Substance abuse or addiction counseling isn’t your typical 9-5 job. Instead, it is a career choice that requires a lot of passion and a fierce dedication to helping others. Therefore, besides obtaining specialized training to become a certified or licensed addiction counselor, you’ll need to improve your skills to succeed in this role.
For instance, problem-solving, critical thinking, and effective communication are vital skills for such a specialized counseling role. While sometimes many people are born with these skills and traits, others have to nurture and develop them over time.
So, if you’re considering a career in substance abuse or addiction counseling, you need to know about a few common traits and characteristics every excellent counselor should have. In fact, these traits are vital to becoming an effective counselor while enjoying what you do.
So, with that in mind, let us look at a few qualities that every excellent substance abuse or addiction counselor must hone.
The appropriate education.
A counselor is not a one-size-fits-all solution to your emotional, mental, and drug abuse issues. In fact, there are various types of counselors and therapists out there for different kinds of problems. For instance, you can specialize in ‘Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment’ programs to become a certified substance abuse or addiction counselor.
These healthcare professionals receive special training, education, and experience to help individuals overcome their drug addiction issues, vital for their success in the healthcare world.
Furthermore, aspiring individuals can get verified as a counselor by their state’s regulation agency too. So, to obtain more information on how to become an addiction counselor and what education program to enroll in, consider doing some research on the internet.
A strong sense of empathy.
Empathy is an individual’s ability to understand others’ feelings. It is all about showing care, kindness, and the willingness to understand what others are feeling. That said, empathy is the heart and soul of being an excellent substance abuse or addiction counselor.
After all, to determine the underlying problems that lead to addiction, it is vital to create a safe space where patients feel comfortable talking about their feelings openly.
In addition, expressing and feeling empathy will allow you to develop meaningful relationships with your patients, allowing them to engage with you and express their emotions without feeling judged.
In the end, all substance abuse or addiction counselors must empathize with their patients as most of them know a loved one in recovery or they’re in recovery themselves.
However, you don’t need to go through the same life problems to understand what your patients are feeling and going through.
Good listening skills.
Do people tell you that you’re a good listener? If yes, you already have one of the most vital traits you require to become an excellent substance abuse or addiction counselor. After all, addiction counselors must listen to their patients to understand and gather information about their addiction issues.
However, the main aim of being a good listener is all about building trust and rapport with your patients. So, it is of the utmost importance to remain engaged with your patients and give them your undivided and full attention.
In the end, good addiction counselors are active listeners, meaning they will utilize all of their senses to process patient information. For instance, moments of brief silence, body language, or how a patient says something is every bit as important as the words they say.
Furthermore, excellent addiction counselors avoid making assumptions. Instead, they focus on understanding what their patients’ behavior means.
Cultural humility.
Excellent substance abuse or addiction counselors are always responsive to culturally different, diverse patients. So, this means developing cultural competencies that enable you to communicate and interact with individuals from varying cultures and backgrounds with dignity and respect.
In fact, as per SAMHSA (The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association), culturally responsive skills are vital to improving therapeutic relationships between care providers and patients and enhancing addiction treatment services, leading to better, more positive patient outcomes.
What’s more, cultural competency skills are valuable for employers everywhere, especially in a clinical setting.
Emotional resilience.
Resiliency is vital to adjusting to change, recovering from setbacks, and working in the face of adversity. Moreover, it is critical to both patients and the counselors themselves. So, while working as an addiction counselor, it is crucial to understand that things will not always be in your control.
In fact, seeing patients struggling with alcohol and drug addiction and battling relapse is a vital part of an addiction counselor’s job description.
So, having emotional resilience will be vital to making you more flexible, allowing you to adjust without a hassle when things don’t go according to plan during treatments.
If you aren’t resilient, you can work on building it through various resilience-building strategies. So, do it today if you want to become an excellent addiction counselor.
A strong code of ethics.
While this trait of an addiction counselor is the last one on the list today, it is the lifeblood of an effective addiction counselor. In addition, a sense of personal integrity and a robust code of ethics are vital traits for any addiction counselor to have.
After all, drug and alcohol addiction will typically cost individuals their family, job, and, most importantly, freedom.
Meaning, addiction counselors will probably have to interact and deal with individuals facing overwhelming challenges and who are at the most vulnerable points in their lives. So, to be effective in a clinical or non-clinical setting, addiction counselors must abide by ethical standards to provide their patients with healthy boundaries and a safe space for addiction recovery.
In the end, addiction or substance abuse counselors are accountable to various ethical standards and codes, including those related to the professional organizations they belong to, their places of employment, their certifications and licenses., and most importantly, their patients.
Conclusion.
The traits mentioned in this article only touch the surface when talking about the qualities of an excellent addiction counselor. However, they are vital to doing your job well. So, an individual who wants to take this career path should love education, invest time in creating written documentation, love collaborating with their patients, and form long-lasting relationships with them.
In the end, the six traits mentioned above will give you a head start to ensure you provide the best possible level of mental health support and services to your patients.
