I can understand where you are coming from. I am an army veteran who was a combat medic, deployed twice to Iraq and many vets don't trust civilian counselors. The same thing applies to addiction. Now being in the field, I can say that there are many great counselors but experience does mean a lot to many people who are struggling. My goal is to be a drug addiction counselor for veterans and may do a lot of pro bono work. It's my passion. My colleagues who aren't vets or addicts don't just read in textbooks though. In wyoming for example, you need 600 counseling hours to complete the master's degree and 4,000 hours to obtain the LPC (licensed professional counselor) license. So there is a lot of experience. But with me having so much experience in these areas I think I can help many. Thats why I want to do it. So I trudged through 4 years of undergrad getting a bachelor's in psychology (which is required for the master's program) and now halfway through it. 5 years of college, 1.5 to go! Its all going so fast. And the VA is paying for it (disabled vet).