Our story

Whakamātūtū has been born out of a strong desire to help people recover from depression, anxiety, and other common forms of mental distress. Our driving force is the lived experience of our founders, and the thousands of people who made submissions to the Mental Health Inquiry in 2018.

As we built the programme, we consulted extensively, talking to others with lived experience, mental health professionals, mana whenua, other mental health services, academics, and researchers. We visited similar centres operating successfully in Germany and received ongoing support
from their founders.

We based our programme on the best evidence and practice we could find, here and internationally. Below are some of our key influences: