What is the SPACE anxiety treatment programme?
- Katrina Batey
- Sep 9
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 16
If you're supporting an anxious child, you may have heard about SPACE treatment but aren't sure what it involves. As a trained SPACE treatment provider and parent who used this programme with my own daughter, I want to share why this approach is genuinely transformative.
What does SPACE stand for?
SPACE stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. It's a parent-led anxiety treatment programme created by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Centre.
Important: Sometimes the name makes this sound like a "parenting programme", as if you've been parenting incorrectly. This is absolutely not the case.
SPACE isn't a parenting programme
SPACE is a groundbreaking, research-backed programme that empowers parents with tools to support their anxious child to overcome anxiety.
Here's what makes it different: you come to the sessions, and both you and your child change.
Instead of focusing on changing your child's behaviour directly, SPACE helps you make small, strategic shifts in how you respond to your child's anxiety. But the magic is that the child's behaviour and anxiety does change.
Why I love the SPACE programme as a parent
What I absolutely love about this programme, as a parent of an anxious child, is that:
I do all the work for her, and I get to feel how amazing it feels to be the one creating these changes
I know how to deal with any new anxieties that might pop up
My understanding about her anxiety has completely changed
My anxiety about her anxiety has gone
I don't feel like I'm treading on eggshells any more
She doesn't have to agree or opt into any changes
She doesn't need to feel like I'm taking her to "be fixed" somewhere
It works
Real results from SPACE treatment
It is this programme that helped us to support our daughter to be able to move away from "needing us" for two to three hours at bedtime, constantly calling for us and crying, to being able to calmly go to sleep within 20 minutes.
Bedtime battles are a really common part of my work with other parents, and I love to help parents get their evenings back, and their children going to sleep without anxiety.
Two weeks after doing this work with my daughter, she went on her first sleepover, something I couldn't have imagined she would be ready for for years.
How SPACE treatment can help your family
I'm on a mission to spread the word about this amazing treatment, because it is no exaggeration to say that it has changed our lives and the lives of the other families I have supported.
Book a free call to see how this programme, and the other tools I use, could help you and your child to thrive again.
You can also learn more at the official SPACE treatment website
About the Author
Katrina Batey is a trained SPACE anxiety treatment provider, mental health coach, and parent to a daughter who had selective mutism. She supports families across the UK and internationally to help anxious children build confidence and resilience. Learn more about Katrina.
Comments