Our Founder

“TCS... sees all men, women, and children as worthy of helping…”     The Rev. E. Rugby Auer Founder and Director Trinity Counseling Service 1968-1989

Convinced that the church must provide help for those struggling with personal, marital and family problems, The Rev. E. Rugby Auer founded Trinity Counseling Service in 1968. Seeing a need for counseling services beyond the scope of the parish priest, minister or rabbi, Rev. Auer looked to other mental health care professionals to compliment traditional pastoral counseling. Being an Episcopal priest, he applied for initial support from the Rector and Vestry of Trinity Church in Princeton, NJ. Trinity Church welcomed this outreach, contributing space in the parish offices and funds to pay Rev. Auer's salary. With Trinity Church providing legitimacy and visibility to the fledgling counseling service, Rev. Auer gathered together several clergy and counselors who were interested in joining an effort of this sort and who would contribute their time and skill for nominal remuneration. There were only a few clients during that first year and Rev. Auer's annual budget totaled about $7,000.

From 1972 to 1977, the Service began a journey toward more independence, gradually developing increased autonomy and differentiating itself from its parent body. Although still under the aegis of Trinity Church, the Service formed an Advisory Board, drew up by-laws, hired a clinical director and undertook other measures which introduced a more corporate structure to its efforts. This second stage of development witnessed a large growth in sessions, necessitating in a move from the parish offices to the present location at 22 Stockton Street. As Rev. Auer noted, the move "was not only a physical necessity but a visible acknowledgement of what TCS had become." The Service incorporated in 1977, thus beginning its third stage of development as an independent, private, non-profit agency.

During the next twelve years, Rev. Auer recruited an interdisciplinary and ecumenical staff, including social workers, psychologists, clergy and psychiatrists, who annually dealt with 250 to 300 cases. Between 1984 and 1986, the Board of Trustees raised over one million dollars to endow the work he had begun two decades earlier. At the conclusion of his twenty-one years of leadership, Rev. Auer had seen his annual budget grow from $7,000 to nearly $500,000. He had strengthened the lives of many thousands of people, transforming his small pastoral outreach program into a well-regarded community mental health agency.

Writing in 1988 about his work and the future of the agency upon his impending retirement, he noted that "TCS is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of caring, which sees all men, women, and children as creatures of God….worthy of helping …" and as an outgrowth of this, "…no one should be turned away for any reason, including financial condition." Almost twenty years later, Trinity Counseling Service remains faithful to its purpose of treating all people with compassionate care, and it is this principle which lies at the heart of our mission.