LCDC CORE EXAMINATION 2026 QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔CDT - ✔✔blood biomarker...detects long term drinking
✔✔Induced disorder - ✔✔brought on or worsened by substance
✔✔sub abuse disorder - ✔✔substance abuse and dependence
✔✔Axis I - ✔✔mood disorders
✔✔Axis II - ✔✔personality disorder
✔✔Axis II Cluster A - ✔✔odd...eccentric...suspicious
✔✔Axis II Cluster B - ✔✔dramatic...emotional..impulsive...lack empathy
✔✔Axis III Cluster C - ✔✔Fearful...anxious...perfectionist
✔✔Axis III - ✔✔medical
✔✔Substance abuse - ✔✔maladaptive patter of abuse...1 of 4 criteria..failure to meet
life duties. cant quit, legal problems, continues regardless of danger
✔✔Substance dependence - ✔✔maladaptive pattern...3 of 7 criteria..cutting back, cont
use despite prob, tolerance, gives up activities
✔✔` - ✔✔`
✔✔Mood - ✔✔sustained emotion that colors the perception of the world
✔✔Dellusions - ✔✔continued belief of something even when proof against it....false
belief based on faulty external reality
✔✔Hallucinations - ✔✔sensory perception of reality occuring without external stimuli
✔✔Illusions - ✔✔misperception about a real external stimuli...rustling leafs...
✔✔Assesment - ✔✔gathering info about pt in order to make informed diagnostic
impression
✔✔Empathy - ✔✔ability to perceive pt emotions and see their world thru their eyes
,✔✔concreteness - ✔✔relates vague aspect to concrete terms...helps with coping skills
✔✔paraphrasing - ✔✔picking out emotions and repeating them back with added
clarity...builds trust and reduces resistance
✔✔Reflection - ✔✔restates content that produces emotions, counselor stays neutral
✔✔simplifying - ✔✔reflection, removes confusion, avoids convoluted explanations so
they can solve problem in here and now
✔✔Probing - ✔✔open ended questions help clarify and move to new understanding
✔✔Reframing - ✔✔offers new perspective to situation
✔✔exploring alternatives - ✔✔examine various options to pt
✔✔Person Centered Theory - ✔✔Carl Rogers
✔✔Person Centered - ✔✔Here and now...people are resourceful and capable of solving
own problems and are trustworthy
✔✔Person Centered - ✔✔3 characteristics; unconditional positve regard, genuiness
and accurate empathy
✔✔Person Centered - ✔✔in addictions counseling; builds rapport and T.R to help pt
recover
✔✔Reality Therapy - ✔✔William Glasser
✔✔Reality Therapy - ✔✔Help pt in here and now...frustrated with psychoanalysis
✔✔Reality Therapy - ✔✔humans have 2 basic needs; love and feel worthwhile
✔✔Reality Therapy - ✔✔accepts no excuses..holds pt accountable..allows for natural
consequences...no enabling
✔✔Reality Therapy techniques - ✔✔challenge inappropriate beh, focus on strengths,
discourages excses, help pt achieve goal, find constructive way to meet goals
✔✔Reality therapy - ✔✔rejects medical mode, emphasis on responsibility, no
transference and encourages counselor to be himself
✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔Albert Ellis
,✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔people born with both rational and irrational beliefs
✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔learn irrational thoughts as a child that can lead to self
destructive behavior...disturbances come from faulty beliefs of everyone should love
you
✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔Help pt confront irrational beliefs through gathering
evidence...pt becomes aware of automatic thought process
✔✔Rational Emotive - irrational thoughts - ✔✔lead to self criticism, isolation, self abuse,
not striving for potential and drug use
✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔A-B-C; activating event, belief about, and consequences
✔✔Rational Emotive - techniques - ✔✔detect irrational beliefs through words (ought,
should, must and always)...when is that not true...homework given
✔✔Cognitive behavior - ✔✔Aaron Beck
✔✔Cognitive behavior - ✔✔focus on here and now, pt with emotional probls have faulty
thinking or incorrect info
✔✔Cognitive behavior - ✔✔cognitive distortions - over generalization, minimization,
personalizing events, polarized thinking
✔✔Cognitive behavior - Techniques - ✔✔challenge faulty thoughts, ask where did
evidence come from, instill hope, Socratic
✔✔Brief Therapy - ✔✔time limited, structured, directed at specific goal
✔✔Brief Therapy - ✔✔uses motivation to change behavior, avoid getting ahead of pt,
understands stages to help clinican
✔✔Brief Therapy - ✔✔reduces pt risk of harm from controlled substance use, specific
goals for consumption pattern, key is to extract single behavior change process
✔✔Brief Therapy - ✔✔Five Stages
✔✔Brief Therapy - Precontemplation - ✔✔user not considering change, or acknowledge
problem exists
✔✔Brief Therapy - contemplation - ✔✔acknowledges problem, ambivalent about
change
, ✔✔Brief Therapy - determination - ✔✔begins once user decides to change - plan of
action
✔✔Brief Therapy - action - ✔✔putting plan into action, uses new behav, not yet stable
✔✔Brief Therapy - maintenance - ✔✔establishes new behav on long term basis
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔George Kelly
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔people have system of constructs and symbols that reflect
themselves in their world. Problem is discrepancy between people capacity and current
demands of environment.
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔focus current problem,then patterns...attention given to
background and early attachment
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔view people in positive optimistic terms, proactive, goal driven,
operate according to the knowledge they posses
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔clinican does not direct or pursuade, they use elaboration and
metaphors to advance the process, serve as co-investigators helping pt construct
rewarding way of being and coping.
✔✔Feminist therapy - ✔✔Helen Deutsch and Karen Horney
✔✔Feminist therapy - ✔✔Give women view of social position and sense of community
with new power, possibilities and overriding binding stigmas
✔✔Family Systems Theory - ✔✔help addicts decrease anxiety by getting family
members to focus on their own recovery, Families are systems of interconnected ad
interdependent individuals, a system of interacting parts
✔✔Human Validation process - ✔✔Virginia Satir - assisting individuals in transforming
family rules and messages (specifically abut individuation and communication) to be
more acceptable and flexible, allowing for change, enhance and validate self-esteem;
family rules; sculpting; nurturing triads; congruence & openness in communication;
family mapping & chronologies
Therapist is the role model, facilitator, resource person and investigator
✔✔Structural famly therapy - present & past - ✔✔Salvador Minuchin- modify the
present, past changed by interventions. Three subsystems of nuclear family - parent
subsystem, sibling, sibling/parent
✔✔Structural famly therapy - Clear boundaries - ✔✔Clear but firm boundaries
ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔CDT - ✔✔blood biomarker...detects long term drinking
✔✔Induced disorder - ✔✔brought on or worsened by substance
✔✔sub abuse disorder - ✔✔substance abuse and dependence
✔✔Axis I - ✔✔mood disorders
✔✔Axis II - ✔✔personality disorder
✔✔Axis II Cluster A - ✔✔odd...eccentric...suspicious
✔✔Axis II Cluster B - ✔✔dramatic...emotional..impulsive...lack empathy
✔✔Axis III Cluster C - ✔✔Fearful...anxious...perfectionist
✔✔Axis III - ✔✔medical
✔✔Substance abuse - ✔✔maladaptive patter of abuse...1 of 4 criteria..failure to meet
life duties. cant quit, legal problems, continues regardless of danger
✔✔Substance dependence - ✔✔maladaptive pattern...3 of 7 criteria..cutting back, cont
use despite prob, tolerance, gives up activities
✔✔` - ✔✔`
✔✔Mood - ✔✔sustained emotion that colors the perception of the world
✔✔Dellusions - ✔✔continued belief of something even when proof against it....false
belief based on faulty external reality
✔✔Hallucinations - ✔✔sensory perception of reality occuring without external stimuli
✔✔Illusions - ✔✔misperception about a real external stimuli...rustling leafs...
✔✔Assesment - ✔✔gathering info about pt in order to make informed diagnostic
impression
✔✔Empathy - ✔✔ability to perceive pt emotions and see their world thru their eyes
,✔✔concreteness - ✔✔relates vague aspect to concrete terms...helps with coping skills
✔✔paraphrasing - ✔✔picking out emotions and repeating them back with added
clarity...builds trust and reduces resistance
✔✔Reflection - ✔✔restates content that produces emotions, counselor stays neutral
✔✔simplifying - ✔✔reflection, removes confusion, avoids convoluted explanations so
they can solve problem in here and now
✔✔Probing - ✔✔open ended questions help clarify and move to new understanding
✔✔Reframing - ✔✔offers new perspective to situation
✔✔exploring alternatives - ✔✔examine various options to pt
✔✔Person Centered Theory - ✔✔Carl Rogers
✔✔Person Centered - ✔✔Here and now...people are resourceful and capable of solving
own problems and are trustworthy
✔✔Person Centered - ✔✔3 characteristics; unconditional positve regard, genuiness
and accurate empathy
✔✔Person Centered - ✔✔in addictions counseling; builds rapport and T.R to help pt
recover
✔✔Reality Therapy - ✔✔William Glasser
✔✔Reality Therapy - ✔✔Help pt in here and now...frustrated with psychoanalysis
✔✔Reality Therapy - ✔✔humans have 2 basic needs; love and feel worthwhile
✔✔Reality Therapy - ✔✔accepts no excuses..holds pt accountable..allows for natural
consequences...no enabling
✔✔Reality Therapy techniques - ✔✔challenge inappropriate beh, focus on strengths,
discourages excses, help pt achieve goal, find constructive way to meet goals
✔✔Reality therapy - ✔✔rejects medical mode, emphasis on responsibility, no
transference and encourages counselor to be himself
✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔Albert Ellis
,✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔people born with both rational and irrational beliefs
✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔learn irrational thoughts as a child that can lead to self
destructive behavior...disturbances come from faulty beliefs of everyone should love
you
✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔Help pt confront irrational beliefs through gathering
evidence...pt becomes aware of automatic thought process
✔✔Rational Emotive - irrational thoughts - ✔✔lead to self criticism, isolation, self abuse,
not striving for potential and drug use
✔✔Rational Emotive - ✔✔A-B-C; activating event, belief about, and consequences
✔✔Rational Emotive - techniques - ✔✔detect irrational beliefs through words (ought,
should, must and always)...when is that not true...homework given
✔✔Cognitive behavior - ✔✔Aaron Beck
✔✔Cognitive behavior - ✔✔focus on here and now, pt with emotional probls have faulty
thinking or incorrect info
✔✔Cognitive behavior - ✔✔cognitive distortions - over generalization, minimization,
personalizing events, polarized thinking
✔✔Cognitive behavior - Techniques - ✔✔challenge faulty thoughts, ask where did
evidence come from, instill hope, Socratic
✔✔Brief Therapy - ✔✔time limited, structured, directed at specific goal
✔✔Brief Therapy - ✔✔uses motivation to change behavior, avoid getting ahead of pt,
understands stages to help clinican
✔✔Brief Therapy - ✔✔reduces pt risk of harm from controlled substance use, specific
goals for consumption pattern, key is to extract single behavior change process
✔✔Brief Therapy - ✔✔Five Stages
✔✔Brief Therapy - Precontemplation - ✔✔user not considering change, or acknowledge
problem exists
✔✔Brief Therapy - contemplation - ✔✔acknowledges problem, ambivalent about
change
, ✔✔Brief Therapy - determination - ✔✔begins once user decides to change - plan of
action
✔✔Brief Therapy - action - ✔✔putting plan into action, uses new behav, not yet stable
✔✔Brief Therapy - maintenance - ✔✔establishes new behav on long term basis
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔George Kelly
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔people have system of constructs and symbols that reflect
themselves in their world. Problem is discrepancy between people capacity and current
demands of environment.
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔focus current problem,then patterns...attention given to
background and early attachment
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔view people in positive optimistic terms, proactive, goal driven,
operate according to the knowledge they posses
✔✔Constructivism - ✔✔clinican does not direct or pursuade, they use elaboration and
metaphors to advance the process, serve as co-investigators helping pt construct
rewarding way of being and coping.
✔✔Feminist therapy - ✔✔Helen Deutsch and Karen Horney
✔✔Feminist therapy - ✔✔Give women view of social position and sense of community
with new power, possibilities and overriding binding stigmas
✔✔Family Systems Theory - ✔✔help addicts decrease anxiety by getting family
members to focus on their own recovery, Families are systems of interconnected ad
interdependent individuals, a system of interacting parts
✔✔Human Validation process - ✔✔Virginia Satir - assisting individuals in transforming
family rules and messages (specifically abut individuation and communication) to be
more acceptable and flexible, allowing for change, enhance and validate self-esteem;
family rules; sculpting; nurturing triads; congruence & openness in communication;
family mapping & chronologies
Therapist is the role model, facilitator, resource person and investigator
✔✔Structural famly therapy - present & past - ✔✔Salvador Minuchin- modify the
present, past changed by interventions. Three subsystems of nuclear family - parent
subsystem, sibling, sibling/parent
✔✔Structural famly therapy - Clear boundaries - ✔✔Clear but firm boundaries
