Supportive SPACE Therapy in Columbia, MD

When your child is struggling with anxiety, it often feels like the whole household is holding its breath. You find yourself doing everything you can: offering reassurance, making adjustments, tiptoeing around the triggers, just to help your child get through the day. And still, you may be watching their world get smaller, their confidence shrink, and their distress grow louder. If you’re feeling stuck and unsure how to truly help, please know this: you’re not alone. As a certified SPACE therapist, I can help you find a new way to support your child—one that’s grounded, compassionate, and proven to ease anxiety without adding more stress to your family.

Help for Parents Feeling Stuck, Overwhelmed, or Unsure What to Do Next

You’re Doing the Best You Can. Now Let’s Give You a Better Map

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your child's anxiety, I'm here to help. Using the SPACE model, we focus on empowering you as a parent to make manageable and meaningful changes to the way you engage with your child. Together, we'll build a road map to reduce anxiety's grip on your family. You'll learn to respond with calm confidence, paving the way for a more connected relationship with your child and greater emotional resilience. Let's transform the way you support your child and find relief.

Gives you practical tools to reduce anxiety-driven behaviors with compassion, not blame
Teaches you how to gently shift patterns that may be unintentionally keeping anxiety in place
Supports your child’s ability to feel more brave, independent, and capable
Offers a research-backed approach when your child resists or avoids therapy
Strengthens your connection with your child, even during tough moments
Reduces the emotional toll anxiety takes on the whole family
Provides a step-by-step plan grounded in compassion, not pressure
Empowers you as a parent or caregiver to be an active part of your child’s healing

SPACE therapy is a parent-based treatment program designed to help children and adolescents overcome anxiety, even when they’re not ready or willing to participate in therapy themselves. Developed at the Yale Child Study Center by Dr. Eli Lebowitz, SPACE is built around the idea that parents and caregivers can play a powerful role in helping their anxious child grow braver and more confident.

What Is SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) Therapy?

Benefits of SPACE Treatment for You and Your Anxious ChilD

A Structured, Parent-Led Approach to Easing Childhood Anxiety

I’m Here to Help With…

+ Childhood anxiety, including social anxiety, separation anxiety, and generalized worry

+ OCD and related compulsive or reassurance-seeking behaviors

+ School refusal or daily struggles with transitions and routines

+ Anxiety symptoms that are affecting your child’s sleep, mood, or daily functioning

+ Constant accommodations that feel necessary, but exhausting

+ Feeling unsure how to support your child without reinforcing anxiety

+ Feeling torn between offering comfort and encouraging independence

+ A child or teen who resists therapy or won’t participate in treatment

+ Wanting a structured, evidence-based approach, but also one that feels kind and doable

+ Rebuilding connection and calm in a home where anxiety has taken over

If You're Ready To…

01

Feel more confident and grounded in how you support your anxious child

02

Create a calmer home life with fewer power struggles and less emotional exhaustion

03

Help your child feel braver, more capable, and less controlled by anxiety

04

Strengthen your connection with your child, even during the hard moments

Let’s talk about whether SPACE is the right fit for your family.

Schedule a free consultation

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Stop second-guessing yourself and start making changes that truly help

SPACE therapy, which stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, is an evidence-based treatment developed at the Yale Child Study Center. Rather than working directly with the child, SPACE treatment sessions focus on helping parents learn how to respond to their child’s anxiety in new, supportive ways. Through weekly therapy sessions, caregivers receive tools to reduce unhelpful accommodations, improve emotional connection, and support their child’s ability to overcome anxiety.
SPACE treatment is designed for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders, OCD, or related emotional and behavioral challenges. Most families who benefit from SPACE have children between the ages of 6 and 17. Whether your child is struggling with an anxiety disorder, SPACE therapy work is flexible enough to meet a wide range of needs, especially when your child resists or avoids therapy.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a highly effective approach that involves working directly with the child to manage anxiety disorders. While CBT can be very successful, not every child is willing or able to engage in therapy. That’s where SPACE comes in. SPACE is a parent-based treatment, meaning the parent or caregiver attends the treatment sessions, not the child. In SPACE therapy sessions, parents receive guidance, psychoeducation, and support to make key changes at home that help the child overcome anxiety.
SPACE treatment can help with a range of anxiety disorders in children, including generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It can also be effective for related problems, such as school refusal, sleep issues, or difficulty tolerating uncertainty. If child anxiety is impacting daily life, and you feel like you’re constantly adjusting to avoid meltdowns or distress, engaging in the SPACE model may reduce anxiety’s hold while helping your whole family feel more stable and connected.
No, your child does not need to attend the treatment sessions. SPACE is a parent-based treatment, which means the work happens with you. You’ll participate in weekly therapy sessions where you’ll receive tools and support to reduce anxiety-driven behaviors and build a healthier emotional environment at home. Research shows that even when working directly with the child isn’t possible, parents who participate in SPACE see meaningful improvements in how their child feels and functions.
Yes, it can. SPACE therapy sessions can be just as effective when done through online therapy. In fact, many parents find the flexibility and privacy of virtual sessions especially helpful when juggling busy family life. We’ll walk through the evidence-based treatment steps together, focusing on helping you feel more confident in how you respond to your child’s anxiety. The tools, support, and guidance you receive through SPACE treatment remain the same. What matters most is that you feel supported and seen, no matter where you're joining from.