| Historically, paraprofessionals and those trained outside the counseling field have provided addiction counseling services to people struggling with addictions. In 2009, CACREP introduced standardized addictions training for counselors. Within the CACREP standards, no formalized structure exists to guide addiction content integration into counselor training, thus leavingthis responsibility to counseling program faculty. Professional counselors (excluding addiction counselors) report the highest rate of clients with substance abuse/addiction (Harrawood, Kowalski, & Amen, 2004), however professional counselors historicallyhavereported feeling underprepared to deal with substance use disorders in counseling sessions (Ong, Lee, Cha, & Arokiasamy, 2008). The purpose of this study was to explore what counselor educators deem to be the most important aspect of addiction curriculum to include in a CACREP master's-level non-addiction related counseling specialization. Within this study, I recruited experts on addiction content through listservs and individual email requests. I utilized Q Methodology, a mixed method research methodology that employs by-person factor analysis to identify patterns amongst participants rather than variables. Participants sorted 42 statements on a forced choice Likert scale to identify the Most Important and the Most Unimportant aspects of addiction curriculum for counselors being trained in non-addiction specialty areas. For the data analysis, I used Ken Q (Banasick, 2020) to conduct factor analysis, extraction, and rotation to identify patterns within the data matrices. From the data matrix, I extracted three factors that highlighted the unique perspectives of participants. Factor 1 focused on a holistic approach to integrating addiction curriculum; Factor 2 involved relative importance to integrating addiction knowledge
xiinto counseling programs, and Factor 3 involved the importance ofCIT awareness and reflexivity when working with addictions populations. Results of this study suggested several areas of consensus between all participants, including specific Knowledge components that were recommended to integrate into non-addiction counselor training. These results helped to inform suggestions for the future training of counselors in non-addiction counseling specializations.Key Words: American Counseling Association(ACA), The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP), The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs-Addiction Standards, Concourse, Curriculum, Factor Analysis, Ken-Q Analysis, Mixed Method Research |