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

For a graduate trying to map out the path, New Mexico's ladder has only two licensed rungs.

The LSAA lets someone practice substance abuse counseling immediately after meeting entry requirements, but only under supervision at all times, and only within a public or private institution — not as an independent private practitioner (61-9A-5(G)).

The LADAC removes that supervision requirement for SUD practice once its own, higher bar is met, though supervision still applies if the LADAC treats a mental-health disorder (61-9A-5(F)).

The CADC from NMCBBHP sits outside this ladder — it is a private credential, not a state licence, and does not by itself satisfy the licensing requirement in NMSA 61-9A-4.B.

An LSAA applicant needs an associate degree — in counseling, a counseling related field, or a substance abuse related field from an accredited institution — plus 90 clock hours of education and training in substance abuse counseling, a relatively low bar meant for someone entering the field under supervision.

The LADAC raises that to 276 total clock hours of education, split into four blocks of 90, 90, 90, and 6 hours, paired with that same degree-field requirement at the associate, bachelor's, or master's/doctoral level.

At the bachelor's and master's/doctoral levels only, the rule attaches a condition to the six ethics hours; because its meaning is ambiguous, this page quotes it rather than paraphrasing it.

The associate-level route carries no such condition.

At every degree level, the Counseling and Therapy Practice Board may approve an applicant on a case-by-case basis even when their degree is not in counseling or a substance-abuse-related field.

For someone counting hours toward the LADAC, the math depends entirely on which degree they hold, and the rule counts two separate things rather than one.

An associate-degree applicant needs 3 years and 3,000 client-contact hours, all performed under appropriate supervision, plus a further 200 hours of appropriate supervision on top of that.

A bachelor's-degree applicant needs 2 years and 2,000 client-contact hours plus 100 hours of supervision.

A master's- or doctoral-degree applicant needs 1 year and 1,000 client-contact hours plus 50 hours of supervision.

None of these figures are rounded, and the supervision-hour figure is additional on top of the client-contact hours, not a subset of them.

Client contact and supervision hours acquired before the applicant is licensed do not count toward any of these totals.

This is the correction the research flags explicitly: New Mexico's LADAC examination requirement is NAADAC's NCAC Level I exam, not an IC&RC exam, and a candidate should not assume the two are interchangeable at the initial-licensure stage.

IC&RC's exam only comes into play for a reciprocity applicant — someone who already holds an equivalent credential from another jurisdiction — where the board accepts a passed IC&RC exam as one way to verify that applicant's competency under 16.27.11.10.C.

For an associate choosing a supervisor, the rule names a specific list of eligible supervisors: licensed professional clinical mental health counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists, licensed professional art therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, LADACs who have three years of alcohol and drug abuse experience acquired after their own licensure, psychiatric clinical nurse specialists, and licensed independent or clinical social workers.

Whichever type of supervisor an LSAA chooses, that supervisor must have experience in alcohol and drug abuse counseling — the rule states this as a blanket condition on top of the list.

An LSAA must practice under supervision at all times, and that supervision requirement continues even after the associate has completed the LADAC education and experience requirements, until the board actually issues the LADAC licence.

It is the associate's own responsibility to confirm that a chosen supervisor's supervision will be acceptable for the licence level being sought.

The statute is direct about who needs a licence: unless licensed under the Counseling and Therapy Practice Act, no person may engage in the practice of alcohol and drug abuse counseling, alcohol abuse counseling, drug abuse counseling, or substance abuse counseling as a substance abuse associate.

But the licence itself is narrower than the job title suggests.

A LADAC's services may include diagnosis of chemical abuse and chemical dependency disorders only — mental-health assessment, treatment, and diagnosis fall outside the licence, and any treatment of a mental-health disorder must be supervised by an independently licensed counselor or therapist.

An LSAA's practice is limited to supervised work inside a public or private institution, and the statute states directly that a substance abuse associate may not practice independently as a private practitioner.

The Act also exempts anyone already licensed, certified, or regulated under other New Mexico law: NMSA 61-9A-6(A)(1) excuses that person from the Act for activities consistent with the standards and ethics of their own profession.

For a clinician moving to New Mexico, LADAC licensure by reciprocity requires an application plus verification that the applicant holds a licence or certification, from another jurisdiction, that is current and in good standing and substantially equivalent to the LADAC's own requirements.

The board then verifies the applicant's exam history — either the NCAC Level I exam or a passed IC&RC exam satisfies that piece.

This is board-to-applicant verification, not a NAADAC–IC&RC reciprocity arrangement, and it is not automatic: the applicant still has to show the board an equivalent, currently valid credential.

The state board itself does not appear on the IC&RC member-board directory.

The private NMCBBHP is New Mexico's actual IC&RC member and runs a separate reciprocity path for its own private certifications: its CADC reciprocates at the ADC level, its CS at the CCS level, and its CPS at the PS level, and an AADC holder from another state enters the NMCBBHP at the ADC level.

Every licensee under this rule, including LSAAs and LADACs, must document 40 contact hours of board-approved continuing education during each two-year renewal period.

Of those, 12 hours must be in ethics related to counseling or mental health, for every licensee.

A licensee who supervises others must additionally complete 9 hours in supervision-related continuing education.

Continuing education must be obtained during the expiring licensing period, not banked in advance.

The Counseling and Therapy Practice Board itself is scheduled to terminate on July 1, 2027, under New Mexico's Sunset Act, though the statute lets the board keep operating under the Act until July 1, 2028, when the Act is repealed unless the legislature extends it before then.

The saved 2025 compilation of the New Mexico Statutes Annotated still shows both dates as currently in force, with no later extension reflected in that text — a clinician relying on this timeline should still confirm current status with the board directly, since a legislative session could change it after this page was last verified.