Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course will be conducted in-person Cascade Campus, Jackson Hall 106 on Wednesdays, from 6:00 pm to 7:50 pm, January 7th – March 18th, 2026. Assignments are due at the beginning of each class.

While optional, it’s important to offer occasional one-on-one Zoom sessions to connect and check in. Scheduling these can be challenging, but if you’d like to meet, please reach out by email at guadalupe.aragon@pcc.edu. Be sure to include your first name and AD 270B in the subject line of every email for the quickest response. I’ll do my best to respond within 24–48 hours, Monday through Friday.

Course Description

This course focuses on combining different elements to create a new unified whole, academic preparation with real-world addiction counseling experience. Together, we will explore counselor self-care, healthy work practice, professional ethics, and ongoing professional development.

AD 270B serves as a reflective and supportive seminar space alongside your practicum (AD 270A), giving you a place to process your field experiences, deepen your clinical understanding, and connect classroom learning to client work in meaningful ways.

An audit option is available.

Required Materials

Required Text: TIP 21Addiction Counseling Competencies

Suggested Text: TIP 52 Clinical Supervision and Professional Development of the Substance Abuse Counselor

Learning Focus

Over the course of the term, we will:

• Integrate knowledge from previous coursework with your practicum experiences in the field.
• Discuss the importance of counselor self-awareness, boundaries, and ethical practice.
• Explore professional relationships, including the role of supervision, collegial support, and the value of having a personal therapist.
• Develop evolving professional development plans to stay current in the rapidly changing addiction counseling field.

Identify and apply self-care practices to support longevity and resilience in your counseling career.

Upon Completion

You will be able to:

• Identify and utilize professional resources to stay informed and relevant in the addiction counseling field.
• Create and maintain a personal and professional development plan to ensure continued growth.
• Differentiate between peer, supervisory, and therapeutic relationships, essential to healthy professional practice.
• Identify, establish and articulate clear boundaries and ethical conduct in to maintain appropriate relationships with clients and colleagues.
• Develop and practice an intentional self-care plan with clear, actionable goals to sustain personal well-being, resilience, and professional effectiveness as an Alcohol and Drug Counselor.

Assessment

Evaluation will be based on a combination of reflective journals, class participation, projects, and presentations. Your active engagement in class discussions and willingness to connect course concepts to your practicum experiences are essential to your success.

The Big Goal

By embracing counselor self-care, ethical awareness, and ongoing professional growth, we strengthen our ability to serve others with clarity, compassion, and authenticity. This course provides the foundation to build a sustainable, heart-centered counseling practice — one rooted in both professional competence and personal well-being.

For this course, we will be using Open Educational Resources, and all required materials will be available electronically and posted on D2L Brightspace.

We will be using Google Docs, Google Sheets, PDFs, Power Points, and some Word Docs. 

Digital Navigators

Digital Navigators are trusted guides who address the whole digital inclusion process — home connectivity, affordable devices, and digital skills training — with students and community members.