SPACE stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions and is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD and related problems. It was developed at the Yale Child Study Center by Dr. Eli Lebowitz and is a systematic program that teaches parents how to change their own behavior so that they can best support and respond to their child’s anxiety. By reducing an “accommodating” approach to a child’s anxiety, parents are able to engage in a manner that ultimately enhances the child’s ability to cope with anxious thoughts and feelings.
Although children do not attend SPACE sessions…they are the patients! When SPACE treatment is successful children feel less anxious and function better following treatment. Some of the main anxiety problems treated with SPACE include:
separation anxiety, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, fears and phobias, panic disorder, Obsessive-compulsive disorder