It’s good to have you here! Feel free to share anything - stories, ideas, questions or whatever is on your mind. Here you can start discussions, connect with members, reply to comments, and more. I created the parent forum to provide a place where parents can connect with each other and discuss anything relevant to being the parent of someone with anxiety, OCD, or other related disorders.
Being the parent of a child or adolescent with elevated anxiety means coping with constant challenges and dilemmas. SPACE is one approach to navigating those challenges and helping children to overcome their anxiety. In SPACE, parents replace accommodation of a child's symptoms with supportive responses, ones that show the child both acceptance and validation of their genuine difficulty, as well as confidence in the child's ability to cope with tolerate the distress.
I hope this forum is useful and helpful to parents who want to connect with others who share their interests and stories. And I hope that everyone will maintain a supportive attitude - not only toward their child, but to others on the forum as well. Remember that everybody has a lot in common, and everyone is also different.
Again, welcome to the forum!
Has anyone found and participated in SPACE therapy in the Washington, D.C. area - the DMV? I need a recommendation, please.
We also work with NW Anxiety in Portland and are currently using SPACE with our 13-year old who is refusing to participate in online therapy. If anything, it has helped me feel less powerless (and more hopeful).
Thanks for being here! I am looking forward to checking this out.
So I recently finished a workshop series and individual coaching with NW Anxiety in Portland. Ironically, the staff had just finished a SPACE training with Dr. Eli. Again, I think they have all been on the same page, but Eil has developed the universal program, SPACE. SPACE definitely would have given me direction when I was lost 5 years ago and my chid a teen. But it is never to late to work SPACE with success.
So glad it was helpful for your family!
Eli
Stephanie, I also looked in the Space directory and found 2 psychologists in Portland who offer a Space virtual training for parents starting July 16. I found their program online at www.childrensprogram.com. Their names are Nichole Sage and Michael Schwartz. http://www.childrensprogram.com/menu2/complete-li
I happen to live in Portland. I also have a child with anxiety. NW Anxiety 503-542-7635 does fantastic CBT work with children and parents. What is special about them is that they focus on working with the child to do "exposures." 70-80% of CBT therapists say they do exposures, but they do not. (Be cautious about choosing an anxiety therapist. Many of us have gone through 6-7 with no change in the avoidant behaviors of our kids. I believe it is because they do education and talk therapy, but avoid exposures.) It is a confusing issue and discussed in the research. Exposure therapy is the most effective treatment for working with a child with anxiety. Of course, they progress slowly up a fear hierarchy and provide skilled motivation (and humor) along the way. The therapists will actually go on-site with your child to help facilitate exposure. Therapists assisted exposures measure to have the most significant effect of all in treating anxiety. They also help your child look at their "safety behaviors" and work toward letting them go. They provide parent workshops and parent consultation. I believe Dr. Lebowitz has a much more developed program for parents, but nothing NW Anxiety teaches and advised goes against Dr. Lebowitz's philosophy and approaches.
Hello there! I have so many questions. I'm a Mom of twins - boy/girl - now 10 years old. We live in Portland, Oregon. I'm a US-born white woman and my husband of 16 years is a Somali former refugee. The girl twin of ours has had a struggle since early childhood. She's fed by g-tube, but for NO medical reason. The feeding issue started at age 18 months and by 2 1/2 years old (after using an ng tube for a year) we had the g-tube placed. Now that she is 10 it is clear she has a lot of anxiety. This girl is brilliant, well adjusted, and developmentally on track in every other way. Recently, our daughter was even tested for Talented and Gifted (TAG) in her school. Her teacher and school counselor are worried, however, about the amount of anxiety she's beginning to exhibit at school. She's been to 2 feeding clinics (focused on occupational therapy, nutrition, etc.) with no result. She has never had CBT. In any case, this is compounded by the fact that my husband (again, refugee from Somalia), watched 6 of his younger siblings die -- including a set of twins -- before he was 9 years old. He has a lot of trauma around food and eating and anxiety himself. Needless to say, there's been a LOT of accommodation over the years. We recently read the article in the Atlantic that mentioned SPACE and would love to know if there are resources around this. We are ready to try something -- anything -- new. Help lead us to some resources if you can. Thank you!
SPACE can be appropriate for children that young and one study in that age group showed good results.
Would this be appropriate for a 3.5 year old, or is that too young?
This is Awesome! Thanks Dr Lebowitz!
Thank you for creating this forum for parents!