Post-Masters Substance Abuse Counseling Experience Requirements

The following definitions apply to the experience requirement:

• Professional counseling experience means hours spent providing chemical dependency counseling services in a substance abuse counseling setting, including face-to-face interaction with clients and other services directly related to treatment of clients.
• Counseling experience means a formal, systematic process that focuses on skill development and integration of knowledge related to addiction counseling and reflects the accumulation of hours spent providing substance abuse counseling services while under the supervision of an approved clinical supervisor.
• Supervised counseling experience means an approved clinical supervisor’s oversight of a supervisee’s application of chemical dependency counseling principles, methods or procedures to assist clients in achieving more effective personal and social adjustment.
• An approved clinical supervisor must be a licensed chemical dependency professional, licensed clinical social worker, licensed psychologist, licensed professional counselor of mental health or licensed physician specializing in chemical dependency treatment.

Applicants must have at least 3,200 hours of post-Masters substance abuse counseling experience:

• At least 1,600 of the 3,200 hours must be counseling experience under the supervision of one or more approved clinical supervisors.
• At least 100 of the 1600 hours of supervised counseling experience must be face-to-face consultation between you and your supervisor. These hours may take place in individual and/or in group settings, as follows:
  • The entire 100-hour requirement may be met by individual supervision, which means one-to-one, face-to-face meetings between you and your supervisor.
  • No more than 40 hours of the 100-hour requirement may be met by group supervision, which means face-to-face meetings between you, your supervisor and up to five other supervisees.

The experience requirements listed above are in 24 Del. C . §3044 of the license law and Section 4.1.2 of the Board’s Rules and Regulations.