Making SPACE: A Parent-Based Approach to Treating Childhood OCD and Anxiety

Many clinicians have treated children and adolescents presenting with anxiety or OCD whose struggles are difficult to treat with CBT alone. Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) offers a different path. This evidence-based, parent-focused treatment builds parental support and helps parents break out of accommodation patterns, producing outcomes comparable to individual CBT without requiring the child to participate directly. In this presentation, Clinical Psychologist and SPACE Certification Supervisor Ginny Fullerton, Ph.D., will provide an overview of the SPACE model, provide a map for assessing families to determine whether SPACE is the right fit, and review the rationale and research behind the approach. Case examples will illustrate common family challenges and strategies that SPACE providers can implement to support change.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the theoretical and empirical bases for the essential components of SPACE: increasing support and decreasing accommodation.