SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Byrne Richards believes in breaking down the walls of addiction, which he says is no easy task. From behind his desk in a windowless corner office at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre's outpatient centre for people struggling with addiction, he tells it like it is.

In a corner of his dimly lit office is a mug shot of Richards, now a drug counsellor. In the photo, scraggly shoulder-length hair hangs from his face, which was sunken and hollow from years of substance abuse. As a former addict, he doesn't sugarcoat the uphill battle that is beating an addiction.

"I demand people to take ownership, but not in a forceful way," he said. "I like to think I take the walls and knock them down and say 'see over there? Look over there.' I show them the things they need to see."

The programs at the Tree of Peace - simply known as "The Tree" to many - strive to give people the tools they need to change their lives for the better.

The problem is, Richards said, the six counsellors have no control over making people change.

"Until they are prepared to take ownership of whatever it is they are doing, what we do is simply support them."

One of the centre's newest programs is Living in Balance. Created by Richards and administered by the counselling team, the program is a starting point for people who want to make changes to their lifestyle, but might not know how to do it.

"People that come to this program, there is nothing left," he said. "There is no hope and no desire and then bang, there is a glimmer of something."

He doesn't know what flips the switch for people. Sometimes it's something they've heard thousands of times.

"The pain of our lives is what we end up having to face, and the pain of our lives is hard," he said. "If you don't have the motivation to do it, you're going to use what you know how to use to not feel that pain."

Diane Hrstic, program manager for the Tree of Peace, said over its nearly 40 years of existence the organization has firmly planted its roots in the community.

"The tree is well planted in the community," she said. "It has been a place of respect, a place of support, a place of community involvement. The trunk is the growth component of it. The trunk is there and it doesn't matter which way it sways, it's still supporting its branches."

Programs like the adult education school, outreach employment, Urban Multipurpose Aboriginal Youth Committee (UMAYC) and even the annual income tax service are set in place to preserve traditional culture and to assist individuals and families in leading more productive and healthy lives.

"Having a client come back after 10 years and seeing them clean and sober, it's incredible," said Hrstic. "Every seed we plant, whether it takes three years or five years for (that person) to turn their life around, it's a miracle."

She said when she first started in the field, counsellors wouldn't last more than two years, and burned out quickly. The lack of support services and heavy workloads were the main reasons for the quick "burnout season."

"At the time there wasn't much self-care in place," she said. "The networking and partnering wasn't the same, it's changed."

When she first moved to Yellowknife in 1993, there were only a handful of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and maybe a drug addictions meeting. But now, AA is available every day of the week, some days at three different times.

The Tree of Peace has grown over the 10 years she's been a counsellor, in programming and in staff size.

Before it moved into its current location, the centre was in a house-turned office, which counsellor Rick Alexander said helped create the family attitude between staff.

"It was in that drafty old building where things felt more like family in some respects," he said, reminiscing about pow-wow dancing and bead making in the house that was "cold in the winter and steaming hot in the summer."

A counsellor at the centre for five years, Alexander said the family philosophy is crucial in keeping the counsellors happy.

"When one part hurts, it impacts others, too," he said. "There is a lot of concern for each other."

In the classroom where Living in Balance takes place on a daily basis, Richards also mentions the importance of family among staff.

"It's about all of us, the team here," he said. "I'm constantly challenged at trying to find the balance of things."

Counsellor Sarah Cleary has been sober for 17 years and it was the seed a friend of hers planted in her mind that made her finally change her ways.

The centre serves both aboriginal and non-aboriginal residents, and Cleary said she makes a point of guiding her aboriginal clients to seek out their culture to heal.

"We're so caught up in modern science and we're not balancing (it) and culture together," she said. "That's why our elders say practise our culture and they said way after our time you're going to have nothing to do."

Cleary refers to the movie Cast Away and how Tom Hanks' character survived alone on an island for six years. She said it was the goal of going home and marrying his girlfriend that got him through the sensation of isolation on a deserted island.

"That's what recovery is - set your mind to your goal and remember the last time you drank or did drugs and what happened to you. Setting a goal and having a plan and actually carrying it out is important.

"If you want a good life that badly, you'll go the extra mile."