Substance Abuse Counselor Requirements in New Hampshire: Credentials, Hours and Exams

The chapter licenses two counseling tiers — LADC and MLADC — plus the Licensed Clinical Supervisor (LCS) licence for supervising them, and separately certifies the Certified Recovery Support Worker (CRSW), which is recovery support rather than counseling.

The title is protected either way: only a licensee may use the corresponding title and abbreviation.

The LCS licence is on a clock.

RSA 330-C:14 already prints two versions of its title paragraph — one in force now, one effective July 1, 2030 — and the 2030 version drops LCS entirely, matching the 2026 law that repeals the LCS licence outright on that date.

For a graduate deciding which tier to train toward, that means LCS is not a stable long-term target.

The LADC's associate-degree route needs 300 hours of alcohol and drug use education and 300 hours of supervised practical training, and the rule gives room on both: education hours can be earned inside the degree program or separately, and practical-training hours can come from inside the program, as part of the supervised work experience, or separately.

The bachelor's route keeps the same 300/300 split and flexibility, with a longer list of qualifying majors from an accredited college or university — clinical mental health, social work, psychology, substance use counseling, addiction studies, human services, 'or equivalent program.'

The MLADC needs at least a 60-hour master's degree or advanced-standing master's degree in clinical mental health, clinical psychology, substance use treatment, social work, or an equivalent discipline, 'with clinical internship and course work in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of substance use and mental health disorders, from an accredited college or university,' plus 300 education hours (which may be built into the coursework) and 300 practical-training hours.

A sub-60-hour master's in one of those same disciplines also qualifies, with board-determined added coursework.

The associate-route LADC needs 6,000 hours of supervised work experience; the bachelor's route needs 4,000.

The MLADC needs 3,000 hours of clinically supervised post-master's work experience, and the statute lets up to 1,500 of those hours come from work already done as an LADC; a current RSA 330-A licence may separately be substituted for up to 1,500 hours of the 3,000.

That means an LADC moving up to the MLADC is not necessarily starting a second, fully separate hours clock.

For an LADC weighing whether to pursue the MLADC, that offset is the number that changes the math.

New Hampshire does not write its own licensing exam.

LADC applicants take the IC&RC written alcohol and drug counselor (ADC) examination; MLADC applicants take the IC&RC written advanced alcohol and other drug counselor (AADC) examination.

Both rules route candidates to apply directly with IC&RC and have IC&RC send the board proof of a passing score, so the exam relationship runs through IC&RC even though New Hampshire itself has no counselor-level IC&RC member board.

An LADC 'may engage in practice only under clinical supervision' of an MLADC, LCS, another LADC, a psychiatric APRN, or a board-approved licensed mental health provider — RSA 330-C:11 II states no exception.

The ongoing rule needs a qualifying supervisor and at least one weekly hour of supervision while practicing.

Alc 405.01 exempts LADCs already in independent practice before July 1, 2008 who have continued in it since from Alc 405's own supervision requirements — a rule-level exemption only, not a statutory one.

An MLADC's independent practice may instead proceed with clinical supervision or 'peer collaboration' (RSA 330-C:10 II); Alc 406.01 confirms supervision is elective for an MLADC 'who chooses to engage in clinical supervision requirements.'

Peer collaboration means 'ongoing regularly occurring clinical consultation with, or small group meetings among' MLADCs, LADCs, or licensees of the boards of nursing, mental health practice, or medicine, with expertise in substance use, mental health and co-occurring disorder counseling, at which clinical issues and/or cases are discussed — consultation among peers, not supervision, so the MLADC's independent-practice route is lighter-touch than an LADC's.

The MLADC's scope covers 'the screening, assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, and treatment of substance use disorders, mental health disorders, and co-occurring disorders' — full diagnostic authority across all three.

The LADC's scope is narrower: full diagnosis of substance use disorders, but for mental health disorders only 'the screening and referral,' plus — under the clinical-evaluation performance area — 'the development of preliminary mental health disorder diagnoses for further assessment and confirmation by an appropriate professional.'

The statute otherwise excludes an LADC from treating co-occurring disorders.

There are exactly two exceptions to that exclusion: an LADC in an academic internship as part of a mental health master's program, or an LADC who is employed as a LADC and working toward mental health licensure under RSA 330-A, RSA 329, or RSA 326-B.

Outside those two paths, an LADC treating a client's co-occurring mental health disorder is operating outside the licence's scope as written.

Alc 309.01 sets one reciprocity rule with two tracks.

An applicant licensed elsewhere less than 5 years qualifies for reciprocity-based LADC licensure if they meet the conditions the rule cites as 'Alc 306.02 (a)(1) through (a)(3)' — its pre-renumbering label for today's Alc 307.02(a)(1)-(3) restitution, good-character and education criteria — have no disciplinary action anywhere in the preceding 5 years, and comply with Alc 313.01.

An applicant licensed 5 years or more submits a longer document set instead, including a reciprocity approval notification IC&RC sends the board directly, where applicable.

The section also reaches sub-60-hour-master's applicants moving toward the MLADC: they can be licensed before finishing Alc 310.02 coursework if they complete it within 5 years and notify the board; missing that window makes them ineligible for MLADC renewal but they 'shall be licensed as a LADC if the board determines that the requirements of Alc 306 have been met.'

Applicants under this section presenting proof of 5-plus years of active licensed practice elsewhere have the MLADC's practical-training (Alc 310.04) and work-experience (Alc 310.05) requirements waived.

LADCs and MLADCs renew every 24 months with 48 hours of approved continuing education.

LCSs need 6 hours of training in clinical supervision, and the statute is explicit that those 6 hours 'may be incorporated into the hours needed for LADC re-licensure' specifically — the rule names LADC re-licensure, not the MLADC's 48-hour total.

CRSWs need 24 hours.

Because the LCS licence itself is repealed effective July 1, 2030, this CE line for LCSs is repealed on the same date.

Effective September 13, 2025, chapter law 2025, 161:6 repealed RSA 330-C:6, :7, :14-a, :27 and :31 through :33.

The repealed sections' former text is not printed in the saved chapter, and RSA 330-C:27 survives only as a cross-reference inside the Alc rules — Alc 307.02(a)(1) and (2) still point to 'the acts or omissions described in RSA 330-C:27, III' for restitution and good-character review.

What paragraph III actually said, and whether it (or any other repealed section) held a practice-prohibition or an other-licensee exemption, is not established in the sources read.

Separately, 2026 chapter 224 repeals the entire Licensed Clinical Supervisor licence — its definition, scope-of-practice section, initial-licensure section, and CE paragraph — effective July 1, 2030, and RSA 330-C:14's title-protection paragraph already carries a second, post-2030 version that drops LCS.

The saved chapter has no express clause exempting other licensed professionals (physicians, psychologists, independently licensed mental health counselors or social workers) from RSA 330-C's licensure requirements, and no express "no person shall practise substance use counseling without a licence" clause either — title protection under 330-C:14 is confirmed, but a broader practice restriction is not.

RSA 330-C:27 was repealed effective September 13, 2025 with its substantive text not printed in the saved chapter.

Whether an other-licensee exemption existed there, or anywhere else in the chapter, was not established in the sources read.