RCA Academy for Addiction and Behavioral Health Professionals

RCA Academy

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Questions? Email Natalia Sheehan or call 610-994-2983.

At Recovery Centers of America, we believe it is our responsibility to create a trained workforce and educate the world on behavioral health, inclusive of drug and alcohol addiction. It is our goal to educate over 5,000 individuals each year through our continuing education courses. And it is our hope that these individuals educate, help, and inform thousands more in their professional work, personal lives, and communities. Continuing education for mental health professionals and addiction professionals is one way to do just that.

You can find all the Continuing Education Courses here.

Continuing Education Courses for Addiction Professionals at RCA

Continuing education is essential for professionals in the addiction recovery field to maintain licensure, enhance their knowledge base, and stay current on the latest treatment modalities. Recovery Centers of America is unique in that we offer free mental health continuing education seminars and continued education courses for Licensed Clinicians, Licensed Social Workers, Caseworkers, Certified Peer Specialists, Recovery Support Specialists, and Psychologists, as well as unlicensed individuals in the field of Substance Use Disorders or Mental Health Disorders. Courses are offered by addiction professionals with decades of experience frequently throughout the regions we serve on a variety of topics including:

Trauma in Substance Use Disorder
- The vast majority of people with Substance Use Disorder have also experienced some type of trauma in their lives. This training will help clinicians strengthen their skills in providing trauma-informed treatment to their patients with Substance Use Disorders by increasing their understanding of the effects of both trauma and substance use on the brain and exploring effective methods of helping people heal from trauma.
Ethics in Substance Use Disorder Treatment
- This training will provide education on ethical standards specific to substance use disorder treatment. Specific consideration will be made in the areas of dual relationships, boundaries, self-disclosure, and the use of social media.
Co-Occurring Disorders
- Using adult learning techniques and case studies to illustrate common clinical issues, the Co-Occurring Training offers opportunities for clinicians to discuss common psychiatric disorder or issues that our patients tend to experience along with their addiction. To increase competency, this training exposes common signs and symptoms, what to look for when symptoms escalate, behavioral patterns, specific interventions to use, and clinical blind spots. Other topics covered include: Counter-transference, Differential Diagnosis, Staff-Splitting, and Suicidality.
Intervention Theories and Practices
- This training includes a combination of lecture, participant brainstorming and self-assessment. This training will offer an introduction to different models of intervention and basic skills necessary for an interventionist.
Treating the Family in Addiction: The Forgotten Patient
- This training will explore the importance of family engagement and identify key reasons for the necessity for families to remain engaged in their loved one’s treatment. Participants will explore the historical value of families being involved in substance use treatment, how familiar roles can affect treatment and the messages received by their loved one currently in treatment and learn effective family therapy tools to help engage families.
ADHD in Substance Use Disorder
- This training will discuss what ADHD is and the neurobiology and etiology that increases the likelihood of someone being diagnosed with ADHD. The training will explore the symptoms and strengths of ADHD and tie in how SUD is linked to this diagnosis. And finally, effective treatment options will be identified to help stop the trend of people with ADHD being at higher risk for substance abuse, including working to know the facts, the use of medication, and understanding the triggers.
First Responder Suicide Prevention
Identifying Substance Use Disorder in the Workplace

Meet our Trainers

Trish Caldwell

Director of Family ServicesRead Bio

Deni Carise, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific OfficerRead Bio

Dr. Heidi Ginter

Chief Medical DirectorRead Bio

Dr. Kerry King

VP of Clinical ServicesRead Bio

Robert Strauber

Interventionist ManagerRead Bio

Tami Moylan

InterventionistRead Bio

Nicole Bixler

Program DirectorRead Bio

Ashley Fuery

InterventionistRead Bio

Recovery Centers of America has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7002. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Recovery Centers of America is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Recovery Centers of America is a NAADAC approved education provider (#155307). NAADAC approved CE(s) are accepted by most state licensing and certification boards. Please contact your credentialing board or visit NAADAC’s website for CE acceptance information: www.naadac.org/naadac-ce-acceptance.

RCA Academy FAQ’s

We post all of our courses on our events page. You can also sign up to be notified of new courses here.

Course attendees receive a follow up email containing course slides and a link to a course evaluation. Course evaluations must be completed and submitted in order to receive course credit. It takes about 10 business days after a course has completed for CEU certificate to be issued to participants who completed the course evaluations via email.

Please ensure that you have submitted your course evaluation and have waited 10 business days. If you still do not have a certificate for completing one of our courses, please email us at events@recoverycoa.com with the following information:

Your full name
Date of course
Name of course

We use Webex to track attendance. We are able to pull a report at the end of each course that shows who was logged in to the course and how long they were logged in for. This attendance report serves as our sign in sheet. If you call in to listen to the webinar, but do not log in to Webex, you will not be counted as attending.

Yes. PowerPoint slides are emailed out to course participants in the follow up email that is sent once a course is completed.

No. We are not permitted to share recordings of our courses as they must be delivered as live webinars in order for us to be able to issue credit.

We recommend that course participants check with their state licensing boards to check if they accept NAADAC and NBCC CEUs.

Recovery Centers of America is also a NAADAC approved education provider (#155307). NAADAC approved CE(s) are accepted by most state licensing and certification boards.

Please contact your credentialing board or visit NAADAC’s website for CE acceptance information: www.naadac.org/naadac-ce-acceptance.

**Because regulations may change at any time, it is the sole responsibility of the licensee to maintain compliance with their Board’s continuing education policies and regulations. **

Below are the Boards that currently accept NAADAC CE(s) for licensure/certification renewal.

Delaware:

Board of Professional Counselors of Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Professionals
Delaware Certification Board

Illinois:

Illinois Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Professional Certification Association (IAODAPCA) (Note: Webinars are only approved for homestudy CEs)

Indiana:

Indiana Counselors Association on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (ICAADA)

Maryland:

Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists
Maryland Addiction Professionals Certification Board
Board of Social Work Examiners

Massachusetts:

Bureau of Substance Abuse Services
MA Board of Social Workers (must contact Board for approval)

NAADAC is NOT a pre-approved provided for CEs with MA Board of Social Work. However, the Board’s information on CEs indicates:

Licensees may obtain credit for completing an individual continuing education activity:

(a) If it pertains to their professional growth and practice AND

(b) Is a lecture, an oral presentation at a course or conference, publication of a book, publication of an article in a recognized professional journal, completion of research for such a presentation or publication AND

(c) Application for this activity is made to the Board for approval at least 60 days prior to the expiration of their licensure period.

No more than 50% of required CEUs for the license cycle can be earned by completing an individual continuing education activity.

The Board receives a high volume of these CEU requests in the months leading up to the October 1st expiration date. If you request approval during this time frame, you may not receive a decision on whether credit has been awarded until close to, or after, the expiration date of your license.

New Jersey:

Addiction Professionals Certification Board, Inc
Board of Marriage and Family Therapy Examiners
Professional Counselor Examiners Committee
Alcohol and Drug Counselor Committee
Board of Social Work Examiners

**Because regulations may change at any time, it is the sole responsibility of the licensee to maintain compliance with their Board’s continuing education policies and regulations.**