Information about SPACE

Are you a Parent / Caregiver seeking a trained SPACE practitioner?

PartnershipProjects have a number of associates who have attended the SPACE training in-person with Eli Lebowitz in addition to being highly experienced and NVRA accredited practitioners.

Private, individual 1:2:1 sessions are available through our normal referral process.

Are you a Professional looking for SPACE training?

PartnershipProjects have recently hosted the first UK training of SPACE for professionals with Eli Lebowitz.

If you are interested in future SPACE training for professionals, please contact us for more information.

Information about SPACE

S.P.A.C.E stands for: Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions

PartnershipProjects have worked closely with Dr Eli Lebowitz PhD, the founder of SPACE to bring his professional training to the UK. We are now delighted to be able to offer that expertise to parents through our team of highly qualified and accredited practitioners. 

 

What is SPACE?

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.

SPACE was developed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Center and has been tested and found to be efficacious in randomised controlled clinical trials.

Who is SPACE for?

SPACE aims to treat children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although children do not have to attend SPACE sessions – they are the clients!   When SPACE treatment is successful children feel less anxious and function better following treatment.

Some of the main anxiety problems treated with SPACE include:

  • Separation anxiety
  • Social anxiety
  • Generalised anxiety
  • Fears and phobias
  • Panic disorder and Agoraphobia
  • Selective mutism
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
What happens in SPACE treatment?

Parents who participate in SPACE will learn skills and tools to help their child overcome anxiety, OCD or related problems. The treatment focuses on changes that parents can make to their own behaviour, they do not need to make their child change. 

The two main changes that parents learn to make in SPACE treatment are to respond more supportively to their anxious child and to reduce the accommodations they have been making to the child symptoms. 

Breaking free from anxiety: A journey through SPACE

Watch here a moving brief documentary film about families coping with anxiety and going through SPACE treatment.

About Eli Lebowitz, PhD

Professor Lebowitz studies and treats childhood and adolescent anxiety and is Director of the Program for Anxiety Disorders at the Yale Child Study Center. His research focuses on the development, neurobiology, and treatment of anxiety and related disorders, with special emphasis on cross-generational and familial influences in these disorders. Dr. Lebowitz is the lead investigator on multiple funded research projects, and is the author of numerous research papers and of books and chapters on childhood and adolescent anxiety. He is also the father of three great boys.

SPACE: Discussing a Parent-Centred approach to childhood social anxiety with Eli Lebowitz, PhD.

Several questions arise when working with childhood anxiety. Is it more optimal to work with the child individually, the parents, or both? How do we help the child if there are obstacles to compliance or availability of the child? How can we empower parents to be the best resource for their children?

Dr. Eli Lebowitz, PhD, is the Director of Program for Anxiety Disorders at the Yale Child Study Center. He has long been involved in researching family accommodation and its influence on childhood anxiety. Dr. Lebowitz and his team at the Yale Child Study Center have since developed the SPACE program (spacetreatment.net).

SPACE is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related problems. His recently published book, “Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD: A Scientifically Proven Program for Parents”, is geared towards helping parents learn how to implement the SPACE program and become a valuable resource for their children.