1. Background
With significant global incidence, substance addiction or behavioral addiction is challenging to cure and has a high relapse rate. It affects the patients’ physical and mental health, academic performance, career achievements, family relationships, and social lives. To help the patients and their families, there is an urgent need to develop a competent counselor workforce with theoretical knowledge and psychotherapy approaches for addiction treatment.
During the past decades, a number of psychological and behavioral interventions have been developed and validated. More and more staff have been well-trained and devote themselves to the prevention and treatment of addiction. Therefore, the training of qualified psychological counselors for addiction treatment has come of age. With permission from the Asian Association for Substance Abuse Research (AASAR), the Training Program on Addiction Treatment for Psychological Counselors is conducting.
2. Objectives
To enable trainees to master the theories and techniques related to addiction psychotherapy and become qualified counselors (junior-, intermediate-, and senior-level personnel) for addiction treatment, who are competent to help the patients and their families.
3. Training Contents
(1) The fundamental theories of addiction treatment
Including (1) the basic concepts and mechanisms of addiction, (2) causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and evaluation of different addictive behaviors.
(2) Improving the patients’ mental energy
Including individual psychotherapy and family therapy. Individual psychotherapy session mainly includes positive psychology, neuro-linguistic program (NLP), and expressive art therapy. Family therapy session includes basic theories and approaches of family therapy, the Satir model, and family constellations.
(3) Improving the patients’ readiness to change
Including theories and techniques for helping the patients to improve their readiness to change.
(4) Improving the patients’ coping skills
The training session of coping skills is adapted from cognitive-behavioral therapy, set to help the patients deal with high-risk situations. This session mainly includes skills of quitting drugs, management of negative emotions, and social and living skills.
(5) Desensitization
Including the theories and approaches such as memory reconsolidation, retrieval-extinction procedure, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), Vipassana, hypnotherapy, and NLP.
(6) Psychotherapy in drug rehabilitation centers
(7) Psychotherapy for alcohol addiction
(8) Psychotherapy for tobacco addiction
(9) Psychotherapy for internet addiction and mobile phone addiction
(10) Psychotherapy for addiction in Macau
(11) Basic theories, knowledge, and skills of psychology (Note: trainees without the certificate of the psychological counselor or those who have not received psychology training must participate in this session)
4. Types and Location
(1) Online training: Theoretical learning and part of treatment techniques learning.
(2) Offline training: The sessions which required practice. The training location will be arranged flexibly according to the actual situation.
5. Trainers
Zengzhen Wang, Professor（王增珍，教授）
Min Zhao, Professor（趙敏，教授）
Hong Zeng, Professor（曾紅，教授）
Ni Fan, Professor（範妮，教授）
Xiaochu Zhang, Professor（張效初，教授）
Tifei Yuan, Professor（袁逖飛，教授）
Jing Shen, Senior Psychological Counselor（申靜，高級心理咨詢師）
Pu Jiang, Senior Psychological Counselor（江普，高級心理咨詢師）
Zhanrui Liu, Standing Committee Member（劉展瑞，常務委員）
Peihua Chen, Certified Supervisor（陳佩華，註冊督導師）
6. Training Fee
All trainees need to pay a training fee. AASAR members can take advantage of discounted pricing. Of the training fee, 10% of the gross income will be used as the cost of management and the production of the certificate. The rest will be used as the training program’s expenses, including the learning materials, tuition, teaching assistant, tea break, venue service, venue rental, examination, etc.
7. Certification
Junior-level: Paper-based test.
Intermediate-level: Paper-based test and submission of a written counseling case report.
Senior-level: Paper-based test, submission of a written counseling case report, and on-site case counseling (40 min).
8. Issuing of Certificate
AASAR will issue the certificates (junior-, intermediate-, and senior-level). All the certificates are available online.
9. Issuing Unit
Asian Association for Substance Abuse Research (AASAR)
10. Training Hours
Two-hundred hours in total. One year. Eleven classes with one class per month and 3-4 days in each. Sixty hours in the session of Basic theories, knowledge, and skills of psychology.
11. Training Time
One round of training every year.
The first round: November 2020 - December 2021.
12. Preparations
Preparation of training materials, materials printing, equipment preparation, online booking, venue, and other materials preparation.
13. Training management
General manager: Zengzhen Wang（王增珍） Professor, Vice Director-General of AASAR, Chairperson of Expert Committee on Psychotherapy for Drug Addiction
The Person in charge of operations: Jing Shen（申靜） Senior Psychological Counselor, Member of AASAR, Standing Committee Member of Expert Committee on Psychotherapy for Drug Addiction