Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)
Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) is an evidence-based, parent-focused treatment designed to help children and adolescents with anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and related challenges. Rather than treating the child directly, SPACE works by helping parents make meaningful changes in the ways they respond to anxiety. The treatment focuses on two key areas:
Increasing Supportive Responses: Parents practice responding to their child’s anxiety with both empathy and confidence. The goal is for parents to learn practical tips for promoting resilience in their child while avoiding power struggles.
Reducing Unhelpful Accommodations: SPACE guides parents to identify and gradually reduce unhelpful accommodations so their child can learn to face their fears and build independence
What to Expect
Children typically do not attend SPACE sessions. Instead, parents meet with the therapist to learn practical strategies they can begin using at home. SPACE can be used as a stand-alone treatment or alongside a child’s individual therapy.
Research has shown that SPACE is highly effective, with clinical trials demonstrating outcomes comparable to child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders and OCD. If you are interested in learning more about SPACE, please reach out!
SPACE for Parents of Adult Children with Failure to Launch
Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) has been adapted to support parents of emerging adults experiencing Failure to Launch (FTL). Failure to Launch is not a mental health diagnosis. Rather, it describes a pattern in which a capable young adult has persistent difficulty moving toward greater independence. This may include challenges obtaining or maintaining employment, pursuing education or vocational training, managing finances, completing daily responsibilities, and living independently.
Many emerging adults experiencing Failure to Launch also struggle with anxiety, OCD, depression, social withdrawal, disrupted sleep, loneliness, low self-confidence, or excessive use of electronic devices. Parents often find themselves caught in a difficult cycle—wanting to help while wondering whether their support is unintentionally making it harder for their adult child to move forward.
How SPACE Can Help
SPACE-FTL helps parents make thoughtful, effective changes in the ways they respond to their adult child's struggles. The goal is not to withdraw love or support, but to provide support in ways that encourage resilience, responsibility, and independence.
Treatment focuses on helping parents:
Respond with empathy and acceptance while expressing confidence in their adult child's ability to cope.
Identify and gradually reduce accommodations that may unintentionally reinforce dependence.
Create realistic, achievable goals to help their adult child move towards autonomy, employment, independent living, or school re-entry
Support their adult child's growth without becoming trapped in cycles of conflict, guilt, or dependence.
What to Expect
SPACE-FTL is a parent-focused treatment, meaning sessions are held with parents rather than the adult child. This allows parents to make meaningful changes regardless of whether their adult child is willing to participate in therapy.
If the adult child chooses to engage in their own individual therapy, SPACE-FTL can complement that work, but their participation is not required for parents to begin making positive changes.
If you're feeling stuck or uncertain about how best to support your adult child, SPACE-FTL offers a structured, systematic framework that helps parents promote greater independence and resilience.
