child therapy for anxiety in tampa
SPACE Anxiety Treatment: Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions
Child Anxiety Disorders
Our kids are reporting greater levels of anxiety than ever before. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, more than a third of adolescent girls have an anxiety disorder. The rate for boys is only slightly less. A ton more have behaviors and symptoms that are eroding family life and making "together time" stressful for everyone.
All children can feel fearful from time to time. The types of fears they experience can change as they age, but if they don’t outgrow their fears or if their worries go on for too long, they may have an anxiety disorder. Children with anxiety disorders may act irritably or angry, have trouble sleeping, or experience physical issues like headaches or stomachaches. They can have significant problems in social interactions, school, and home life.
Supportive Parenting for Children with Anxiety Disorders in Tampa
If you have a child who has been diagnosed with anxiety or exhibits signs of anxious behavior, you know it can be devastating to watch. Our first reaction as parents is to step in and try to alleviate the source of their anxiety by trying to “fix” things for them — be it through therapy or some sort of accommodation. But we have a solid base of research that shows that a parent’s response to their child’s anxiety can often make the situation worse, not better.
A child’s anxiety disorder can affect the whole family. Parents and siblings often make accommodations to the child’s anxiety. They may change their schedules, avoid activities they enjoy, and change sleeping and eating arrangements, all to reduce the anxiety their children feel. Unfortunately, all of these accommodations make the problem worse, not better.
Introducing SPACE
The most effective treatment for anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy, which teaches people healthy ways to cope with their worries and emotions. But some children refuse to try the therapy or don’t follow the treatment correctly. Of those children who do complete the therapy, only about half respond.
Recent studies have shown that a parent’s involvement in their child’s treatment can significantly help reduce anxiety. Parents are in a unique position to help, since their children naturally rely on them for reassurance and protection. Parents who participate in SPACE learn to respond more supportively to their anxious child and reduce the accommodations they have been making to the child’s symptoms. Treatment typically takes about 12 sessions, but will be tailored to fit the family’s exact circumstances.
Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related problems.
The goal of this treatment is for parents to learn skills and tools to help their child overcome their anxiety. Treatment focuses on helping parents to a) respond supportively to their child’s anxiety with a combination of validation and confidence, and b) reduce reinforcing or accommodating their child’s anxiety. By exclusively focusing on changing parental behavior instead of child behavior, SPACE reduces the escalation families often experience when trying to force kids to change course and empowers parents to take action to support their child.
Parent Support for Anxiety
As a parent-based intervention, child involvement is not required for any portion of treatment, making it an ideal option for parents of children and teens who are unwilling or unable to engage in their own treatment. SPACE is also a great supplement for parents and other caregivers when their child is already engaged in individual treatment, yet not making great progress.
We have found SPACE is often a necessary first step to anxiety treatment, as ongoing parental accommodation regularly interferes with children and teens being motivated for change on their own. While the target of treatment is the child’s anxiety, most parents find SPACE improves their own well-being and sense of competence in navigating their child’s anxiety.
child anxiety therapy in tampa
We teach you specific strategies to help you get your child through their anxious emotions and behaviors.
By the end of working together, you can expect to:
have a clear understanding of what can cause, maintain, and reduce your child's anxious feelings and behaviors
know what to say (and not say) when your child is worrying, expressing fears, or refusing to do something because they are too anxious or nervous
know what to do (and not do) to help them increase their bravery, independence, and self-efficacy
feel confident in your ability to set limits and boundaries that fit the needs of your whole family that doesn’t require walking on eggshells around your child’s anxiety
You are not the problem, but you can be the solution.
Our focus on your behavior as a parent does not mean that you are to blame for your child's anxiety. You are not the problem here, however you can be an important part of the solution. Anxiety disorders make it difficult for children to function independently. They tend to rely heavily upon their parents to help them cope rather than learning to cope on their own.
We offer the SPACE treatment individually as well as in group workshops. The group format is offered twice per year and covers all of the same material that would be delivered individually, while also allowing caregivers to learn from and support each other. Groups include written materials, didactic discussions, coping skills practice, and group-based processing.
SPACE has been proven to be effective with some of the most common anxiety issues children face including:
Separation Anxiety Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Fears and Phobias
Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Emetophobia (fear of vomiting)
To read more about SPACE and how it works visit www.spacetreatment.net