Glad you found someone. In case others are looking, I wanted to share some thoughts.
The therapeutic relationship is essential for making meaningful change (there is a ton of research that supports this finding). Finding someone you are comfortable with is REALLY important.
Find someone who's orientation you feel like you can work with. CBT, DBT, Psychodynamic, etc. (As an FYI, the research most supports CBT as the most effective for anxiety related stuff)
You asked about what kind of therapist/degree is best.....and the answer is....it depends. I think first and foremost, the person needs to have experience and expertise in your area. Be VERY wary of anyone who says, "I handle everything". My professional bias would be to look for a clinical psychologist (PhD/PsyD), because they are the highest trained professionals in the field.
With that being said, don't be snowed by a bunch of letters after a person's name, I'd be much more likely to refer to someone who specializes in a certain area (e.g. substance abuse), then a generalist who has a PhD/PsyD. Substance abuse in particular is a very complex area, and you want to make sure whoever you see has experience in the area.
Finally.....talk to your primary care provider. They should know some locals they feel comfortable with. Rarely will a provider keep someone on file who doesn't do good work, because referrals go both ways.
Best of luck with your new person!
-p
ps.. Afraid2Succeed is completely on the money about therapy + meds as the most effective treatment. An often misunderstood anti-D idea is that suicide risk goes up on Anti-D's (ideations were reported to increase, I think it was 2%-->4%, but the attempt % did not increase). There was actually a huge spike in suicide attempts AFTER the black box warnings came out for SSRIs....not because they all of a sudden caused more attempts, but because SO many people quit cold turkey or didn't go on them, and they became suicidal OFF the medication. So