Question by Claudia: I want to be a rehab therapist what do I major in college for that?
I want to be a therapist that helps drug abused women or mothers but what do I major in college? I am currently a sophomore in high school and kind of struggling in science will that make a difference? Do I have to be extremely smart for this job because I am no where near. Please help!!

Best answer:

Answer by jannsody
I believe that you’re referring to a licensed substance abuse counselor. One may need to take college-level math while in college which may include statistics, however, I don’t believe that a counseling or social work student will need the rigorous type of mathematics such as calculus. The person majoring in counseling or social work needs to have empathy (being able to place oneself in another’s shoes) for the individual with the addiction. Communication skills and reasoning are also traits necessary for effective therapists.

A certified addiction counselor (CAC) or certified alcohol & drug counselor (CADC) needs to have gotten several hours of clinical fieldwork experience while under the supervision of a clinical supervisor and having an actual patient caseload. There are quite a few addiction counselors who are “in recovery” (from addiction/s) themselves. A lot of CACs or CADCs have a master’s degree, too.

This professional organization has more info re: certification(s) in addiction counseling: http://www.naadac.org/certification

With regard to schooling (for any field), please do *avoid* those private For-profit schools such as devry, ITT tech, strayer, university of phoenix, capella, walden, full sail, art institute, penn foster, icdc, keiser, argosy, westwood and others. Their course credits usually do ** NOT ** transfer to other schools, even if the for-profit school is regionally accredited as opposed to only nationally accredited.

This consumer site has a lot of negative posts by former students of those for-profit schools, and please heed the students’ warnings: http://www.complaintsboard.com and can search.

For U.S. colleges (though please still forgo those for-profit schools): http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ

General career info: http://www.bls.gov/ooh and can search “substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors”, “social workers”, “counselors” or such.

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