augustwest

most States require at minimum an associates degree in human services as well as state certification to be a counselor. your participation in a 12 step program, or lack thereof is irrelevant. now most treatment centers' other positions are staffed by a lot of 12 steppers for obvious reasons, mainly the jobs are appealing to such people. in my experience in 4 treatment centers(two inpatient, two out) only once was my counselor a 12 stepper. in fact the other three weren't even addicts.

karilynn27

Zorah.....
When I began my journey into sobriety I too read those lines and took them a little personal, they just plain p***** me off especially because I do suffer from mental illness. I started thinking about the time in which the book was written and it made a little more sense. Honestly, I'm probably going to be one of the slowest people ever to work the program but I'm working my program. In the beginning I was pretty much mad at the world and that took quite a while to subside. I spent a lot of time reading the threads and when I found people who seemed to have what I need I kinda followed them around a bit. The main thing is finding what keeps you from taking that drink and build on that. I wish you well and I hope you stick around. SR was the first place I found and has helped change my life.

onlythetruth

You think I'm making this up, but I am not. In fact, I recall talking to him about it. He was very proud of the fact.

Now I will say that one thing that has indeed changed since I quit drinking is that laws have been revised to require that counselors are educated (to some extent) and pass a licensing or credentialing exam.

In practice, though, this means only that there are slightly more educated people doing the work of telling people who don't care for AA that they are hopeless.

onlythetruth

That is true as well in the USA. Those folks are called "peer-counselors".

BadCompany

I work with the treatment industry from AA and if you don't have a masters degree you don't exist.The insurance companies make the rules concerning who gets to Counsel patients. only can the skid row treatment centers hire councelors with a bachelosr degree. So, unless you sobered up in the 1940's, yes you are just making this up.

RobbyRobot

Yes, they are called the same here "peer-counselors."

AlwaysGrowing

Not trying to be on a high horse here, but stick around and more will be revealed. We at any given time know or understand all the answers nor the meanings. Our views change over time.
AG

RobbyRobot

She is hardly making it up. Here in Canada, we are free to hire whom ever based on merit and life experiences. What is not allowed, is no government funds may be "directly used" to pay for the services of such folk.

The government has basic standards for the executive director and counselling staff for sure, but once those positions have been filled, the doors are wide open for hiring individuals on nothing more then as I described above. Not-for-profits have many avenues of which to secure non-government funds to accomodate their particular hiring needs.

FWIW, there is absolutely no truth in your statement that *every addictions counsellor* working in the addiction field has a minimum requirement of a master degree to be considered competent enough to work directly with clients. You're generalizing.

Certainly a master degree would be required for the executive director and other advanced positions -- but no way every counsellor actively helping addicts recover has a masters degree, okay? They can easily work on the front lines while being supervised by an individual with a masters degree.

I myself was supervised during my 2 yrs residence training by a executive holding both a Psy.D. (Doctor of Psychology) and a Ph.D. in Theology. A very talented man, my mentor for several years. He trained me in Gestalt Therapy.

Our clients were street smart street tough individuals most on either parole or probation directly to our rehab. Parole of course means their actually serving the remainder of their prison sentence in our facilities. Probation means they did not go to prison for that paticular crime, and they do a length of probation at our rehab.

These were tough guys. Manslaughter guys. Armed robberies. Guys who had already spent years in federal prison. And none of them were about to do much with some guy with a degree who knew nothing about anything of the streets and the prison life that often goes with the streets. Except of course jerk them around, bully them, and otherwise play cat-and-mouse and enjoy the drama, you understand?

So I was their direct counsellor. And they listened to me, because I was once where they were and I made it out alive, sober, and still my street smarts firing on all cylinders. Priceless. Degree not required. Life experience ruled. You can't buy my street life education, talent, and experience in any educational institute. I was recognised and accepted without the requirement for a common classic education degree.

Eventually I rose to an executive position. No degree for me, because again I was being professionally SUPERVISED. Guess I was special, hahaha. I've been called "Lucky" more then once.

circa 1980's and not the 1940's.

Threshold

I have certainly found this to be true. At any given point I have a certain level of honesty, open mindedness, willingness, understanding etc. And as I progress in recovery I become able to reach new levels of those things. I was not willfully NOT being honest, etc etc...I was truly unable before to accept, acknowledge, admit and address things that I am capable of now.

Denial is not merely saying "don't wanna see", many times it is a true inability to see. We just aren't there yet. That itself was a huge revelation to me.

I thought once I got into recovery that I knew who and what I was working with because I was "ready to be honest"...but there was and is so much I do NOT know, no matter my current willingness it takes time, effort, and a growing sense of hope and security before I can even see what needs to be addressed.

When I read/hear the quote in question, to me it speaks of the reality that some people will not be able to address what needs to be addressed to get and stay sober, in time.

Their addictions will kill them before they are able to muster what it takes to address them, and some people may be unable to address them at all. That IS unfortunate, but I think it IS also reality. Not merely that some people "don't want it badly enough"

you can want something very badly and have no clue and no skills about how to get it.

I am glad that some people have found forever sobriety. I do think that it is not useful to insist that anyone can do what they did and get their exact result, because the reality is that not everyone can do what they did, for a whole mess of reasons.

Not every person has the personality, opportunity, mentality etc to apply a certain program perfectly.

That being said, the fact that all of us found our way here, suggests we probably DO have enough going for us to find life long sobriety.

onlythetruth

I WISH I were making things up, but of course, I'm not:

How to Become a Certified Addictions Counselor | eHow.com