This ‘virtual’ group, based on the concepts of “SPACE”: Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, is designed for parents of children who struggle with anxiety or OCD-related disorders. The group will be delivered via ZOOM.

The groups will take place in 90-minute sessions for a period of 7 weeks. Parents are expected to commit to the entire program.

SPACE 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.

The goal of the group is to jumpstart a change in family behavior by teaching parents how best to respond to their anxious child. Family accommodation is a way that some parents engage with their children in order to decrease their anxiety. Instead of helping your child avoid anxiety-provoking stimuli, you’ll learn new ways to engage that encourage confronting, rather than avoiding their fears. We will help parents take the initial steps in confronting their own accommodating behaviors towards their child’s rituals and anxious routines.

You can expect to:

• gain confidence in parenting your anxious child
• develop the tools to effectively address your child’s anxiety
• reduce some of your own accommodating behaviors

Read about how one of our child psychologists, Dr. Stacy Coyle, applies SPACE principles in helping her own children face anxiety HERE.

The SPACE group is open to residents of Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, and any of the 39 states where psypact has been enacted. Psypact is a program that allows licensed therapists to practice virtually in approved states. Click here to see whether your state is included in the list of eligible states. These groups are geared to parents of children in Kindergarten through High School, and the groups will be comprised of parents of similarly aged children.

If you are interested in hearing more about SPACE, please fill out this screening form and our staff will get back to you as soon as possible to let you know about eligibility and the process. New groups for parents of children in K-8 and parents of children in High School are being planned for the new year. Groups are being scheduled for both daytime and evening hours. Contact us for more information.

New sessions are beginning throughout the year, so please complete the form if you are interested.