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 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 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. As such, it is designed to help students develop essential helping skills needed for client engagement, follow-through, completion and overall therapeutic effectiveness. Specific skills and techniques covered include; developing rapport, building empathy and listening, encouraging trust, self-disclosure, immediacy, questioning & evoking, addressing discrepancies, etc. This course is highly experiential in its format. Students will participate in classroom exercises, real plays, and video-taping of counseling skills.

Full course description for Counseling and Interviewing Skills

This course emphasizes the experience of race and racism and how both intersect with various forms of human diversity in the helping arena. It will provide students an understanding of how power and privilege are operant in the human services. Students will examine assumptions, myths, beliefs, and biases that block effective relationships between groups of people and that hamper helper-helpee dynamics. Course activities involve self-assessment and opportunities for application of learning in a human service environment. COMPETENCE STATEMENT: Knows conceptual frameworks dealing with racial-ethnic identity, racial-cultural world views, oppression and power well enough to explore, develop, and evaluate personal responses and professional strategies to eliminate the myths, beliefs, biases, actions and efforts, that sustain social oppression in the helping professions.

Full course description for Intersection of Race and Diversity in Human Services

This course is designed to help students understand the cultural dynamics of chemical dependency counseling for diverse groups. It explores the relationship between cultural identity and the knowledge, and skills for addressing counseling issues for each cultural group. It also provides students with information on the history, cultural uniqueness, and counseling issues for the following cultural groups: African-Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, European Americans, Gay Lesbian Bi-Sexual and Transgender, Woman and Feminism, and Men.

Full course description for Cultural Considerations for Alcohol and Drug Counseling

This course teaches the dynamics of group counseling. 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 successfully perform assessment interviews and diagnosis of substance use problems. Students will learn about: the qualities of good assessment, motivational interviewing skills, the interview process, screening tools, "Rule 25", "DSM IV", placement and treatment planning. This course meets the required 30 hours of class-room training to be a "Rule 25" assessor.

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