Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy and Learning (EFPL), has been shown to successfully treat those suffering from the effects of trauma, depression, anxiety, and many other mental health stressors. Although many forms of animal therapy have been shown to be successful, equine therapy is unique in that it works directly with the feelings and body-sensations that hold the memories of trauma. When a client comes to RRR they are carefully matched with a horse and Facilitator, with whom they will work one-on-one throughout their therapy. The bond that is developed between the horse, client, and Facilitator is the real beginning of mental and emotional healing. The horse is the bridge relationship that allows human-to-human relationships to form and flourish. The client can feel safe with a horse, because their past trauma is related to human relationships. RRR exists to help people in crisis like Irene (not her real name), who has been coming to the ranch for a few years. Her trauma was the result of being raped at a camp she attended when 9 years old. She confided in her mom about the abuse years after the incident, and it left Irene feeling damaged, dirty and unable to defend herself. Schoolwork suffered and she was suicidal. When she first came to RRR she was very, very quiet for at least a year, but she loved her horse and every week she could feel his strength and courage and borrow it for a little while. The progress felt slow at times. But she stuck with it, made some hard choices about what was really important to her in this life, and now that she is 19, she has finished high school on time (a feat that no one believed she could accomplish). Irene now attends college and is pursuing a career in performing arts. Donation Request Last year, RRR provided 2,000+ hours and 1200+ sessions of free mental health services. There’s greater demand for EFPL as many more families experience trauma related to the COVID-19 pandemic and veterans returning from war. At the same time, our ability to meet the needs of these families will be severely limited if we are unable to pay for the professional staffing required. RRR is the only Equine-Facilitated Therapy program in the entire Western Washington region that provides services on a sliding scale to no-cost (85% of our clients are from the foster care system). Although we continue to grow both in our programming and facilities, we have a huge number of persons and families on our waiting list. Our goal is to continue our expansion with additional staff, Facilitators, and horses to serve all people and families in need.