The Perfect Substance Abuse Counselor Resume Writing Tips

Do you want to apply for a Substance Abuse Counselor position to help you get closer to your career goals? Applying for jobs on Seek, LinkedIn, and other job boards can be a time-consuming process, however, to streamline the process, you can ensure your resume writing helps you to stand out from the crowd, and your online profile helps you to get an interview!

If a recruiter or hiring manager are looking for a Substance Abuse Counselor, they are searching for specific transferable skills. With less than ten people being interviewed for the job and hundreds of people, just like you, applying, The Perfect Resume team have created Resume Writing Tips to help you stand out from the others.

What do recruiters look for in a Substance Abuse Counselor resume or an online profile?

Tailoring your resume to a Substance Abuse Counselor position is mandatory today to ensure that your application will pass Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). In doing so, your resume will be read by the prospective employer. Then, fingers crossed, you will be shortlisted as a potential candidate and be called for not one, but multiple job interviews!

Firstly, before you apply to be a Substance Abuse Counselor, you need to be acquainted with what a Substance Abuse Counselor does!

Substance Abuse Counselors handle the alcohol, substance, drug, and behavioral addictions.

Hiring Managers are looking for a compassionate and dedicated Substance Abuse Counselor to assist in evaluating and treating patients’ mental and physical health and providing support to addicts and their caregivers.

To be successful as a Substance Abuse Counselor, you should have knowledge of necessary Healthcare and Medical procedures, be open to learning, and have strong communication skills. Ultimately, a high performing Substance Abuse Counselor should be able to achieve practical treatment and recovery plans and excellent clinical knowledge.

Knowing this, your resume and online profile should include the hard and soft skills that the recruiter or hiring manager is looking for in a candidate.

The Substance Abuse Counselor position description template will also contain pivotal information about what the candidate will need to do daily. Such as:

• Managing all aspects of a case from date of entry to date of discharge.
• Evaluating patients' physical and mental behaviors.
• Developing appropriate treatment and recovery plans.
• Facilitating individual and group therapy sessions.
• Monitoring patients over time to access treatment progress.
• Collaborating with psychiatrists, doctors, nurses, social workers, and departments of correction.
• Identifying behaviors that interfere with treatment and recovery.
• Assisting primary caregivers to manage addiction-related behavior.



You will also have some requirements and personal attributes that you will need to demonstrate in your resume to ensure your potential employer will take your application seriously, such as:

• Associate degree in chemical dependency counseling, or a bachelor's degree with coursework in chemical dependency.
• Master's degree in counseling preferred.
• Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), or similar.
• Previous experience with the treatment of substance abuse disorders.
• Familiarity with electronic health record systems like AVATAR would be advantageous.
• Experience with co-occurring health and mental health problems.
• Application of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services’ (SAMHSA) best practice indicators.
• In-depth knowledge of drug and alcohol testing to monitor treatment plans and medical instructions.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.


You may also want to do some industry research to find out what other companies want in their Substance Abuse Counselors.