How can we make the jobs of substance abuse counselors easier?

Cailyn Green, Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at SUNY Empire State University, examines one resource designed to do so.

Cailyn Green, MS, Ph.D., Masters-CASAC is the Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies at SUNY Empire State University. Her research in the substance use field a supported by her past clinical experience.

She earned her BA degree in psychology from Wester New England University, her MS degree in forensic mental health from Sage Graduate School and her Ph.D. in criminal justice with a specialization in addiction science from Walden University. Dr. Green is also a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor in New York State. Dr. Greens area of expertise is supporting clinicians who work in the addiction field to best serve their clients. She spent her hands on clinical time working directly with the recently incarcerated population.

Group Counseling Workbook Open Education Resource

The Group Counseling Workbook was created to offer clinical counselors a free resource they can use to make their jobs a little bit easier. This workbook was first written for active counselors in the field and it can be used as an educational component for trainees, interns or new counselors as well as seasoned counselors. The Group Counseling Workbook is a free open education resource that anyone can download and change under its Creative Commons publication. 

This workbook was developed based on research I conducted investigating what resources could help our substance use counselors do their jobs. The research involved 15 participants who were all actively working as counselors in the substance use field. Their experience included working in inpatient, outpatient, residential and detox facilities. Their education ranged from associates degrees to masters degrees and years of working in the field varied from 1 to42 years. Participants who completed the qualitative interviews reported that lack of time and lack of free resources created stress in their daily work. They identified that they would use a group counseling resource to help them facilitate strong clinical group sessions.  

The goal of this Group Counseling Workbook is for counselors to use it for free, but also to hopefully send additional group counseling activities so we can continue to grow this free resource. This resource is being housed in the SUNY Empire State University online library. This free resource should lighten the workload for our substance use counselors who are actively working in the front lines.   

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Group Counseling Workbook

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