SPACE Treatment for Children, Teens, & Adults with Anxiety & OCD

SPACE Helps Parents Identify and Reduce Well-Meaning “Accommodations” that Can Reinforce Anxiety.

These may include constant reassurance, allowing avoidance of activities, or adjusting family routines to ease their child’s anxiety. These accommodations, though understandable, can unintentionally reinforce the anxiety and keep their child feeling stuck. With SPACE, parents learn how to validate their child’s fears while also stepping back. Thus, empowering their child to develop resilience and confidence in handling life’s challenges.  Latter-day Saint families seeking help for anxiety and OCD often experience very specific pain points. Their children may suffer from frequent stomachaches and headaches, fall behind at school, or have difficulty separating from a parent. Others may wrestle with overwhelming guilt about small mistakes, feeling like they need to be perfect to be loved by God.

Teens and young adults may struggle with church-related anxiety.

They may question their faith, feel unworthy after baptism, or fear they aren’t “good enough” to serve a mission. In some cases, young adults may experience a “failure to launch,” held back by anxiety about work, school, or living on their own. SPACE Parenting offers hope. By providing parents with tools to shift their responses, this program equips Latter-day Saint families to navigate the intersection of anxiety, OCD, and faith with compassion and confidence. Parents often feel relieved to know they don’t have to “fix” their child—they simply need to learn how to respond differently. Through SPACE, families can create an environment where children and teens feel safe to face their fears, reduce their anxious behaviors, and embrace both emotional and spiritual growth.

What Age is SPACE Treatment For?

SPACE treatment is designed for parents of children, teens, and young adults ages 8 to 25. This age range reflects a critical time in emotional development when anxiety and OCD symptoms can surface or become overwhelming. Whether your 8-year-old is struggling with separation anxiety, your teenager feels consumed by worries about their worthiness or your young adult is stuck in a “failure to launch” cycle, SPACE provides parents with practical tools to support them effectively.

For younger children, anxiety may show up as chronic headaches, stomachaches, or avoidance of school and church activities. They might seek constant reassurance about being "good enough" or feel intense pressure to be perfect. Teens often wrestle with scrupulosity—agonizing over mistakes, questioning their spiritual worthiness, or fearing they’ll never measure up to expectations after baptism. For young adults, anxiety can manifest as difficulty taking steps toward independence, such as serving a mission, applying for jobs, or moving out on their own. These “failure to launch” situations often stem from overwhelming anxiety or OCD, leaving both parents and young adults feeling stuck.

SPACE Empowers Parents to Make Meaningful Changes at Every Stage of Development.

By learning how to respond supportively and reduce accommodating behaviors, you can help your child or young adult build resilience and take small, confident steps forward. For families facing failure to launch challenges, SPACE offers a compassionate, structured approach to help young adult navigate their fears and move toward their life goals with confidence. No matter your child’s age, SPACE equips you with the tools to create a supportive environment where anxiety no longer holds the reins. With time, consistency, and faith, your child or young adult can begin to overcome their fears, develop confidence, and live a more fulfilling life.

Is SPACE Parenting Right for You and Your Family?

Choosing the right type of treatment for your child's anxiety or OCD can feel overwhelming and daunting. As a parent, you want to make sure that your child receives the best care possible and that any interventions taken will be effective in helping them manage their symptoms. Here are some commonly asked questions about SPACE parenting and how it can benefit your child.

What is the SPACE Treatment Approach to OCD?

The SPACE approach to OCD focuses on empowering parents to make small, intentional changes in how they respond to their child’s anxiety and compulsions. Instead of trying to “fix” the OCD directly or forcing the child to change, SPACE teaches parents to adjust their behaviors in ways that support their child’s growth. Two key areas of focus in SPACE are responding supportively to OCD symptoms—validating emotions without reinforcing fears—and gradually reducing accommodations, such as excessive reassurance or allowing avoidance. These changes help break the cycle of OCD and anxiety over time, allowing children and young adults to build resilience and face their fears independently.

For children and teens with OCD, including scrupulosity (a form of religious OCD), compulsions can dominate daily life. Whether it’s repeatedly confessing minor mistakes, saying prayers “perfectly,” or seeking reassurance about their spiritual worthiness, these behaviors are exhausting for both the child and their family. The SPACE approach equips parents with tools to reduce these patterns while maintaining a compassionate and faith-supportive environment. By stepping back from accommodating OCD and responding with calm, supportive confidence, parents give their child or young adult the space to develop the tools they need to manage their OCD and live a fuller, more peaceful life.

What is SPACE treatment for OCD?

SPACE, or Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, is a parent-based treatment program designed to help children and adolescents struggling with anxiety, OCD, and related challenges. Created by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at Yale University, SPACE shifts the focus from treating the child directly to empowering parents with strategies that can significantly reduce their child’s symptoms over time. Parents learn how to respond to their child’s anxiety in a supportive, non-accommodating way, breaking the cycle of reassurance-seeking and avoidance that often feeds OCD. The beauty of SPACE is that it doesn’t require the child to attend sessions, making it especially helpful for families where children or teens are resistant to therapy.

For OCD, SPACE provides parents with practical tools to gently reduce the accommodations that enable compulsions, such as checking, confessing, or avoidance behaviors. Whether it’s a child repeatedly seeking reassurance that they’re “good enough” or a young adult avoiding big life steps due to overwhelming fears, SPACE teaches parents how to step back while offering validation and encouragement. With this balanced approach, children and young adults begin to build confidence, face their fears, and regain a sense of control over their lives. For Latter-day Saint families, SPACE honors individual agency and aligns well with values of faith, growth, and resilience, creating a supportive environment where emotional and spiritual development can flourish.

What is the Main Component of Parental Accommodation that the SPACE Treatment Targets?

The main focus of SPACE treatment is helping parents recognize and address accommodating behaviors that unintentionally reinforce their child’s anxiety or OCD symptoms. Accommodations often start with good intentions—parents naturally want to protect their children from discomfort or distress. This might look like answering repeated questions for reassurance, allowing a child to avoid church or school, or adjusting family routines to prevent triggers. However, over time, these behaviors can inadvertently strengthen anxiety and OCD, sending the message that the child can’t cope without the parent’s intervention.

Through SPACE, parents learn how to identify these patterns and gradually scale back accommodations in a way that feels supportive rather than harsh or abrupt. For example, instead of constantly reassuring a child that they’re “not bad” or “didn’t sin,” parents can respond with warmth. At the same time, they can gently reduce the frequency of reassurance. This approach teaches children and young adults to build resilience and confidence. They learn that they can handle discomfort, uncertainty, or triggers on their own. For parents, this shift can feel challenging but transformative. Allowing them to foster independence while maintaining a strong, nurturing connection with their child.

What Does SPACE Stand for in Mental Health?

SPACE stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, an evidence-based treatment designed to help parents support their children struggling with OCD and anxiety. Unlike traditional therapy, SPACE shifts the focus to the parents, empowering them with strategies to address their child’s symptoms. Through SPACE, parents learn how to respond to anxiety or OCD in ways that reduce symptom severity over time while helping their child develop the confidence to cope independently.

This parent-based approach is especially effective because it targets the family dynamics that often sustain anxiety and OCD. By reducing accommodations—like excessive reassurance or avoidance—parents send a powerful message of support: “I believe you can handle this.” SPACE equips parents with practical tools and compassionate guidance, allowing them to create a nurturing environment that encourages emotional growth, resilience, and long-term healing for their children and young adults.

Want to Learn More About SPACE and OCD?

You want to know more about SPACE and how it can help your child cope with their anxiety or OCD.  Understanding a treatment approach can give you the confidence and support to make an informed decision for your family. Here are some frequently asked questions about OCD and how SPACE treatment can make a positive impact on your child's life.