Alcohol and Drug Counseling BS

This course is designed to acquaint the student with physiological, psychological, and sociological aspects of commonly abused psychoactive drugs and their effects. Topics covered for each category of psychoactive drug include: general information, incidence and prevalence, mechanism of action, specific psychological and physical effects, and treatment approaches.

Full course description for Pharmacology of Addictive Drugs

This course is designed to be an overview of the practice of Alcohol and Drug Counseling. It covers the main theories or models which explain what chemical dependency is. It also provides a survey of the practice of alcohol and drug counseling, including history, licensure requirements, 12 core functions, continuum of services, culture, evidence-based practices, laws, ethics and professionalism. An orientation to the Alcohol and Drug major will also be provided.

Full course description for Introduction to Substance Use Disorders

This course will focus on how prevention practitioners can design and implement scientifically defensible prevention principles, programs and practices that meet the needs of their own communities. The course will examine science-based prevention and its relevance, the theoretical approaches to evidence-based prevention, and identify effective prevention principles, programs and practices. Special emphasis will be placed on adapting evidence-based models to meet local needs and interests. Successful completion of the course will qualify students for certification as a Certified Prevention Professional (CPP) through the Minnesota Certification Board.

Full course description for Prevention of Substance Use Problems

This course introduces students to basic counseling skills to be used with clients dealing with a variety of issues including family challenges and substance use disorders. As such, it is designed to help students develop essential helping skills needed for client engagement, follow-through, completion and overall therapeutic effectiveness. It includes examination and practice Person-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing, techniques central to helping others across a range of issues including substance use disorders. Specific skills covered include developing rapport, building empathy and active listening, encouraging trust, self-disclosure, immediacy, questioning and evoking, addressing discrepancies, etc. This course is highly experiential in its format. Students will participate in classroom exercises, role plays, and video-taping and self-assessment of counseling skills.

Full course description for Counseling and Interviewing Skills

It is important for human service practitioners to understand the relationship between practice and research. According to social psychologist, Kurt Lewin, the best practice is founded in research and the best research is grounded in practice. Acknowledging this insight, this course will engage students in an examination of research as it is employed in the human service field. The primary focus of this course is to teach students how to be critical consumers of research, able to read, evaluate, and apply research for human service practice purposes. A second purpose is to develop students skills for their future role as collaborators with researchers in generating knowledge from the field. This course can serve as a companion course for the program evaluation offering or a foundations course for students interested in pursuing graduate study or a preview course for those intending to take social or behavioral science research methods courses.

Full course description for Understanding and Using Research for the Practitioner

This course brings students an understanding of race and racism while it explores the cultural dynamics of alcohol and drug counseling for diverse groups. It examines the intersection between cultural identity and the knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for addressing unique counseling issues for different cultural groups. The class reviews the history of how racist agendas have shaped the fabric of the systems that serve our clients. Students review the concept of white privilege and how it is reflected in the disparity of treatment opportunities. It also provides students with information on the history, cultural distinctiveness, and counseling concerns for the following cultural groups: African-Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, European Americans, Lesbian Gay Bi-Sexual and Transgender, Women and Feminism, and Men.

Full course description for Racial and Cultural Considerations for Alcohol and Drug Counseling

This course teaches the dynamics of group counseling to be used with clients dealing with a variety of issues including family challenges and substance use disorders. Course includes examination and practice of Person-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing techniques central to helping others across a range of issues including substance use disorders. Students learn the skills of group counseling in a classroom and Training group experience. Topics include stages of group, group rules and goals, group leader skills, and types of groups. Students learn writing and charting skills necessary to document client progress. Emphasis is on interaction among group members, the counselors¿ role in group facilitating, and techniques to help group members learn to view their own behavior for self-awareness and self-disclosure.

Full course description for Group Counseling

Significant numbers of chemically-dependent individuals have one or more mental disorders. This course is designed to help the alcohol and drug counselor to become more familiar with the most common mental disorders, the interrelationship between mental disorders and substance abuse, and various counseling methods and treatment approaches for the dually disordered client. This course covers the main features of the most common mental disorders, how they interact with substance abuse, assessment and counseling approaches, medications used for treatment, and community resources used to help these clients.

Full course description for Co-Occurring Disorders: Substance Use and Mental Health

This course is designed to teach students the knowledge and skills necessary to perform effective assessment interviews and diagnose substance use problems. Students learn about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), screening tools, assessment techniques, motivational interviewing, placement, and treatment planning.

Full course description for Assessment of Substance Use Disorders

This course provides students with a beginning understanding of the essential components of successful case management for alcohol and drug counseling. That is, the activities which a counselor engages in to bring services, agencies, resources, and people together within a planned and coordinated framework of action toward achievement of established clinical goals. Specifically the course will focus on, the theory of case management for alcohol and drug counseling, related state and federal laws, the Twelve Core Functions, the Rules of Professional Conduct, and the practice of clinical writing.

Full course description for Case Management for Alcohol and Drug Counseling

This course's goal is to improve outcomes in the practice of alcohol and drug counseling by linking scientific research to treatment practice. As such, the course explores current best practices in alcohol and drug counseling, such as transtheoretical stages of change, motivational enhancement techniques, and so on. The student also selects, researches, and completes a study project, which explores an evidence-based approach to alcohol and drug counseling, in depth. Counseling skills are practiced in this course.

Full course description for Best Practices in Drug and Alcohol Counseling

This course is the culminating experience for seniors, who are majoring in alcohol and drug counseling. In this course students reflect on their academic course of study and demonstrate the relationship between what they have learned and how they apply this to the professional practice of alcohol and drug counseling. In addition, students analyze and explore agency management systems which complement their practice of alcohol and drug counseling. This course is a combination of Senior Seminar in Alcohol and Drug Counseling and the Human Services Capstone. Prerequisite: Completion of at least 28 credits in the alcohol and drug counseling major, must have been completed or is currently or enrolled in an internship.

Full course description for Senior Seminar: Alcohol and Drug Counseling