Substance abuse counselor resume examples from 2025

A resume summary is your opening statement that highlights your strongest skills and top accomplishments. It is your chance to quickly let recruiters know who you are professionally - and why they should hire you for the substance abuse counselor role.

Step 1: Start with your professional title, or the one you aspire to.

Step 2: Detail your years of experience in substance abuse counselor-related roles and your industry experience.

Step 3: What are your biggest professional wins? Here is your opportunity to highlight your strongest accomplishments by placing them at the start of your resume.

Step 4: Don't forget, your goal is to summarize your experience. Keep it short and sweet, so it's easy for recruiters to quickly understand why you're a great hire.

These tips will help you demonstrate why you are the perfect fit for the substance abuse counselor position.

Your Skills section is a place to list all relevant skills and abilities. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:

1. You often need to include the exact keywords from the job description in your resume. Look at the job listing and consider which of the listed skills you have experience with, along with related skills.
2. Include as many relevant hard skills and soft skills as possible from the listing.
3. Use the most up to date and accurate terms. Don't forget to be specific.

These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some substance abuse counselor interviews.

Your employment history is arguably one of the most important parts of your resume. It shows you have experience and foundation in your field to successfully master the substance abuse counselor position. Here is how to most effectively structure your work experience:

1. List your most recent experience first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order. Employers care about your most recent experience the most.
2. Start with your job title, company name, city, and state on the left. Align dates in month and year format on the right-hand side.
3. Include only recent, relevant jobs.

Your resume is your chance to show your biggest accomplishments. Don't just list your job responsibilities, instead take the opportunity to show why you're really good at what you do. Here is how you do that:

• Start with strong action verbs like managed, spearheaded, created, etc. Your goal is to show what you did and verbs will help demonstrate your contributions.
• Use numbers to quantify your achievements. Did you save time with a new report? Increase revenue? How large was the team you managed?
• Keep it concise. You're highlighting your achievements. Consider if all details you are sharing are relevant, or can be written more efficiently.

Here are great bullet points from substance abuse counselor resumes:

Here is the best way to format your education section:

• Display your highest degree first.
• If you graduated over 5 years ago, put this section at the bottom of your resume. If you lack relevant work experience, the education section should go to the top.
• If you have a bachelor's or master's degree, do not list your high school education.
• If your graduation year is more than 15-20 years ago, it's better not to include dates in this section.

Here are some examples of good education entries from substance abuse counselor resumes:

Certifications are a great way to showcase special expertise or niche skills. Some jobs even require certifications to be hired.

Start simple. Include the full name of the certification. It's also good to mention the organization that issued the certification. Next, specify when you obtained the certification.

If you have any of these certifications, be sure to include them on your substance abuse counselor resume:

1. Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC)
2. Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (ADC)
3. Pastoral Counseling Certification
4. Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor
5. Certified Professional Counselor
6. Master Addictions Counselor
7. National Certified Counselor (NCC)
8. Master Addiction Counselor (MAC)
9. Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC)
10. Certified Domestic Violence Counselor (CDVC)