SPACE Program
The Space program (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is an exciting new treatment protocol for childhood anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Developed by Eli Lebowitz out of Yale University ChIld Study Center and Tel Aviv University, this is a completely parent-based intervention which allows us to treat children who may be unresponsive or resistant to individual cognitive behavioral therapy or medication.
This program targets parent accommodation and coaches parents in how to become supportive instead of protective of their anxious child. Over the course of approximately 12 sessions, SPACE helps parents reduce their accommodations while expressing empathy for their child’s suffering and confidence in their capabilities.
The SPACE program coaches parents to communicate that they accept and understand their child’s experience of fear, and have faith in their ability to cope and face challenges successfully.
Parents and clinician chart success on target behaviors, and troubleshoot when resistance or disruptive behaviors come up at home. This approach also addresses the need for collaboration between parents, and works on differences between parents in how their child’s anxiety is approached.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lebowitz and his YCSC colleagues conducted a randomized study comparing the efficacy of SPACE and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for treating childhood anxiety in 124 children ages 7-14 with existing clinical anxiety disorders. The primary research objective was to compare SPACE to CBT in a noninferiority trial.
Lebowitz et al. found that children with anxiety disorders “whose parents participated in 12 sessions of SPACE were as likely to overcome their anxiety disorder as children who participated in 12 sessions of CBT, the best-established evidence-based treatment for child anxiety.” These findings were published online last year and appear in the March 2020 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
This study reports that a greater proportion (87.5% vs. 75.5%) of children with existing anxiety disorders whose parents participated in the SPACE program showed significant improvement to their anxiety symptoms in comparison to CBT. Notably, children and parents who participated in this study rated both SPACE and CBT treatments as “highly satisfactory.” Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lebowitz and his YCSC colleagues conducted a randomized study comparing the efficacy of SPACE and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for treating childhood anxiety in 124 children ages 7-14 with existing clinical anxiety disorders. The primary research objective was to compare SPACE to CBT in a noninferiority trial.
Lebowitz et al. found that children with anxiety disorders “whose parents participated in 12 sessions of SPACE were as likely to overcome their anxiety disorder as children who participated in 12 sessions of CBT, the best-established evidence-based treatment for child anxiety.” These findings were published online last year and appear in the March 2020 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
This study reports that a greater proportion (87.5% vs. 75.5%) of children with existing anxiety disorders whose parents participated in the SPACE program showed significant improvement to their anxiety symptoms in comparison to CBT. Notably, children and parents who participated in this study rated both SPACE and CBT treatments as “highly satisfactory.”
Based on these findings, the authors conclude: “SPACE was noninferior, relative to CBT, on primary and secondary anxiety outcomes. SPACE is an acceptable and efficacious treatment for childhood anxiety disorders [that] provides an alternative strategy for treating anxiety in children.”
Our clinicians have been trained by Eli Lebowitz in this treatment protocol. This approach is highlighted in the Atlantic “What happened to American Childhood?”
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