Animal-Assisted Therapy

Mountain Peaks Therapy Llamas and Alpacas regularly visit schools, hospitals, senior communities, and rehab facilities throughout Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA. Research has shown that animals help humans by acting as social bridges, reducing blood pressure, directing thoughts outward, and serving as strong motivators for accomplishing difficult tasks.

Our Therapy Teams might take a walk with an adolescent struggling with difficult issues, or motivate a patient recovering from a stroke to reach farther, or calm a child with autism so that they can focus, and achieve new goals. By offering friendship and warm touch, our llamas help alleviate loneliness, lower blood pressure and reduce stress. Their presence brings a sense of normalcy to institutional settings.

We regularly visit:

• Long term and skilled care facilities
• Assisted living communities
• Hospitals
• Residential treatment centers
• Schools
• Physical rehabilitation centers
• Adult and Child day care
• Hospice

Lori Gregory, and daughter, Shannon Hendrickson, both completed the DoveLewis Animal-Assisted Therapy Program to become Certified Therapy Teams with their llamas, Rojo and Smokey. The DoveLewis Certification process involved an initial interview, behavioral and temperament assessment, an eight-hour training class, an extensive practical laboratory experience and a final assessment by Delta Society representatives.  It should be noted that the Certification Title for any animal species should only be used for AAT Teams that have completed a more extensive training and mentoring program designed for certification that is recognized and administered by professionals in AAT.  Therapy animals that have completed the Delta Society/ Pet Partners Registration Process can be, but are not always, “certified”, and there are many wonderful certified therapy animals that are not “registered” with Pet Partners. Pet Partners does not certify any therapy animal, but does allow those that have gone through a certification process which uses their materials and evaluators to become “registered” with their program. Since DoveLewis no longer has a Therapy Program for us to participate in with our animals, we are currently unable to find any other AAT organization within the Portland area that will certify our llamas and alpacas.  For this, and other reasons presented on our FAQ page, we are currently doing all of our llama and alpaca activities privately, representing ourselves as “Mountain Peaks Therapy Llamas and Alpacas”.

Detailed information about the process that we went through to become Certified Therapy Teams with our llamas can be found on our “Frequently Asked Questions” page.

There are numerous websites on the internet about Animal-Assisted Therapy, and the use of llamas in various programs throughout the country. One of our favorites is Mona’s Ark.

To find a list of therapy dogs that service your area, please visit this great website: www.TherapyDogOrganizations.net

Mtn Peaks Therapy Llamas & Alpacas greatly appreciates any donation to help us continue to bring joy and healing through our educational and therapeutic services!