SPACE

Anxiety in Children Support

Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, or SPACE,  is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related challenges. SPACE was developed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Center and has been tested and found to be effective  in randomized controlled clinical trials. Parents and other caregivers participate in SPACE treatment sessions during which they learn skills and tools to help their child overcome anxiety, OCD or related problems. The treatment focuses on changes that parents can make to their own behavior, they do not need to make their child change. The two main changes that parents learn to make in SPACE treatment are to respond more supportively to their anxious child and to reduce the accommodations they have been making to the child’s symptoms. SPACE is offered as an individual model for parents, or in a group model where parents learn together.