HORROR stories of rape, prostitution, child abuse and chemical dependence are all in a day's work for Sandy Butterfield.

Day after day, the executive director of Focus Counselling Services, hears her clients pour their hearts out as she helps them overcome the demons that have driven them to drugs and steer them away from the crimes they commit to fund their expensive habit.

For Mrs. Butterfield, her 21 years of sharing the weight of other people's problems has not been an overwhelming burden, but rather a labour of love.

Last weekend she was honoured by her peers, as she was named Distinguished Counsellor 2005 by the Bermuda Counsellors Association (BCA) in a ceremony at the Fairmont Southampton Princess Hotel.

Before her current career, 62-year-old Mrs. Butterfield had worked as a medical secretary, musician and dancer. But it was only after she landed a job as a counsellor with the Montrose Substance Abuse Centre in 1984 that she found her vocation.

"When you find your life's purpose, you feel like you are suddenly wearing the right shoe size," Mrs. Butterfield said.

"I enjoy counselling because I really believe that everybody has good inside them, but sometimes they get tangled up in a lot of negative stuff. And I believe that negativity attracts negativity. I try to help them to start thinking positively again.

"It's very rewarding. When you see them turn their lives around, it feels like seeing one of your kids get married. We do sometimes shed a few tears when we see clients who have been around the mulberry bush. Recovering from addiction can be like climbing out of a well and when people get close to the top, they often slip right down again." Mrs. Butterfield worked with Montrose for ten years and around 12 years ago she co-founded Focus with Jerry Griffiths, who used to write a column in this newspaper called Back From The Brink.

Government backbencher MP Nelson Bascome is Mrs. Butterfield's fellow counsellor at Focus and it was he who nominated her for the BCA award, citing her commitment to clients and her motto that the most important thing a counsellor can give to a client is time. She was completely shocked when she received the award last Sunday.

The third staff member at the home of Focus, in Union Street, is administrative assistant Julie Kay Darrell.

The service has around 300 clients on its books. Apart from group discussions and counselling, there is a television room where those who drop by can watch movies.

Focus also runs a labour pool, giving some of its clients the chance to do some temporary work. This has occasionally led to full-time employment.

Through knowledge gained from her considerable experience in counselling, Mrs. Butterfield said drug use often stemmed from problems early in life.

"A lot of drug use has to do with childhood issues, rather than peer pressure," she said. "People are using the drugs as medication to help kill the pain.

"I'm talking about issues like the breakdown of the family structure, males looking for their fathers to play a role in their lives, sexual molestation and incest. These things don't go away. You can't take a couple of aspirins for them.

"We try to help people get to the point of disclosure. Once the issue is out in the open, they don't have to carry it. And then they can understand that it's not their fault. As soon as you can disclose, it's like releasing a valve."

One of the clients she helped was Clarence Hill, the boxer who won Bermuda's only Olympic medal at the Montreal Games in 1976. Mr. Hill's problems with drugs have been well documented. When he returned to the ring at the age of 53 for a fun bout against his son Jamar Gibbons in a boxing night at Number One Shed last month, Mrs. Butterfield was there to see it and she admitted to having shed a few tears.

So dedicated is she to her work that Focus is open every day "from 7.30 a.m. until the last person leaves".

But despite its popularity and value to the community, Focus is short of funds and hence its future is uncertain.

"Focus costs between $450,000 and $500,000 per year to run," Mrs. Butterfield said. "We normally received 50 per cent of our funding from the Government and 50 per cent from Council Partners Charitable Trust. Now the Government is paying less than 50 per cent and Council Partners are no longer around so we have to raise the rest ourselves.

"We are here for the client. If we have to go out there and fund-raise, then we are paying less attention to the client and the client can be out breaking into someone's house." Housing and addiction were twin crises looming large in Bermuda that needed to be seriously addressed, Mrs. Butterfield said.

Any potential donors are invited to call Focus on 296-2196.