Preparing for Clinical Work

For more than half a century, substance use has been taught primarily through disease-based and abstinence-only models shaped by criminalization rather than clinical reality. As a result, one of the most common issues in modern practice remains siloed as a “specialty,” instead of treated as part of ordinary psychotherapy. 

What students gain ?

• Skills for handling risk and ambiguous clinical situations
• A continuum-based understanding that moves beyond abstinence mandates
• Tools for working with ambivalence, mixed goals, and gradual change
• Integration of substance-use work into ordinary therapeutic relationships

Most clinicians encounter substance use regularly—but were never trained to work with them. This course addresses that gap directly. It offers a flexible approach that helps clinicians deepen their relationship with their patients through substance use work —so real therapeutic change can happen, even when risk and ambivalence are present.

Who this is for

• Psychotherapists who feel unprepared or stuck when substance use enters the room

• Clinicians working with compulsions like phone addiction or porn use

• Practitioners seeking ethical, non-coercive ways to address risk while keeping patients in treatment

• Social work, psychology, counseling, and MFT programs
• Graduate students preparing for real-world clinical practice
• Faculty seeking to modernize substance-use education

Certification

The program is taught by Dr. Andrew Tatarsky and includes testing and an official Harm Reduction Psychotherapy for Addiction & Compulsions certification.