Are you parenting an anxious kid?
Raising kids is hard, and raising kids with anxiety and OCD can feel even harder. You deeply love your child and it’s hard to watch them struggle - yet you sense that your efforts to reassure them don’t always actually make things better. You want to raise a sturdy kiddo – one who can weather life’s challenges – but you aren’t always quite sure how to do that.
Or perhaps you’ve looked for individual therapy for your child, but waitlists are long – or, when you finally do get them in to see a provider, it feels like the individual work they’re doing isn’t well-integrated with the realities of family life.
My belief? Kids get well – and stay well – within a supportive family context, which is why I feel it’s essential to bring parents into childhood anxiety work. I’m passionate about empowering parents to respond to their child’s anxiety with confidence, while simultaneously staying connected to their core parenting values.
What is SPACE?
SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is an exciting, new evidence-based treatment for kids with OCD and anxiety disorders. Although the child is the identified “patient” in SPACE treatment, the parents are the ones who attend sessions. In SPACE, parents learn to increase their supportiveness and decrease their accommodations in order to help their child overcome anxiety, OCD and related problems.
I’d love to help you become the sturdy leader of your family that you so want to be. Together, we can help you increase your child’s resilience, decrease their anxiety, and work towards a calmer, more connected home. The truth is that although anxiety can be uncomfortable, it isn’t dangerous. I’d love to help you develop practical skills to respond to your child’s anxiety with confidence – building resilience and sturdiness in your entire family along the way.
SPACE can be used for:
Separation anxiety
Social anxiety
Generalized anxiety
Fears and phobias
Panic disorder and Agoraphobia
Selective mutism
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Frequently Asked Questions about SPACE
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Yes. SPACE is an evidence-based treatment that came out of the Yale Child Study Center. The largest clinical trial on SPACE to date showed it to be as effective in treating childhood anxiety as traditional CBT treatment.
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While both paths are valid, I see SPACE as a more effective long-term treatment for childhood anxiety. Since kids get well – and stay well – within the context of their supportive families, integrating parents into treatment feels crucial to the longevity and efficacy of the work. On a practical level, finding providers who can see kids in person outside of school hours can be tricky. Many parents find that SPACE is easier logistically for their families, as appointments can be scheduled during the workday.
SPACE is also non-demanding of our kids! SPACE treatment focuses on changes parents can make to our own behavior – it does not demand that our children change. Personally, using SPACE concepts in my own life has really helped increase my confidence as a parent, and has had lots of benefits for my whole family system.
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Great question! Accommodations are, in essence, anything we are doing – or are not doing – because of our child’s anxiety. Some examples might be: allowing my child to stay home from school due to anxiety; avoiding going out or leaving my child with a babysitter; constantly providing reassurance when my child asks lots of questions due to their anxiety. Doing a full inventory of parental accommodations is part of SPACE treatment, but if you’re interested in taking a look on your own, I recommend my colleague Robyn’s parental accommodation assessment – available for free on her website.
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Individual cases may vary, but the typical treatment trajectory is 8-12 sessions, meeting weekly.
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The SPACE Treatment Website is a great resource – it includes links to articles about SPACE as well as videos, podcast appearances and more. If you’re on social media, I recommend my collague Robyn Isman of Parenting the Anxious Child, who has lots of fantastic resources on her Instagram.