Chemical Dependency Counselor Assistant - Preliminary Initial Credential
CDCA Preliminary Certification with Impact CE
Congratulations on your decision to get your Ohio CDCA certification!
The CDCA certification process has two phases. The first phase is called the CDCA Preliminary, which requires 40 credit hours to complete. After you complete this phase, you can start working on the next phase, the CDCA Renewable.
For an overview of the CDCA process, see the OCDPB page . For now, let's focus on your Preliminary certification, which requires 40 credit hours in 7 content areas. Impact CE provides a curriculum of courses that meet these requirements.
Completing your CDCA Preliminary requirements:
- 1 Sign up for the CDCA Preliminary curriculum with the button below.
- 2 Complete the courses listed in the CDCA tab in your account.
- 3 When you're done with all of the required courses, we'll generate the education grid to submit in your application to OCDPB.
Please note: Impact CE is not part of the Ohio Chemical Dependency Professionals Board (OCDPB). If you have questions about the requirements and certification process, contact the board directly .
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Our support staff have worked with hundreds of other CDCA applicants and we're happy to help you along the way.
The Course List
Click each content area for the list of courses in that area. Note: you can take more courses too! Impact CE offers hundreds of courses that you may be interested in.
- Drug Brains and Behavior: The Science of Addiction (1 hour)
- The Neuroscience of Addiction - With Marc Lewis (1 hour)
- A Developmental Model of Addictions: (1 hour)
- Neurobiological Theories of Addiction: A Comprehensive Review (1 hour)
- Addiction As a Brain Disease Revised (1 hour)
- TIP 42 Co-Occurring Disorder Strategies Special Populations and Treatment Models (7.5 hours)
- Expanding the Continuum of Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Nonabstinence Approaches (1.75 hours)
- Practical Guide for Implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach (1.5 hours)
- TIP 65: Counseling Approaches To Promote Recovery From Problematic Substance Use and Related Issues (3.75 hours)
- TIP 41 Substance Abuse Treatment: Group Therapy - Why Groups and Types of Groups (3 hours)
- TIP 41 Substance Abuse Treatment: Group Therapy - Group Leadership Concepts and Techniques (3 hours)
- TIP 26 Treating Substance Use Disorder in Older Adults - Evaluation and Assessment (3 hours)
- TIP 47 Substance Abuse: Clinical Issues in Intensive Outpatient Treatment - Specific Populations and Diverse Populations (3.25 hours)
- TIP 47 Substance Abuse: Clinical Issues in Intensive Outpatient Treatment - Clinical Issues and Challenges (1.75 hours)
- From Chaos to Clarity: Unleashing the Power of the Golden Thread in Treatment Planning (3 hours)
- The Interplay of Ethics and Motivational Interviewing (3 hours)
- NAADAC Code of Ethics Revised 2025 (2.5 hours)
OCDP Board requires completion of the ethics course provided by the Board. This course is available on a separate website.
Please Note: On that course, you must click on every element on every slide for your progress to be correctly recorded. If you need additional tech support with this course, please contact their customer support at MHAhelpdesk@mha.ohio.gov Please allow up to two business days for response.
Once the CDCA Ethics Training is completed, you will need to enter the date you completed it in order to generate your Education Grid.