The Llama as Therapist

I would like to book a llama to my nursing home facility in NJ can someone help me if anyone has someone information

I love this story, and I’m proud to share my tiny town with awesome families like the Rutledges.

Feeling better is not therapeutic? Yes, it is.

I have about 50 alpacas and have raised them for 20 odd years. They come in all types and some would be great therapy additions, some would not. However, I can say that taking care of them daily has contributed a lot to being "hale and hearty" at 81. Having animals in your life really does contribute to health.

Wonderful article about these beautiful animals and their generous owners. Thank you, NYT

In recent years, During Finals period at UC Berkeley, (trained) llamas have been brought to campus as a a form of stress relief for students.

For ten years at the end of the 1990's,, I shared my life and my two-acre yard with five llamas. At that time, none of what this article reports was being discussed, but if you live with these animals, you know. In the very coldest days of Michigan winter, I would bundle up and walk into my attached garage half of which I had turned into barn. Within five minutes after I settled into the hay, all five llamas would have joined me, sat down, and begun their humming. I could literally feel my pulse slowing down, my breathing deepen. If I looked up, I saw that the llamas, one by one, were closing those big eyes and drifting off. There is nothing in my long life that has been anything like the gift of those animals. For many reasons, I couldn't bring them with me when I moved away. A wonderful family, with children, took them and I feel sure, to this day, that they were just fine. There is never a day that I don't miss them. I had a friend there who was the head of a small school for children with severe mental disabilities and we had just started writing out a plan for using my animals with the children when I moved to Virginia. Another good friend, with two small children, about three and four, came to visit and a few minutes after they arrived the children were sitting in the barn, five llamas with them, and they were having a tea party.

“One lady, she can be in the foulest of moods, and when the llamas come, she just gets a whole new aura to her.” So your saying I should quit marriage counseling and purchase a Llama instead for the wife? 😋

Thank you! I needed to read this today

I think Marie Yovanovitch could have used the support of one of these wonderful Llamas during her testimony yesterday.. Llamas in Congress could go a long way towards resolving partisian grid lock. No telling however if they could stop them all from hurling spit on mean old Mitch McConnell..

Well written and interesting during difficult times. When one considers “treatment” as being a planned change process, temporary or more permanent, with selected, targeted goals-physical, psychological, social, etc.- and considers the “therapist,” as being a ”change agent,” ( human, nonhuman), with whom the person seeking/needing help/change can become engaged, in ways that are experienced as fulfilling, “lama therapy” simply becomes another option. The challenge, oversimplified, becomes: •indicated, for whom,where, and how long •contra-indicated •irrelevant-wasting time, energies, etc. •harmful Words and Meds, in various combinations, “traditional” as they may be, are not, and have not been our only options to “change” states, levels, qualities of health, wellbeing and disease.

I love this story so much. I wish llamas would visit me on my job.😁

The most famous therapy llama was Rojo in the Portland, OR area. Though he recently passed away, Rojo is still carrying on though additional llamas and alpacas. @rojothellama

Thank you, Ms. Kingson for your wonderful article on The Llama as Therapist. what a great idea to use these gentle animals for therapeutic purposes in care homes. As a child they were one of my favorite animals. I love the photos too.

Thank you, Ms. Kingson, and NYT editors, for this wonderful unforgettable story. It's articles like this that separate the Times from every other leading news source.

What a poignant story! I am curious about llamas and would like to read more about them. I don't know much about them, but it looks like it would be fun to visit with them. Are there places you can go to see them, or where they can come to you? Anyway, it was a fun story and a good read.

"some llamas aren’t cut out for the job" That's an understatement. These "therapy" llamas and alpacas must have been carefully raised and trained. The alpacas on my daughter's farm were decidedly standoffish, preferring to keep their distance from all other animals. Horses, goats, even emus, will sometimes come to visit you standing by their enclosure. No so alpacas.

Llamas are llovely, but please don't take them on a plane.

Anything for a novelty. This article reflects all the nutty media nonsense about the infinite variety of “comfort” animals loaded into airplanes, too many of which are used more to call attention to their owners than to comfort them. Nobody pays much attention to the possibility that these creatures might be making other passengers (or nursing home residents) distinctly un-comfortable.

I love this story...thanks for it!

Most animal lovers fell good about animals, and many of us fell that the companionship of an animal carried us through hard times. The capacity of an animal to seem to welcome touching, or grooming or vocal communications from a human can be a great gift t for those who are deprived of comforting touch themselves. That includes a lot of folks in nursing homes. I also have no doubt that the presence of an animal who can allow a child to relax can make it possible for the child ( or maybe, the child in the adult) to speak about problems that might be harder to share "alone" with a therapist. But if there are problems to be unraveled or behavior to be changed, the therapist will be the one to provide the psychotherapy. A llama who comforts sure beats medication for anxiety! And naturally, it is helpful to reduce anxiety to allow for a therapeutic alliance to develop - and to allow the patient to handle the anxiety that arises from talking about upsetting problems.