SPACE Individual Treatment
SPACE Individual Treatment
SPACE Individual Treatment (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is a parent-based therapy designed to help children of all ages with anxiety, OCD, and related disorders. SPACE is an empirically validated intervention developed and studied at the Yale Child Study Center spearheaded by Dr. Eli Lebowitz.
Research has found that in as little as four individual SPACE sessions, over two-thirds of parents report a significant change in parent-child interactions (e.g., less accommodation, better communication) that resulted in lower child anxiety symptoms one month post-treatment.
Unlike traditional therapies where the child is the primary participant, SPACE focuses on coaching parents to change their accommodations within the environment to manage symptoms related to anxiety and OCD. SPACE has been shown to be effective in reducing anxiety symptoms in children, often without the child needing direct therapy themselves.
Goals of SPACE:
Cultivate a supportive role of the parents
Restore the child’s autonomy
Indirectly improve the child’s self-regulation and coping
Develop a supportive community
Improve collaboration and communication among the family
Identify and utilize unilateral parental action
Key Components of SPACE:
Reducing Accommodation: Parents often unwittingly accommodate their child’s anxiety by allowing avoidant behaviors or making special arrangements for them. SPACE teaches parents how to reduce these accommodations in a strategic, stepwise fashion.
Parental Support: Parents learn to communicate supportively without reinforcing the child’s anxiety. This involves expressing confidence in the child’s ability to handle anxiety-inducing situations.
Therapist Role: The therapist works directly with parents, providing guidance and feedback on implementing these changes in the environment.
Parents will meet individually with a SPACE trained clinician to learn the SPACE protocol, identify appropriate target behaviors, and create a plan to reduce accommodation. Working one on one with a SPACE-trained clinician offers several unique benefits for parents.
Potential Benefits of Working Individually with a SPACE Provider:
Personalized Guidance: The clinician will tailor the treatment to the specific needs of your child and family. This customization allows for a more targeted approach to addressing your child’s anxiety, as the clinician can adapt strategies based on the family’s unique situation.
Direct Feedback: In one on one sessions, parents receive specific feedback on their efforts to provide supportive communication and reduce accommodations. This can help fine-tune approaches more efficiently and effectively.
Confidentiality and Comfort: Parents may feel more comfortable discussing personal or sensitive family dynamics in a private setting. This can lead to more honest communication and a deeper understanding of the issues and struggles at hand.
Flexible Pace: The pace of sessions can be adjusted according to the family’s progress and needs. If a particular aspect of the treatment requires more time or attention, the clinician can slow down to ensure parents fully understand and feel confident in implementing the strategies.
Focus on Specific Challenges: In individual sessions, the clinician can spend more time addressing particular challenges that may not be fully covered in a group setting. This could include complex family dynamics, co-occurring conditions, or specific triggers that require extra attention.
Therapeutic Alliance: The therapeutic alliance with the family can be developed in one on one sessions, fostering trust and encouraging more open communication. A strong therapeutic alliance can enhance the effectiveness of the treatment.
Consistency and Accountability: Regular sessions can help parents stay consistent in their efforts to reduce accommodations, providing ongoing motivation and accountability. The clinician can track progress more closely, making any necessary adjustments.
Enhanced Parent Confidence: With focused support of a clinician, parents often gain confidence more quickly in their ability to reduce accommodations, which can lead to faster and more sustainable progress.
Working individually with a SPACE-trained clinician can provide a highly tailored, supportive environment that can significantly enhance the effectiveness of the SPACE treatment.
Please reach out to us at info@cbteam.org if you have any questions or would like to enroll in individual SPACE therapy.
