Addiction treatment counselors are an understudied group. Little is known about the motivations to enter this challenging line of work, and still less is understood about their training and socialization. Though the occupation has yet to become fully institutionalized, there is an on-going effort by the treatment industry to professionalize this occupation by creating standards for training and a systemized base of knowledge. The proposed research will chart the varied career paths of addiction treatment counselors, concentrating on the decision to enter the occupation and the subsequent socialization processes. In addition, these career paths will be situated within the context of the movement towards professionalization. This context of increasing professionalization, and the barriers and challenges in achieving this goal, represent the backdrop for individuals working with addicts. Data will be collected using multiple methods. Qualitative semi-structured interviews will be conducted with addictions counselors in order to gather information regarding the interviewer's understanding of their career choice and the training process. Categories developed from these qualitative interviews will inform the development of a quantitative mail survey about the various career trajectories within the field of addictions counseling. This supplemental data will allow for a more generalizable understanding of addictions counseling, thereby validating the interview data. To explore the broader context of the struggle for professional status and external threats to this desired achievement, textual data will be analyzed from NAADAC's journal, The Counselor: A Magazine Addiction Professionals. These multiple sources of data will enhance our knowledge of addiction counseling as a career within the broader context of substance abuse treatment.
