Supportive Parenting for
Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)
Helping Parents Learn to Effectively Support Their Child While Reducing Accommodations for Anxiety
You may have arrived here because…
• Your child or teen is resistant to treatment, but you would like to know how you can best help them.
• Your child’s struggles with anxiety or OCD have led you to make significant changes in your life.
• You are open to treatment as a parent and making changes in the way you approach your child’s anxiety.
• Your child is at least 5 years old.
However you arrive here, I am so glad you’re here. Read on to see if my Parenting-Based Treatment for your child’s anxiety, utilizing SPACE techniques, might be a good fit for you and your family.
How SPACE Works
SPACE is designed to help parents by teaching techniques to provide support to children while helping them navigate uncomfortable situations on their own. A core component of this treatment is helping parents reduce accommodations for their child’s anxiety. Accommodations are behaviors we engage in that provide short-term relief from anxiety but don’t allow our children to learn to navigate these situations independently.
Examples of Accommodations
• Letting your child sleep in your room or sleeping in their room.
• Excessively reassuring your child that “everything will be okay.”
• Speaking for your child in social situations.
• Avoiding certain places or situations, like going outside if your child is afraid of insects.
• Excessively checking your child to make sure they aren’t sick or injured.
• Not going out so your child does not have to be away from you.
• Avoiding changes to routines or schedules.
Treatment Details
This treatment is parent-based and requires no participation from children themselves. The focus of SPACE is to alter parent behaviors only. Research on SPACE has shown that we can see just as much improvement in children’s reports of anxiety when parents participate in treatment utilizing SPACE techniques as when children participate in individual treatment.