NORTH HILLS : Center Lets Addicts Barter for Treatment

If you go to Susan Stewart for treatment of drug or alcohol addiction, she never turns you away if you can’t pay.

But she may hand you a broom.

While other treatment centers may charge as much as $90 an hour for counseling from licensed clinical social workers, Stewart’s Walking Tall Center in North Hills offers an unusual bartering system for uninsured or jobless people needing treatment.

“I’m a child of an alcoholic who died from the disease and had a short bout with alcoholism myself,” said Stewart, 62, a chemical dependency counselor. “I know what it’s like to need help desperately.”

Stewart said it’s important for her clients “to pay something for their own dignity. They don’t want charity. Absolutely no one who wants help and is willing to do something for it is turned away.”

With this philosophy, Stewart has treated more than 200 people suffering from problems related to alcohol, gambling and even sex addiction since she founded the center in 1990. Three other therapists, two of whom are volunteers, help provide counseling.

The clients pay however they can.

A 32-year-old woman from Canoga Park who asked not to be identified decided to wash away the $30 a week she owed for self-esteem counseling.

“In December, I told Susan I’m getting into this apartment and I’m not going to be able to shell out the money every month,” she said. “We worked out this agreement. I clean the place one afternoon a week.”

The work itself can become a kind of therapy.

A 41-year-old Northridge woman was a recovering alcoholic and frustrated jewelry maker when she began treatment at the center two years ago. In lieu of paying for some sessions, she offered to teach art classes, where she saw something beautiful inside herself.

“By their feedback on my work, I got back some self-esteem,” she said. “Now I have my own space in an arts and crafts gallery.”

“Somebody has to be there with the hands stretched out and say, ‘Let us help you help yourself,’ ” Stewart said.