SPACE: Supportive Parenting For Anxious Childhood Emotions

I love SPACE. I wish I could scream from mountains for all to hear! This modality has the ability to offer families so much. It is an evidence-based program to treat childhood anxiety without actually involving the child. I work with you, the parent or caregiver, to help you feel more confident in responding to your child in a way that promotes recovery.

I can assure you, kids do not come with a manual and they especially have no specific instructions about feelings. Yet, children are inherently reliant upon their caregivers from the day they are born to help regulate their emotions - when babies are uncomfortable, they cry to elicit specific reactions from us (dance, monkey, dance!). As they grow, kids naturally become more independent (thank goodness).

However, when you have a child with a predisposition to experience higher levels of anxiety or depression, sometimes the boundaries between child and parent do not change like we anticipate. This can impact dynamics around anxiety, OCD, going to school, bedtime, and generally becoming more independent and able to emotionally regulate.

If you have a child at any age and want to feel more confident helping them navigate hard feelings in a way that promotes supportive independence, SPACE is for you.

The best news? You don’t actually need me! The founder of SPACE, Eli Lebowitz at Yale Child Studies Center, wrote a book for parents to be able to implement SPACE without a clinician. It’s called Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD. You can also watch a video of SPACE implementation on their website.

While developed for Anxiety and OCD, SPACE has also been researched to support families struggling with ARFID/Picky Eating and Failure to Launch, which is akin to school refusal at a younger age. I use SPACE principles in all of my parent consultation. I would be thrilled to get to support you in a SPACE journey, whether it’s one consultation to be sure you’re on the right track with the book or the full kit and caboodle if you’re not a reader. I can generally graduate families from SPACE in about 6-10 sessions.