How To Become A Substance Abuse Clinician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a substance abuse clinician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Ron Precht,

Dr. Chantrelle Varnado-Johnson

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a substance abuse clinician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.11 an hour? That's $50,155 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 64,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a substance abuse clinician?

Ron Precht

Senior Manager, American Massage Therapy Association

Generally, metropolitan areas have had more openings for massage therapists. This is a report from the end of 2019 that has the most recent data we have available. Report

ScoreSubstance Abuse ClinicianUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $50,155

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.9

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.86%

Asian 4.56%

Black or African American 11.43%

Hispanic or Latino 15.39%

Unknown 4.56%

White 63.21%

Gender

female 70.80%

male 29.20%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

9.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.9

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a substance abuse clinician

Explore substance abuse clinician education requirements

Most common substance abuse clinician degrees

Bachelor's

51.6 %

Master's

38.6 %

Associate

6.3 %

Start to develop specific substance abuse clinician skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	30.02%
Substance Abuse Treatment	11.43%
Patients	5.67%
Substance USE Disorders	4.12%
Community Resources	3.10%

Complete relevant substance abuse clinician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New substance abuse clinicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a substance abuse clinician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real substance abuse clinician resumes.

Research substance abuse clinician duties and responsibilities

Provide clinical assessments, psychotherapy, and case management for patients and clients recovering from mental health disorders and substance addiction.
Provide individual and group treatment and rehabilitation for youth diagnose with substance abuse and co-occurring disorders.
Provide all forms of intervention, from assessment to aftercare, to patients suffering with substance-relate, psychiatric and co-occurring disorders.
Facilitate psychoeducational and rehabilitation groups using standard group techniques.

Prepare your substance abuse clinician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your substance abuse clinician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a substance abuse clinician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable substance abuse clinician resume templates

Build a professional substance abuse clinician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your substance abuse clinician resume.