The agency began as the West Auckland Sexual Abuse Service in 1989. It was a community initiative set up to provide counselling and therapy for women and children who had experienced sexual abuse. Initially we had three services: for Maori, Pacific and Pakeha clients. Over time, the Maori service became Tu Wahine and the Pacfic service relocated.

What was the Pakeha service has grown significantly and now employs more than 20 part-time therapists and counsellors. We are based in two buildings adjacent to Lloyd Morgan Park in Te Atatu South. In the late 90s, we became the Waitakere Abuse and Trauma Counselling Service (WATCS). This signalled a broadening of our focus to include working with people who had experienced a range of trauma and domestic violence. More recently we've further extended our services to work with families and couples. WATCS is now a very well established, professionally run West Auckland counselling agency.

Our standards and our committment to our clients and the community continue to be high.