Beyond Harm Reduction Buzzwords

Course description

Beyond Harm Reduction Buzzwords is an applied introductory course for helping professionals who want to discuss drug use without shame, moral judgment, or a predetermined abstinence endpoint. It introduces the Drug Use Safety Enhancement Model, an eight-domain framework for examining the functions, benefits, costs, risks, contexts, and desired direction of a person's relationship with drugs.

The course distinguishes a drug-neutral clinical stance from permissiveness or avoidance of risk. Participants practice language that preserves client autonomy while supporting accurate risk assessment, immediate safety, and intentional decision-making. Recorded instruction, written explanations, interactive scenarios, a composite case, and a final assessment translate the model into practical helping-professional behavior.

Intended audience

Addiction counselors and other behavioral-health professionals whose work includes substance use, including licensed counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, peer-support specialists, behavioral-health nurses, educators, and supervisors.

This is professional education, not a lay prevention program.

Learning objectives

After completing the course, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the three foundational principles and eight domains of the Drug Use Safety Enhancement Model in practice-oriented language.
2. Differentiate a drug-neutral helping stance from permissiveness, inadequate risk assessment, and hidden abstinence messaging.
3. Apply the model to a composite client case without imposing a predetermined substance-use goal.
4. Select and formulate at least two client-facing questions or strategies that support safer, more intentional decisions while preserving client autonomy.

Instructional outline

1. Start Here

   Course scope, learning objectives, the drug-neutral stance, practitioner reflexes, client-defined outcomes, and professional safety responsibilities.

2. Foundational Principles

   Drug use as a persistent human behavior, abstinence as a valid client-chosen goal rather than a universal endpoint, and drug-use relationships as functional, contextual, and capable of change.

3. DUSEM Domains 1–4

   Knowledge, Motivation, Set, and Setting, with composite examples and client-facing questions for each domain.

4. DUSEM Domains 5–8

   Dose, Administration, Recovery, and Evaluation, with attention to how changes in one domain affect the full drug-use system.

5. Integrated Application

   Whole-model case application, practice decisions, a personal implementation plan, final assessment, and course evaluation.

Instruction and completion

Instruction includes 14 recorded lessons, original written content, immediate-feedback knowledge checks, composite cases, guided reflection, and model-response comparison. Video instruction includes closed captions and text transcripts.

Completion requires all instructional pages and media, required scenarios and case activities, a score of at least 80% on a 15-item final assessment, and a submitted course evaluation. Assessment attempts are unlimited. A certificate is issued only after every requirement is recorded as complete.

Instructor

Edward T. Dunbar Jr., Ph.D., LCPC, LCMHC, LAC, NCC

Dr. Dunbar's professional background includes addictions and clinical mental-health counseling, counselor education, online instruction, clinical supervision, addictions-program leadership, residential treatment, private practice, research, and professional presentations. He created the Drug Use Safety Enhancement Model and has an intellectual and financial interest in Project Cynic course sales.

Accessibility and accommodations

Course videos include closed captions and text transcripts. Course content is designed for keyboard access, readable contrast, scalable text, and use on mobile and desktop devices. Participants may request disability-related or technical accommodations by contacting Project Cynic.

Provider contact

Project Cynic

Edward T. Dunbar Jr.
dunbaret@gmail.com