Our primary mission is to empower our clients to take control of challenging/ difficult areas in their lives through the use of skill-based, present-focused, goal-oriented, and scientifically-proven treatments.
Breaking the Cycle: Empowering Parents to Tackle Childhood Anxiety and OCD with SPACE Treatment
Written by Amanda Turco, LPC
Childhood anxiety and OCD are more prevalent than many realize. According to recent studies, approximately 7.1% of children aged 3-17 years in the United States have diagnosed anxiety, while 1-3% are affected by OCD (CDC). These conditions can be overwhelming for children, as they struggle to understand and manage their worried thoughts and intrusive emotions. In addition to the stress and overwhelm of the lived experience of the disorder, it is not uncommon for a child to be resistant to the therapy process. It can be scary to open up with an unfamiliar person – and therapy is hard work! In SPACE, an evidence-based treatment developed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Center, we integrate you, their parent, into therapy. Using their role as the empathetic, supportive, and trusted figures for their child, research shows parents can be the solution to bring about active, long-term change.
So let’s talk about the experience of parenting a child with OCD/anxiety. When a child is experiencing a worried thought or feared emotion, they often seek out relief which can come in the form of avoidance, reassurance, or a specific behavior. As a parent, your natural instinct is to protect and support your child! You might notice your own anxiety increasing and then, perhaps aiming to be one step ahead of your child to control their anxiety and protect them. You might be taking time out of your day, changing routines, or increasing your daily load which can sometimes lead to burnout and exhaustion.
Parents of anxious children may find themselves:
- Talking for or answering questions in place of your child to accommodate social anxiety
- Responding to multiple phone calls or texts a day
- Checking child’s homework repeatedly to ensure it is complete or errorless
- Avoiding changes to routines or schedules, or following a rigid schedule to accommodate your child
- Providing repeated assurance that you are not harmed or they are not in danger
- Taking child into school late or picking them up early because of panic symptoms
- Avoiding places where anxiety/ panic can happen
- Planning outings to avoid feared stimuli
- Staying in child’s room until they fall asleep
- Preparing specific meals
Family accommodation is present in 97% of parents of anxious children (Shimshoni et al., 2019; Benito et al., 2015; Storch et al, 2015), so you’re not alone, and there’s nothing wrong with you if you checked yes to the list above. It makes so much sense that when you see your child suffering from worried thoughts or emotions, that the parental instinct is to protect your child from fear or danger and provide the emotional support or accommodation to try and eliminate the anxiety or fear. While these actions stem from a place of love and concern, they can inadvertently reinforce anxious thoughts and behaviors, preventing children from developing crucial coping skills. Plus, participating in the anxiety cycle can actually reinforce the worried thought or fear and sends the message to your child’s brain that this thought IS dangerous, and they SHOULD be avoiding it at all costs. Your loving act of protection then actually can prevent your child from learning that they can regulate or cope on their own. This often means that the worry or fear will get stronger, and lead to more and more reassurance – perhaps leading you to finding this article today.
You are a powerful and essential person in your child’s life. In SPACE, we help you understand the impact of your role and teach you how to break the cycle of anxiety for your child when they cannot do it on their own. How do we do this?
Here’s how it works:
- Your SPACE therapist acts as a parent coach, guiding you to break the cycle of anxiety for your child.
- You’ll learn to implement a powerful combination of validation and confidence: “I see this is hard for you and it’s okay to feel anxious, and I’m 100% sure you can handle it.”
- Your therapist helps you recognize specific parent-behaviors that reinforce your child’s anxiety and develop a plan to gradually stop them.
- By offering validation while expressing confidence in your child’s abilities, you help them face their fears and develop self-regulation skills.
- Then, as you decrease accommodations, your child learns to challenge anxious thoughts and confront objectively safe situations they previously avoided.
It’s truly amazing what you can do to support your child and shift their relationship with their anxiety – and thus, with the world. Breaking the cycle of childhood anxiety is challenging. It’s hard work, we aren’t going to pretend it isn’t. But with the right support and strategies, it’s achievable. The SPACE approach empowers you to guide your child towards resilience and emotional independence. Through your work, you are giving your child the tools they need to thrive not just this year, but throughout adulthood. We’re here to help when you’re ready. Reach out to get started.
For more information on SPACE, visit: https://www.spacetreatment.net/
