SPACE:

Support Without Supporting the Anxiety

When someone you love struggles with OCD, anxiety, or chronic avoidance, it’s natural to want to help. But sometimes helping—providing reassurance, participating in rituals, or helping someone avoid difficult situations—can unintentionally keep the cycle going

What is SPACE?

SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is a CBT-based approach that helps family members change how they respond to anxiety and avoidance. Rather than trying to convince your loved one to change, SPACE focuses on something you have more control over: how you respond. Many families with members that OCD experience challenges while trying to figure out how to effectively help someone when triggered and find themselves reacting in ways that have backfired! While the acronym, SPACE, suggests the approach is for children - SPACE has been researched for children, adolescents, and adults with OCD, ARFID, and excessive avoidance and demonstrated strong effects because accommodation of OCD happens in many relationships not only child-parent ones.

Support Without Accommodating

A key part of SPACE is reducing accommodation: the things we do to help someone avoid or escape anxiety.

Accommodations might include:

  • Repeatedly providing reassurance

  • Participating in OCD rituals

  • Taking over tasks because they cause anxiety

  • Helping someone avoid feared situations

  • Changing family routines to prevent distress

Together, we identify these patterns and find practical, gradual ways to respond differently.

Compassion + Confidence

Reducing accommodation doesn’t mean becoming less supportive.

In fact, SPACE emphasizes communicating two messages at the same time:

“I understand how hard this is.” & “I believe you can handle it.

The goal of SPACE is to learn to support the person without supporting the OCD, anxiety, or avoidance.

You Can Change Your Side of the Pattern

You don’t have to force someone else to change in order to make a difference. By changing how you respond to anxiety, reassurance seeking, rituals, and avoidance, you can create an environment that supports greater confidence, flexibility, and independence—while remaining compassionate and connected.

And while many people often try to change their side - but find that maintaining that new expectation is easier said that done. That is where SPACE comes in - to build a smart long-term plan to accomplish long-term goals.

Who Can I Work With?

I use SPACE and related CBT strategies with parents, caregivers, spouses, and partners. At times, I will work in tandem with a client doing individual CBT and with their parents or partner working on reducing accommodations, simultaneously. This option helps develop a ‘team approach’ to treating OCD - where everyone can contribute to easing the suffering, practicing CBT skills, and supporting one another.

SPACE can be particularly helpful when your loved one is stuck, highly avoidant, resistant to treatment, or simply not ready to participate in therapy themselves. If this sounds like your experience, and you are uncertain how to best help this person in your, please know you are not alone and help is available.

If SPACE sounds helpful for you or your loved ones - schedule a consultation below:

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