SPACE Treatment: A Parent Training to Help Support Anxious Kids
You may be a parent of a child with anxiety or OCD. Some common ways this may look is persistent worry, emotional dysregulation, avoidance of tasks or activities, or frequent physical complaints. As a parent, you probably feel concerned about your child but also (& it’s okay to say this) overwhelmed.
SPACE Treatment (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Experiences) is a program developed for parents to support their children. Imagine this- your child comes to you with a list of ailments, reporting that they feel sick and they just aren’t sure if they can go to school tomorrow. Let’s look at 2 different ways to handle this:
You take their temperature and do a comprehensive review of their symptoms, providing reassurance. While this is great support and your child will feel well taken care of, it doesn’t teach the ability to cope with uncertainty. You may also find yourself taking their temperature nightly, an extra few minutes to an already hectic bedtime routine.
Another option is to acknowledge the concern, engage the child playfully, and move on. The child still feels taken care of here, but it builds their ability to manage uncertainty and build confidence in themselves.
I totally get why you’d go with the first option, it allows the child to recognize that they are not sick and therefore, feel better. But anxiety is tricky and can feed off of this in the long run only strengthening the anxiety cycle. You also set the pattern in place that in order to feel better, there needs to be some kind of external reassurance. The research behind this explains that when there is an increase in anxiety and you reassure it, your tolerance for distress or uncertainty is not able to be built. This is an important muscle to develop as it helps in a variety of circumstances.
Here are some ways parents intentionally or unintentionally reassure their children:
When it comes to social anxiety, you may shadow your child closely or avoid going out.
When it comes to OCD and compulsions, you may engage in rituals with them or avoid triggers.
Lastly, for general anxiety you may engage in reassurance seeking or avoid the triggers.
Avoidance is common here- why would you want to upset or trigger your child. You can recognize it is not their fault they are anxious and as parents want to protect them. SPACE acknowledges this- the goal is not to just take away the accommodations but to build up your child's confidence, in the long run allowing them to take back control of their anxiety or OCD.
SPACE takes place in close conjunction with a trained therapist. You will work with the therapist to talk through how your child’s symptoms look, identify accommodations, and develop a plan to reduce said accommodations. Together, you will engage in troubleshooting any concerns in order to be prepared for any reactions. Throughout the entire process, you will identify how to support your child so they still feel cared for, even when it is hard.
This treatment approach may be a good fit for your family if your child is not open to therapy, is getting stuck in treatment, or as an add-on to the work already being done. It is indicated for the treatment of anxiety, phobias, OCD, ARFID, and more. SPACE has been studied in children as young as 4 and has programs developed for young adults as well who may be identified as “failure to launch”
SPACE is evidenced based treatment developed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz. Check out more information and resources for parents on the SPACE website here.
If you are interested in learning more about SPACE you can book an appointment here or reach out to hello@bloomandbalancetherapy.com with any questions.
-Rebecca Powers, LCSW
