiliate conferences may all result in CE credits

Finally, NAADAC maintains a master list of all the third-party educational providers that have been approved by NCC AP. You can search the database by provider name or zip code. More than 40 state boards of addiction counseling accept NAADAC-approved courses.

NAADAC-approved providers will have a provider number issued by the organization that you can double-check on the NAADAC approvals website.

Finally, NAADAC provides a comprehensive listing of its own approvals from various states, licensing boards, and other national organizations so you can quickly check to see if their credits are accepted where you need them.

Federal Government Addiction Continuing Education Resources

Government resources often offer a free or inexpensive resource for widely-recognized CE credits. One of the major centers for locating these resources is SAMHSA’s Addiction Technology Transfer Center – which puts together presentations, webinars, print materials, and in-person training organized by ten regional centers nationwide.

National Institute on Drugs Abuse CME/CE Activities – NIDA offers resources directly for continuing ed, often specifically aimed at the current opioid epidemic, but also linking out to further resources at universities and major professional associations.

What About Continuing Education Training for Addiction Counselors Who Are Licensed in Other Professional Fields?

Addiction issues cover a lot of territory and cause problems that surface in every aspect of lives and society. It’s not surprising, then, that addiction counseling surfaces in a lot of overlapping professions like social work, mental health counseling, and marriage and family therapy. There are even states where there are multiple certification boards for addiction counselors, with separate credentials and CE requirements.

Each of these fields has its own educational standards and, usually separate, state licensing requirements. Each of them also requires continuing education to maintain competency and credentials, too.

So you will also find crossover in continuing education providers and approvals between those groups. NAADAC, for instance, is approved to provide CE by the Association of Social Work Boards. And plenty of state addiction agencies recognize CE that is provided or approved by NBCC, the National Board of Certified Counselors.

Between them, it’s easily possible to get plenty of high-quality addiction-focused continuing ed no matter what license you hold.

Private and Other Professional Association Continuing Education Providers

There is an entire cottage industry of continuing education providers that exist in every state and across the country, entirely dedicated to helping addiction counselors and other behavioral health professionals build their knowledge and skills.

All of the commercial providers in this role are too numerous to list and their approval status from state-to-state means you have to double-check them anyway.

But there are other related professional nonprofit organizations that either exist within the field of addiction counseling or in closely related fields which are commonly accepted as sources of continuing ed by addiction counseling boards. They include:

It’s also worth exploring state and local affiliates of those organizations. They may sponsor their own trainings, and are likely to be particularly tuned-in to the challenges and topics most relevant to your practice.

State-Level Resources of Addiction Counselor Continuing Education

The surest and most certain way of knowing your CE hours will be accepted is by picking pre-approved sources that have been directly listed by your state board or licensing agency, of course.

While not all states take the step of specifically putting together approved provider lists, many do. We’ve reviewed and put up links to those lists for states that have particularly stringent approval processes, complicated compliance systems, or high levels of addiction counselor employment… making your life easier once you’re licensed!

Alaska Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

Alaskan addiction counselors face unique challenges in finding continuing ed resources. The community and ACBHC have also come up with unique solutions, such as RADACT, the Regional Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor Training Program. It’s also a state where online and correspondence courses are the rule rather than the exception. The state also isn’t sticky about approvals but does offer a list of recommended resources for counselors to tap into for CE training.

Alaska Commission for Behavioral Health Certification Training Resources

California Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

As the state with far and away the highest number of substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors, as well as a slightly strange licensing setup, California fuels a constant demand for continuing education in the addiction treatment industry.

That’s because the state has three different certification organizations, each with different requirements, different approval standards, and different ways to track your CE. All three of those organizations maintain their own pre-approved provider lists:

You’ll find plenty of overlap, but not so much that you can assume that every provider approved by one California board will be accepted by all!

Connecticut Addiction Counseling Continuing Education Resources

The Connecticut Certification Board has taken an interesting path to approving continuing ed providers. While you can consult a list of approved providers on the board’s website, CCB has also formed a partnership with Trusted Provider Network (TPN) to offer a national network of approved providers.

Connecticut Certification Board Approved Providers

Florida Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

The Florida Certification Board also governs a large number of counselors and has stringent standards for CE providers. Because the organization also certifies child welfare and mental health professionals, you can’t assume that any course from any provider on their list will be accepted for addiction counselor renewals—you’ll need to make sure the coursework applies to your credential.

Florida Certification Board Approved Education and Training Providers

FCB also recognized college coursework or CE recognized by other IC&RC member boards.

Georgia Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

Georgia’s Alcohol & Drug Abuse Certification Board (ADACBGA) is generous about accepting CE from most recognized accreditors for addiction counselor education, so you shouldn’t have trouble with a NAADAC, NASW, or NBCC approved program. But each of those will also be subject to additional scrutiny before being allowed, so the organization publishes a list of approved providers with ADACBGA provider numbers that are accepted without question.

ADACBGA Continuing Education Approved Providers

Iowa Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

As noted above, Iowa requires at least half of your renewal hours to be earned through in-person learning. As an added incentive to stick with traditional courses, you’re charged a $15 CEU approval fee for online learning submissions. While the board doesn’t produce a master list of providers or courses that are approved for CE, it does have a unique way to help you clock those required in-person hours: IBC puts out an annual list of approved continuing ed classes (Zoom attendance is allowed) that don’t take that additional fee:

Iowa Board of Certification Approved Education Courses

Louisiana Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

In many ways, Louisiana has a relaxed approach to continuing education for addiction counselors. Unlike many states, all 48 hours required can be complete through remote or home study. On the other hand, the state regulatory authority does pre-approve providers. NAADAC doesn’t make the list. All other CE must have firm connections to substance abuse and addiction counseling.

Louisiana Addictive Disorder Regulatory Authority Approved CE Providers

Michigan Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

MCBAP (the Michigan Certification Board for Addiction Professionals) puts ongoing education for counselors into three buckets:

Specific: Courses focused on alcohol, tobacco, or other substance abuse issues
Related: Coursework related to SUD treatment such as skill-building, other addiction issues, or therapy methods
Not Applicable: Possibly required training in areas like cybersecurity or administration but which are not applicable to SUD counseling

At least half your renewal hours have to be specific, while the rest may be drawn from related topics. The board maintains a list of pre-approved providers offering all types of classes.

Michigan Certification Board for Addiction Professionals

New York Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

New York has notably strict standards for both certification and renewal as a CASAC (Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor), but it also devotes a lot of resources to helping people meet those standards. The Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) has a complete website that not only points you toward free online and in-person training opportunities, but also has a complete catalog of certified trainers delivering OASAS-approved curriculums.

OASAS Professional Training Resources

New York is also home to the New York Certification Board from InUnity Alliance, which maintains their own approved lists and renewal requirements. Training not on their lists is not accepted as CE. They separate their approvals into categories such as veteran supported recover, family recovery, and medication supported recovery.

NYCB Approved Renewal Training

NAADAC trainings are also accepted, with some restrictions, by both boards.

Texas Addiction Counselor Continuing Education Resources

The Texas Certification Board oversees almost 20 different credentials in mental health and addictions counseling, most of which require continuing ed for recertification. Strict standards, over 50 pages worth, govern providers, so you won’t be picking up your hours just anywhere. In fact, standards are so strict that not even every course offered by authorized providers is necessarily accepted.

Fortunately, TCB regularly publishes an updated list of approved learning providers—although you will still have to confirm that individual courses they offer are in compliance.

Texas Certification Board Approved Learning Providers

Some States Are Starting to Outsource Their Continuing Education Approval Options

Some state boards maintain strict standards for continuing ed and require you to obtain it from approved providers, but no longer provide updated lists of who those providers are. Instead, they outsource the process to third-party organizations like CE Broker.

These companies not only automatically track and submit your continuing ed records when it’s time to renew; they also connect counselors with CE providers directly that match renewal requirements. So if, for example, you are an LCDC in Ohio, you can get your training by popping over to the CE Broker Search page, entering your state and credential, and find a list of options.

By signing up through the system, you’ll also be telling that provider they can report your credits directly back to your CE Broker account. They’ll be sitting there, tallied and verified, when you are ready to submit your renewal.

How Your College Addiction Counseling Education Can Impact Your Continuing Education

You probably already noted that college coursework can often be counted toward CE requirements for many credentials. That makes life a lot easier for counselors who are working their way up the educational ladder toward the top tier of their profession.

It can already be tough to hold down a regular counseling position while keeping up with college demands. But life gets a little easier when you can use that coursework to not only advance toward another degree (and the higher level license it can unlock) but also keep your current certifications up-to-date.

In some states, a higher degree level can also reduce the amount of continuing education you will need to provide in the future, too. In the same way that a higher level degree can reduce the experiential requirements for credentials in many states, that degree can drop the amount of CE you have to provide to maintain those credentials.

In Texas, for example, the typical LCDC (Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor) is required to complete 40 hours of continuing education during each two-year licensure period. That’s right in line with the typical 20 hour per year that many states require.

But if you hold a master’s in addiction counseling or other advanced degree, that number drops to only 24 hours… 12 hours per year, cutting your time commitment almost in half.

Questions People Also Ask About Continuing Education for Addiction Counselors

If you have made your way through all this discussion and all those resources and still have a bunch of questions about addiction counseling continuing education, do not be alarmed… it’s perfectly normal to not understand everything until you have been through the mill a few times.

So we have also put together the answers to some of the questions that people most commonly ask about CE as it relates to addiction counseling credentials. Chances are, you’ll find your burning questions right here—as well as a soothing answer or two.

Do I Need a Pre-Approved Continuing Education Providers or Can I Ask for Approval After the Class?

It’s possible in almost every state or even for national credentials to ask for CE credit approval after the fact. But it’s also entirely possible that your request will be denied if the provider isn’t found to meet requirements. So it’s always safest to start with approved provider lists for your CE.

Another option is to ask the provider if they would be willing to apply for approval. Most providers are happy to have more organizations whose members they can serve if the compliance costs aren’t too high. So even if you’re the first to check from your state or board, it’s often in the best interest of trainers to reach out and take care of approvals themselves.

Can I Bank CE Hours for the Next Renewal Period if Not All Are Required During My Current Renewal?

This is a question that really depends on the state or certification board. However, in most jurisdictions, boards require that your CE be earned in the period during which you will be filing for renewal. Understandably, they are looking for you to be using CE to keep up with recent developments in addiction therapy and regulatory compliance. That’s not happening if you book in 400 hours of CE in your first year and then dribble it out over the course of your career toward license renewals.

Do I Need To Earn My CE Every Year or Can I Wait Until the Year My Credential Renews?

In sort of the opposite case from banking your CE, you may be wondering if you can hold off on taking courses until a month or two before your renewal is do and then get it all out of the way at once.

This, again, is determined by the licensing or certification board. It’s a more mixed picture than the question of banking CE hours, however. Some boards are perfectly fine with accepting CE all earned in your most recent year before renewal; in other cases, you may be expected to earn a set number of hours each year throughout the period. There’s no hard and fast rule; you’ll have to check with your agency to be sure.

What if I Have an Activity I Think Should Count for Continuing Education but Isn’t Listed Above?

Again, this is an agency-by-agency question, but it’s one where it never hurts to ask—usually ahead of time.

In states where a board oversees CE reporting, it’s likely to be made up of professional counselors and therapists, and you may have an easier time convincing them that certain professional activities are useful in furthering your education.

In states where a state agency oversees licensing, the odds are greater that CE specifications are laid down in state code somewhere, and there can be less flexibility in developing new CE activities.

Can I Use a Live Webinar To Count for CEUs in States Where In-Person Hours Are Required?

As noted above, there are some states which place limits on the amount of remote continuing ed hours you can use in your total package. But in many cases, there is a sort of loophole—many of those states will accept live, interactive online trainings as the equivalent of in-person CEUs.

As always, this is a subject where state-specific rules need to be checked and verified. But as long as your online training has a way to interact with the presenter and occurs in real time, it’s worth checking to see if it will be accepted. Naturally, all other rules about content and providers also have to be met.

If My Employer Sponsors a Training Event, Will That Count Toward My Addiction Counselor Continuing Education?

Plenty of organizations that employ addiction counselors offer their own training, which you may even be paid to attend. These trainings can often be counted toward your CE requirements.

In states with strict approval requirements, such as New York, you will even find that many larger employers are already on the pre-approved list for CE. You can check with your training coordinator and find out for sure.

In some cases, this may cover administrative or other subjects that don’t have direct relevance to addiction treatment. These classes will probably not count even if you work at an addiction center.

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