Substance Abuse Counselor Requirements in Virginia
In a lot of states, becoming a certified or licensed substance abuse counselor is a confusing process. There might be two or more certification agencies who offer similar yet completely distinct certifications. Deciding what type of certification you need to help the people you’re most passionate about serving is a chore in and of itself.
Fortunately, though, that’s not true in Virginia.
The Virginia Board of Counseling offers three straightforward levels of licensure:
- Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioner (LSATP): the highest level of substance abuse counselor in the state who can diagnose clients and provide clinical levels of care to people with complex co-occurring disorders.
- Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC): a professional who can’t diagnose but is involved in everything from intake and counseling to long-term recovery support.
- Certified Substance Abuse Counselor Assistant (CSAC-A): a vital support role that involves helping other professionals carry out treatment plans and helping clients on their journeys to recovery.
As you might imagine, each one of these credentials comes with its own set of education and training requirements. Here’s what you need to know about each one.
Select a Virginia Substance Abuse Counselor Topic Below…
- Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioner Requirements
- Certified Substance Abuse Counselor Requirements
- Certified Substance Abuse Counselor Assistant Requirements
- The Application Process
- Endorsement
- Additional Information
Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioner (LSATP) Requirements
To become a Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioner in Virginia, you’ll need a master’s degree in substance use disorder treatment or a related field. Your degree should come from a program that’s been accredited by a regional agency and/or the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).
In total, you need to take at least 60 semester hours or 90 quarter hours of classes. You’ll need to take at least three semester hours or four quarter hours of classes on each of the following counseling-related topics:
- Counseling and psychotherapy theories
- Counseling and psychotherapy techniques
- Group counseling and psychotherapy
- Appraisal, evaluation, and diagnosis
- Psychopathology/ abnormal psychology
- Multicultural counseling
- Marriage and family systems
- Professional identity and ethics
- Research
You’ll also need to complete a total of 12 semester credit hours or 18 quarter hours of classes on five topics related directly to addiction counseling:
- The appraisal, assessment, evaluation, and diagnosis of substance use disorders
- Documentation, case management, interventions, relapse prevention, and treatment planning
- The social, cultural, psychological, and biochemical aspects of substance use disorders
- Serving specific populations such as children, seniors, and different cultural groups
- Educating communities and individual clients
In addition to classroom learning, you’ll also need to complete a 600 hour internship. The internship must include at least 240 hours of direct, face-to-face client contact. At least 200 of your direct contact hours should be focused on substance abuse treatment.
Post-graduate Residency Hours
After graduation, you’ll complete 3,400 hours of supervised residency. At least 2,000 of those hours must be spent in direct client contact. On top of that, 200 hours must be spent under direct supervision. 100 direct supervision hours can be completed in group settings.
Over the course of your residency, the Board says you need to work on some very specific skills which your supervisor will evaluate you on:
- Evaluation
- Planning, implementing, and documenting treatment
- Making referrals and coordinating client services
- Performing counseling and case management with groups and individuals
- Educating communities and clients’ families
- Navigating their ethical and professional responsibilities
If you completed more than 600 hours of internship hours during your studies, up to 300 of those additional hours can be counted towards your residency hour requirement. However, only internship hours completed after finishing 30 semester hours of classes count.
All in all, the Virginia Board of Counseling says residencies should be no shorter than 21 months and no longer than four years.
The Final Exam
The final step in becoming a Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioner in Virginia is passing the Master Addiction Counselor (MAC) Examination. The MAC Examination was created by the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC) and is used in states across the country.
The MAC Examination is made up of 150 multiple choice questions and comes with a time limit of three hours. You’ll register for it through the National Certification Commission for Addiction Professionals (NCC AP) which is the NAADAC’s testing and certification division. You can take it at a testing site or at home under the supervision of an online proctor.
Currently, the testing fee is $150. You can find prep materials on the NAADAC’s website.
Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC) Requirements
To become a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor in Virginia, you’ll need at least a bachelor’s degree. Your degree doesn’t necessarily have to be in an area related to substance use disorder treatment, but you’ll need 240 hours of training and education in that very subject.
The bulk of these hours will be spent learning about very specific topics as outlined by the Virginia Board of Counseling. Future CSACs need to receive 16 clock hours of training in each of the following areas:
- Human behavior dynamics
- Substance abuse signs and symptoms
- Counseling techniques and theories
- Case management and offering a full continuum of care
- Relapse prevention and recovery process
- Professional identity and ethics
- The pharmacology of substance of abuse
- Crisis intervention and trauma-informed practice
- Co-occurring disorders
- Multicultural competence
- Treatment planning
- Group counseling
- Assessment, screening, and prevention techniques as they apply to substance abuse counseling.
While you can complete your training hours by taking classes through organizations like the NAADAC, the National Board for Certified Counselors, and other Board-approved agencies, enrolling in a bachelor’s program is a great way to complete all or most of your training in one go.
Supervised Experience Hours
After you’ve earned at least 120 training hours, you can register for and begin your supervised experience hours. You’ll need at least 2,000 hours. You can take a minimum of a year and a maximum of five years to complete this process.
As a supervisee, the Board wants you to spend at least eight hours (160 hours total) on each of the following tasks:
- Screening and determining client eligibility for a specific program
- Intake and initial assessment
- Client orientation to a new program
- Client needs and strengths assessment
- Treatment planning and goal setting with clients
- Group and individual counseling
- Case management
- Crisis intervention
- Client education
- Referral
- Documentation, reporting, and charting
- Consultation with other professionals
On top of that, you’ll work or meet directly with your supervisor for one to four hours for every 40 hours of work you do. By the end of your supervised experience, you should have 100 hours of these supervisor-supervisee meetings. No more than half of these hours can be completed in a group setting.
The Final Exam
After finishing your supervised experience hours, you’re eligible to take the NAADAC’s National Certification Addiction Counselor Level 1 (NCAC-1) Exam. Like the MAC exam for LSATPs, the NCAC-1 is administered through the NCC AP, can be taken at home or at a testing site, and comes with a $150 testing fee.
You can prepare for this 150-multiple-choice-question exam by reviewing materials found on the NAADAC’s NCAC-1 test prep web page.
A candidate pays $50 to register supervision, $90 to apply for certification, and $120 to take the exam; the latter is paid to the NBCC.
Certified Substance Abuse Counselor Assistant Requirements
The process of becoming a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor Assistant (CSAC-A) in Virginia is similar to becoming a full-fledged CSAC except it’s a little less intense. To start, you’ll need to get your high school diploma or GED and complete 120 hours of didactic education on substance abuse counseling.
To earn those 120 hours, you can take classes through a college, university, or any of the organizations approved by the Board. You’ll need to spend a minimum of eight hours learning about each of the 13 areas CSACs do (screening, co-occurring disorders, etc.).
Next, you’ll need to complete 180 supervised experience hours covering 11 skill areas. You’ll need to spend at least eight hours on each. These are similar to the areas CSACs cover during their supervised experience, but are more focused on support:
- Screening
- Intake
- Orienting new clients to a recovery program
- Helping clients identify needs, goals, and strengths
- Carrying out treatment as outlined by a supervisor
- Case management
- Helping colleagues plan crisis interventions
- Educating clients
- Helping clients access support resources
- Charting and reporting client information
- Consulting with other professionals
Finally, you’ll need to pass the Virginia State Constructed CSAC-A test which covers the laws governing Certified Substance Abuse Counselors and Assistants in Virginia. Fortunately, this is an open-book test so you can reference regulations as needed.
The Application Process
No matter which level of licensure you choose, the application process in Virginia is similar. You’ll complete your degree, register for a temporary license to complete your supervised experience hours, then register for and take the final exam. Then, you’re ready to submit your final application and all supporting documents to the Virginia Board of Counseling. You can preview and submit those forms on the Board’s online licensure portal.
Keep in mind, though, that your residency or work experience supervisor will have to be approved by the Board. This person will need to be a licensed substance use disorder treatment professional or a psychologist, clinical social worker, or similar professional who is certified or trained in substance use disorder treatment.
Endorsement
If you’re already licensed as a substance abuse counselor in another state, Virginia’s endorsement policies make it pretty easy to get licensed there, too. Basically, if you’re coming from a state with similar requirements or are certified through the NCC AP, you’ll only have to submit proof of those credentials and a few supporting documents.
However, the Virginia Board of Counseling reserves the right to determine endorsement eligibility on a case-by-case basis. If you’re licensed in another state but didn’t take enough classes or complete enough supervised experienced hours to meet Virginia’s minimum requirements, you may have to make up the difference before getting licensed.
Additional Information
If you need help along the way or have any questions before getting started, you can reach out to the Virginia Board of Counseling by telephone at 804-367-4610.
Another great resource is the Virginia Association of Addiction Professionals (VAAP), the state’s local chapter of the NAADAC. They can help you find anything from training events to career opportunities all over the state.