SPACE parent-based treatment program

Parent-Based Counselling

Welcome to SPACE – Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, a comprehensive treatment program designed to help parents support their children in managing child anxiety and other difficult emotions.

At The Family Psychology Place, we understand that parenting can be challenging, especially when your child is experiencing anxiety or stress. That’s why we’re here to provide you with the tools and resources you need to help your child thrive.

Discuss With Child After SPACE Treatment Program
Happy Children after SPACE Treatment Program

SPACE is a parent-based treatment program built on the latest research in child development, psychology, and neuroscience. It was created by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Center and has been extensively researched through randomized controlled clinical trials, proving its efficacy.

We have therapists trained to deliver SPACE, using evidence-based child anxiety counselling techniques and approaches that have been proven to be effective in helping children manage anxiety and other difficult emotions. This program is designed to help parents learn new skills and strategies to support their child’s anxiety and emotional well-being.

Who SPACE is for?

SPACE is a parent-based treatment program. The treatment program is focused on the parents, children do not attend regular sessions. Children can attend the initial consultation.

The primary goal of SPACE is to provide treatment for anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders in children and adolescents. While it’s important to note that children are the focus of treatment, they are not required to attend SPACE sessions. The ultimate objective of successful SPACE treatment is for children to experience reduced anxiety levels and improved functioning.

SPACE specializes in treating various child anxiety-related conditions, some of which include:

  • Separation anxiety
  • Social anxiety
  • Generalized anxiety
  • Fears and phobias
  • Panic disorder and Agoraphobia
  • Selective mutism
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Every child deserves the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their emotional or behavioural challenges. Our SPACE Treatment program is designed to help parent-based counselling support for their child’s emotional well-being and build a strong, healthy relationship with their child. We are providing child anxiety counselling services in Western Canada.  If you’re interested in learning more about our program or more about child anxiety counselling, please contact us today to schedule an initial consultation.

Happy Family after SPACE Treatment program

Frequently Asked Questions

When does my child attend SPACE? SPACE is a parent-based treatment program. Children do not attend the sessions regularly but can attend the initial consultation. By participating in SPACE, parents will acquire the skills and tools necessary to help their child in overcoming anxiety, OCD, and related issues.

What does SPACE mean? SPACE stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions and is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related problems.

What can I expect from the SPACE treatment program? By participating in SPACE, parents will acquire the skills and tools necessary to help their child in overcoming anxiety, OCD, and related issues. The treatment is centered on modifications parents can make to their own conduct, as opposed to expecting changes from their child.

The two primary modifications that parents learn to implement during SPACE treatment involve responding to their anxious child in a more supportive manner and decreasing the compromises they’ve made to accommodate their child’s symptoms.

Who participates in the SPACE parent-based treatment program? The participation of parents and other caregivers is required in SPACE treatment sessions, while in most cases, the child or adolescent does not need to be present during these sessions.

How many sessions do you need in the SPACE parent-based treatment program? The SPACE treatment program involves 6 group sessions with 6-10 families or 8 individual sessions. It includes an initial consultation to ensure our group facilitators have each family’s unique goals in mind.

What is the cost of the SPACE parent-based treatment program? The cost of the group sessions is $1200. For our individual sessions, the cost is our regular hourly rate of $240 when a family sees one of our trained psychologists and does the SPACE program.