Substance Abuse Counselor Requirements in Michigan: Credentials, Hours and Exams

Michigan issues no substance abuse counselor licence, and the sources read found no statute or rule creating a credential requirement.

The obligation is MDHHS policy: across the PIHP publicly funded network, its Substance Abuse Treatment Specialist definition lists the routes that satisfy it — an MCBAP or IC&RC credential from the chart (CADC-M, CADC, CAADC, CCJP, CCDP, CCDP-D), a registered development plan, a time-limited PIHP exception plan (120 days initially), an approved alternative certification (UMICAD, ASAM for medical doctors, an APA addiction specialty for psychologists), or licensure as an MD/DO, PA, NP, RN, LPN, LP/LLP/TLLP, LPC/LLC, LMFT/LLMFT or LMSW/LLMSW/LBSW/LLBSW holder working within the licence's specified scope.

Every MCBAP rung is a private certification from an IC&RC member board, never a state credential.

The reach is also bounded: MD/DO/PA/NP/RN/LPN staff not providing treatment beyond their licence's scope are Specifically Focused Treatment Staff needing no MCBAP credential, and case-manager, recovery-support and ancillary staff need no MCBAP certification but must be supervised by MCBAP-certified staff.

Whether anything is required outside the publicly funded network: not located in the sources read.

The CADC rests on a high school diploma or GED plus 300 education hours — 180 specific to SUD, up to 120 related and/or specific, and 6 of ethics — all within the previous 10 years of application; keep attendance certificates, since the document sets proof-of-attendance requirements.

Development plans carry their own entry education: 6 hours of ethics within 90 days (3 on professional boundaries, 2 on the ethics code and 1 on 42 CFR Part 2 confidentiality), and DP applicants attest they will complete 180 SUD-specific and 120 related hours and pass the IC&RC exam to earn the full CADC.

The CAADC requires a master's or higher in an approved discipline plus 186 education hours with the same 180 SUD-specific and 6 ethics split.

Work-experience hours scale with education: 6,000 at the high school/GED floor, 5,000 with a listed associate degree, 4,000 with a listed bachelor's, and 2,000 with a master's or higher in an approved discipline — all providing counseling to those with SUD.

Hours must have occurred within the last 10 years, paid or volunteer, and one year of full-time work equates to 2,000 hours, so the high school floor represents three years of full-time counseling work and the master's floor one.

Approved disciplines at the associate and bachelor's levels include counseling, psychology, social work, addiction studies, art therapy, marriage and family therapy, criminal justice, human services, nursing, public health and sociology.

The CAADC takes 2,000 hours within the same 10-year window.

The CADC examines with the IC&RC ADC exam and the CAADC with the AADC; the CCJP-M is the only credential whose applicants are exempt.

Education, work experience and the exam must each fall within the previous 10 years of application.

Candidates register at least 6 weeks before the exam date and choose remote or in-person testing.

A failed attempt carries a 90-day wait before retesting.

Once an application is complete, an MCBAP Certification Specialist reviews it within 42 business days, with any requested updates due within 45 days — so build the calendar around both windows.

CADC supervision runs from 300 hours at the high school/GED floor to 250 with a listed associate, 200 with a listed bachelor's and 100 with a master's or higher, spread across the IC&RC performance domains with a minimum of 10 hours in each.

For hours toward the full credential, the supervisor must hold one of the listed credentials: CCS-DP, CCS, CCS-M, LMSW, LPC, LP or LLP — so both MCBAP clinical supervisors and certain state licensees can sign.

Development-plan supervision is narrower: the DP application requires that the SUD supervisor hold the CCS, a CCS-M or a CCS development plan — the MDHHS policy words it as a supervisor with a CCS-M, CCS or a DP-S — so the LMSW/LPC/LP/LLP options do not sign for a DP-C holder.

For a candidate choosing a placement, the check is concrete: confirm before starting that the prospective supervisor holds the credential your route needs, because hours signed by anyone else do not count.

MCBAP certification is a credential, not a licence, and carries no scope of practice of its own: the policy says MCBAP's requirements do not replace or supersede state licensure scope-of-practice and supervision requirements for health professionals such as social workers, counselors and psychologists, and MDHHS separately requires PIHP providers to recognize and comply with those state requirements.

Within the network, all services provided by a Substance Abuse Treatment Specialist or Practitioner must be performed under appropriate supervision for billing to occur.

Whether the certification itself carries diagnosis authority: Not stated in the sources read.

Practically, an MCBAP-certified counselor who also holds an LMSW, LPC or similar licence practises — and diagnoses, where that licence authorizes it — under that licence's scope, not the certification's.

MCBAP is Michigan's IC&RC member board, and its counselor certifications are the IC&RC credentials: the CADC maps to the IC&RC ADC and the CAADC to the AADC.

A counselor credentialed by another IC&RC member board therefore moves through MCBAP's reciprocal process rather than any state endorsement — Michigan has no state licence to endorse into.

At initial application, MCBAP requires that applicants live or work in Michigan at least 51% of the time.

Credentials from bodies outside IC&RC do not transfer by reciprocity; NAADAC-issued credentials are not IC&RC reciprocal, and the policy's only named equivalents are UMICAD for treatment, CHES for prevention, ASAM for medical doctors and an APA addiction specialty for psychologists.

Every MCBAP credential expires either two or three years from the date of certification.

On your first Certemy renewal you choose the cycle and are permanently locked into it: 60 CE hours on the three-year cycle or 40 on the two-year, at least 50% specific to the credential's performance domains, no course counted twice within 12 months, and home study acceptable for 100% of the hours.

Renewal fees are $145.00 for a two-year and $200 for a three-year renewal, waived for professionals over 65 with documentation.

A 180-day late window allows renewal with 20 hours of CE per year since the last period began, a re-signed Code of Ethics, the renewal fee and a late fee; after 180 days the credential is lost and you reapply as if you never held it.

CCS and CCS-M renewals additionally require a current active CADC or CAADC and 3 hours per year in the clinical supervision domains.

The operative MDHHS policy took effect 2022-10-01, just before this series' 2023 amendment window, and no later policy version appears in the sources read.

MCBAP's credential requirements document carries a September 2026 upload date, so the board's figures on this page are the current ones as read.

The development-plan page adds the structural rule most likely to surprise new entrants: applicants without a degree in behavioral health must first hold MCBAP CPRM certification or an MDHHS State Certified Recovery Coach certification for at least two years before becoming eligible for the CADC development plan.

Two limits define this page.

First, the requirement is funding policy, not law: it binds the PIHP publicly funded network, and whether any credential is required to practise SUD counseling in private-pay settings is not located in the sources read, nor is any state statute or administrative rule.

Second, the development plan is employment, not a credential: employer-specific, non-transferable, and not renewable, with eligibility barred for those who already hold an MCBAP specialty credential or have held the same DP in the past 7 years.

If you change employers you must notify MCBAP to pause the plan and refile with the new sponsor, which may not change the expiration date.

MCBAP does not require a DP to obtain a full credential — direct CADC applicants skip it — and an expired DP can put employment in jeopardy, since the policy no longer treats it as meeting the requirement.