P9
May 2013
Like other GCU students who are drawn to
addiction counseling as a career, Thomas was
inspired to tackle chemical dependency issues
based on personal experiences. She saw some
family members consumed by addictions and
decided to become part of a solution.
Alcoholism and drug addiction are just two
behavioral problems addressed by counselors. Sex
addictions, eating disorders and adolescent video-
game habits are among the counseling niches
available to future counselors, although licensing
standards vary for counselors who go beyond
substance-abuse issues.
GCU’s program helped Thomas better understand
the psychology of addiction and how to
communicate with clients in a therapeutic setting.
The clients in her Calvary group therapy sessions
include mostly alcoholism cases, although cases of
heroin and prescription-drug addiction also are
common. As some clients grow frustrated, they can
lash out with angry words toward counselors.
Now she can tell the difference between authentic
rage and an unconscious reaction based on cognitive
distortion and unhealthy defense mechanisms.
“In the past, I might have been offended,” Thomas
said. “Now I don’t get offended at all. I understand
them better.”
Program began as partnership
GCU launched its addiction counseling program
in 2006 through a partnership with Rio Salado
Community College in Phoenix. The move linked
Rio associate’s degree students into a four-
year university to continue their education for
professional certification.
At the time,
Dr. Kirk Bowden
chaired Rio Salado’s
chemical-dependency program. He became
director of GCU’s professional counseling and
addiction studies program after founding the
initial partnership program. Courses he originally
wrote in 2006 have been rewritten multiple times
over the past two years, he said, to keep pace with
trends in licensing.
Bowden is involved with addiction counseling
standards and training on so many levels that
his LinkedIn page reads more like a story than a
resume. The former stockbroker serves as chair of
the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners,
as president-elect of the National Association for
Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, and on
the ethics committee for the American Counseling
Association, in addition to dozens of other
professional affiliations.
Bowden suggested the culture of metro areas such
as Phoenix has partly led to the higher demand
for counselors. Metro Phoenix is known as a place
where many residents resettle from other parts of
the U.S. Bowden believes too often people with no
close friends or family turn to substances first, or
fail to understand the nature of their habits, rather
than seeking meaningful emotional support.
“(More) people in the old days had a pastor or
rabbi … someone to share their issues with,”
Bowden said. “Now people don’t have that same
kind of thing. When they have issues, they don’t have
close friends they’ve grown up with. They don’t have
a pastor they’ve gone to at the same congregation
for 10 years that they feel comfortable with.”
Bowden said he felt drawn toward his psychology
graduate studies later in life because he wanted to
learn “how people thought, why they did the things
they did.”
With increased demand for trained counselors
in both public and private sectors, he said it
was critical for GCU to continue to update its
curriculum. He oversees the master’s program,
which now enables students in 40 states to
complete their practicum work in their hometowns
as they earn degrees online.
Launching pad for careers
Ellen Roy-Day
oversees GCU’s counseling
bachelor’s program. She helped Bowden write
some the earliest coursework for GCU and gutted
the curriculum as part of the recent overhaul to
comply with national guidelines.
The bachelor’s program coursework “may qualify
graduates to meet the standards for state, national
and international certification/licensure for
professional prevention specialists and treatment
counselors/providers,” according to a program
overview. But many undergraduates transition
immediately into the 36-credit-hour addiction
counseling master’s program to earn the chance to
practice independently, Roy-Day said.
Roy-Day also worked in finance before launching
her career of more than 20 years as a counselor in
both clinical and private-practice settings. Now,
she teaches everything from an introductory
campus course to an online counseling theories
course at GCU.
She said the new curriculum only generally mirrors
the old program, which would have left students
struggling to meet requirements for licensing in
some states. Bachelor’s students can get licenses
in some states as an associate substance-abuse
counselor, although they are limited to jobs in
education, and as well as to hospital behavioral-
health tech jobs, until they earn a master’s.
“We wanted to update (the curriculum) and make
it a little more cutting-edge, have it include a lot
of new theories,” said Roy-Day, who specializes in
treatment of psychological trauma for emergency
first-responders and military personnel.
Even with an addiction counseling master’s,
students can only really focus on treating substance
abuse. GCU’s professional counseling degree
program helps students build toward certification
as licensed professional counselors, to work on
everything from couples therapy to post-traumatic
stress disorder and gambling addictions.
As GCU counseling faculty understand, the scope
and need for thoughtful professional counselors is
so great that students have plenty of options for
career development.
■
GCU counseling graduate student Kara Thomas (left) speaks with therapist Valerie Fink-Sierra in a room at
Calvary Addiction Recovery Center, where Thomas leads intensive group therapy as part of her master’s practicum.
Photo by Darryl Webb
