Substance Abuse Counselors with and without a Personal History of Chemical Dependency

Abstract

The author reviews existing research on differences between substance abuse counselors that do and do not have a personal history of chemical addiction. Following extensive database searches, 16 studies were found that addressed the issue of differences based on counselor recovery status. Conclusions are made based on the literature review and the author calls for a shift in research agendas to begin exploring differences in the counseling process of recovering and non-recovering substance abuse counselors.

Key Words:

• Recovering counselors
• non-recovering counselors
• differences in techniques
• effectiveness