Start Reducing Your Child's Anxiety Today

Learn the SPACE Parenting Approach with other parents of anxious kids

Our SPACE groups are 7-8 weeks long with a cost of $100/session. All sessions are on Zoom. Add your name to the registration list to be contacted about the next group.

Our group for parents of anxious kids is enrolling NOW for Fall 2023.

No matter how hard you try to keep them calm, your child’s anxiety takes over. It ruins playdates. Stops you from going places. And keeps you from getting out the door on time. It may even have invaded your bed at night.

You find yourself preparing your child for everything. Making sure they have their favorite items. Taking the long way to avoid encountering something they don’t like. And when it doesn’t go according to plan, kaboom! You tried so hard to prevent this. But it happens anyway.

It’s painful, too. You see your child struggling, and feel powerless to help. You try forcing or begging them to do everyday things, while they fight you with all their might.

You are not alone. We’ll show you how common this is. And how to fix it.

There’s an evidence based tool that parents can use to change these patterns. It’s called Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). For more about SPACE click here.

Our SPACE Parenting group can help

That’s right. We offer a group just for parents whose anxious kids have taken over their lives. Our team of therapists has been trained in the SPACE approach by the Yale Child Study Center, and is ready to teach it to you.

You’ll learn to use SPACE with your child, in a 7 session online group with other parents. The group is kept small by design (maximum of 6 families) so that you can have your questions answered.

Doing this work in a group format means you’ll save money (vs. the cost of scheduling 7 SPACE sessions alone). And meet a few other families who understand what you’re dealing with.

Break free of child anxiety.

Child anxiety rules the roost. When did this little person start having so much power over your life?!

There IS another way. We’ll teach you how to limit anxiety’s power. You’ll grow closer day by day to the family life you’d like to have. You’ll feel better about your parenting. And your anxious kids will feel better about themselves.

Meet other Maryland families living with child anxiety.

Groups like this one enable parents with similar experiences to connect with and learn from one another. We encourage you to join together with your parenting partner(s). Pricing is per family, not per person.

Get ready to launch your family into S.P.A.C.E.

You’ve been living with your child’s anxiety for a long time. And you’re trying the SPACE approach because you need a path forward. You are READY to see change in your child. This group will prepare you to create that change.

The SPACE approach is most successful when parents take the time to understand the process well. In your first several sessions you’ll learn core concepts, practice skills, and plan to start SPACE parenting at home. During these first few sessions you will start using supportive statements with your child, and may even see some changes occur.

The implementation of the SPACE approach in parenting your child begins after that, typically around session 4. At this point you’ll understand exactly what’s required to use SPACE with your child.

If you’d like, you can also meet one on one with one of our SPACE trained therapists

Our therapists have been trained directly by the experts at the Yale Child Study Center, where SPACE was developed. If you’d like more individual/family support we’re here to help. Just let us know that you’d like to be assigned to a therapist for additional SPACE work.

Parenting Group FAQs

Is this program for my child’s anxiety, or for mine?

Successful SPACE treatment results in changes to your child’s anxiety. The surprising part of SPACE is that you, the parent, will be the one coming to group and meeting with a therapist. But it isn’t treatment for you.

It’s treatment for your child, delivered through the parent-child relationship. Any improvement in your own mental health is just a bonus.

Can we attend this group together as a couple/household/family?

YES! In fact, we encourage all adult caregivers to participate. It’s helpful to have all parents learn the skills together. Siblings are not part of the SPACE treatment team.

SPACE isn’t couples therapy or family therapy. It isn’t designed to solve problems between parents. We’ll cover handling disagreements briefly in group, but we recommend working on any conflicts that arise between you outside of group as well.

Will my child come to group with me?

No. SPACE treatment is done with parents, and does not require the child to meet with a therapist.

Is SPACE treatment eligible for insurance reimbursement?

Because SPACE treatment does not include a diagnostic assessment, your insurance carrier will not consider it to be a medical service. However, if you and/or your child have had a diagnostic assessment at our practice as part of another service you are receiving, your SPACE sessions can be added to your existing Superbills. Reimbursement amounts depend on your policy’s out of network benefits.

 

Next Group Starts

Fall 2023

Fall 2023

Meet our SPACE trained therapists:

Jessica Check

LGPC

Sonja Chestnut LCSW-C

Shantel Elessie LCPAT

Laura Willard

LCSW-C

Robin Brannan

LCMFT

Robin Brannan

Robin Brannan is a Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist in Maryland, where she has been treating children, couples, parents, and families since 2001.

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