---
title: "Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselor"
description: "Counsel and advise individuals with alcohol, tobacco, drug, or other problems, such as gambling and eating disorders. May counsel individuals, families…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/substance-abuse-and-behavioral-disorder-counselor"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselor

**Category:** Community and Social Service · **SOC code:** 21-1011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 21-1011.00

Counsel and advise individuals with alcohol, tobacco, drug, or other problems, such as gambling and eating disorders. May counsel individuals, families, or groups or engage in prevention programs.

Also advertised as: Addictions Counselor; CADC (Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor); Case Manager; Chemical Dependency Counselor (CD Counselor); Chemical Dependency Professional; Counselor; Drug and Alcohol Treatment Specialist (DATS); LADC (Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $60,320 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $29.00/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,250 to $100,900, with the middle half between $47,560 and $78,260
- **Total US employment:** 1,035,300
- **Typical entry education:** Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +10.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 97,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 38/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 1,035,300 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,250 |
| 25th | $47,560 |
| 50th (median) | $60,320 |
| 75th | $78,260 |
| 90th | $100,900 |
| Mean (average) | $66,300 |

### Pay by state

OEWS publishes no state-level wage estimates for this occupation.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,145,900 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,270,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 124,800 jobs, or +10.9%. Much faster than average: 10.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 97,700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Attend training sessions to increase knowledge and skills.
- Counsel clients or patients, individually or in group sessions, to assist in overcoming dependencies, adjusting to life, or making changes.
- Complete and maintain accurate records or reports regarding the patients' histories and progress, services provided, or other required information.
- Intervene as an advocate for clients or patients to resolve emergency problems in crisis situations.
- Participate in case conferences or staff meetings.
- Provide clients or family members with information about addiction issues and about available services or programs, making appropriate referrals when necessary.
- Review and evaluate clients' progress in relation to measurable goals described in treatment and care plans.
- Plan or implement follow-up or aftercare programs for clients to be discharged from treatment programs.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Therapy and Counseling — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sociology and Anthropology — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Investigative (I), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 6.66 |
| I — Investigative | 3.81 |
| C — Conventional | 3.16 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.71 |
| A — Artistic | 2.59 |
| R — Realistic | 1.59 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 72.5 |
| ESFJ | 67.4 |
| ESFP | 67.0 |
| ENFP | 65.3 |
| INFJ | 62.9 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-worker) — median $60,280
- [Mental Health Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mental-health-counselor) — median $60,320
- [Marriage and Family Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/marriage-and-family-therapist) — median $66,940
- [Clinical Psychologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-psychologist) — median $100,580
- [Rehabilitation Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rehabilitation-counselor) — median $46,850
- [Healthcare Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/healthcare-social-worker) — median $67,880
- [School Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/school-social-worker) — median $59,550
- [Recreational Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreational-therapist) — median $61,960
- [Psychiatrist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychiatrist) — median $281,870
- [Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/advanced-practice-psychiatric-nurse) — median $97,550

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/substance-abuse-and-behavioral-disorder-counselor