Counselor training as a treatment for alcoholism: the helper therapy principle in action.

Extensive harmful drinking of alcohol is a major problem for many groups of Australian Aborigines and western treatment approaches have had limited effect. In order to stress cultural factors in treatment, a program to train indigenous Aborigines as alcoholism counselors for their communities was developed. In its more than 10 years of existence 145 counselors have been graduated. Of those initially entering the two year program 60% have graduated. Most of those have found employment as alcohol counselors for their people, and the numbers of Aborigines treated has increased. About 90% of those who entered the training had severe repeated substance abuse disorders in their recent history. The training and the alcohol counseling employment appears to be highly associated with continuing sobriety. For those who graduated the program only 4.8% returned to drinking. Those who completed only the first phase, 8.4% returned to drinking. Of those who were terminated from the program, 74% returned to drinking. Training alcoholics as alcohol counselors appears to be associated with vocational success and maintenance of sobriety as predicted by Riessman's "helper-therapy principle."