Today’s counselor educators must not only attend to the student learning objectives articulated in CACREP 2016, but also meet the rigorous demands of the counseling field. Counselor educators must ensure that their students meet addiction-related core competencies, to ensure that future practitioners are prepared for working with individuals with both addictive and co-occurring disorders. Educators and supervisors alike have an ethical responsibility to educate students and supervisees on the importance of providing interventions which promote wellness of the individual and community. Utilizing a harm reduction perspective, counselor educators are assured that they will exceed CACREP 2016 core addiction-related competencies while also meeting the rigorous demands of the addiction counseling field. This presentation aims to provide a comprehensive outline of harm reduction as a public health model of addiction, influencing governmental policy, counseling practice and theory, and altering the ways in which we conceptualize and contextualize addictive disorders. Participants will be provided artifacts and examples of a harm reduction curriculum which may be implemented in the classroom environment or utilized with supervisees.
