S.P.A.C.E. – Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions

What is S.P.A.C.E.?

S.P.A.C.E. is an evidenced based treatment that helps parents learn how they can change their approach to their child’s anxiety. When a child is struggling with anxiety or OCD, it can seem like that anxiety and OCD is controlling EVERYTHING! And as a means to avoid conflict, intense emotional distress, or keep the family on time and on task, parents may start to accommodate the anxiety and OCD. While accommodations are appropriate for things like disabilities, when accommodations are used for anxiety and OCD they usually increase avoidance and increase the intensity and belief in the irrational fears that the child holds. Accommodation ends up being an temporary bandaid that allows the family to keep functioning in some capacity, but doesn’t actually help the bigger issue.

Through a mix of structure and flexibility to meet the individual needs of the child and parents, the S.P.A.C.E. program focuses on helping parents identifying where accommodation is present and not actually working towards long-term improvement for the child, the parents, and family as a whole. A plan is then developed to help parents carefully and intentionally start to change and remove those accommodating behaviors. 

Some of the main anxiety problems treated with SPACE include:

• Separation anxiety
• Social anxiety
• Generalized anxiety
• Fears and phobias
• Panic disorder and Agoraphobia
• Selective mutism
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

S.P.A.C.E. emphasizes:

• Cultivating a parent’s supportive role
• Restoring child’s autonomy
• Indirectly improving child’s coping
• Developing a supportive community
• Improving collaboration and communication
• Unilateral parental action
• Minimizing escalation

Why the Parents? Does this mean it’s our fault?

By all means, no! Accommodating behaviors stem from a very normal part of the social structure and dynamics between a parent and child. Parents are supposed to respond to the cries, needs, and fears of their children, but as a child’s fears and anxiety start to slowly become irrational it can be easy to miss or just hard to know how else to help your child.

Parents are NOT at fault, but they can be a part of the solution!

Why S.P.A.C.E.? What are the Benefits?

S.P.A.C.E. has proven to be an emprically valided treatment for anxiety and OCD in children and adolescents. Research studies have demonstrated that S.P.A.C.E. is just as effective as CBT alone for addressing anxiety and OCD in children and adolescents. S.P.A.C.E. also now provides a valid treatment option to help kids that either refuse to engage in therapy or who simply do not respond to individual therapy alone. 

In addition to seeing a reduction in anxiety and OCD in their child, parents also see many benefits from S.P.A.C.E.:

• Parents often report a reduction in their own anxiety
• The program helps parents make meaningful changes in their attitude toward their child and themselves as parents.
• Parents begin to see that their child is strong, more capable, and more competent
• The program is designed to help parents move from a state of helplessness to active leadership