Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) in Teton Valley, Idaho & Jackson Hole, Wyoming
When your child or teenager is struggling with anxiety or OCD, the instinct to help is overwhelming. You reassure, accommodate, adjust, and work around their fears — because watching them suffer is unbearable and you want to make it stop. But if you've noticed that your efforts to help don't seem to be making things better — or are quietly making them worse — you're not doing it wrong. You're caught in a pattern that's bigger than both of you.
SPACE offers a different way forward. And it starts with you.
What Is SPACE?
SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is an evidence-based, parent-focused treatment for childhood and adolescent anxiety and OCD developed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at Yale's Child Study Center. It is one of the only interventions specifically designed to treat childhood anxiety by working exclusively with parents — no child participation required.
SPACE is built on a simple but powerful insight: parental accommodation — the ways parents naturally adjust their behavior to reduce a child's anxiety in the moment — inadvertently maintains and strengthens anxiety over time. SPACE helps parents understand their role in the anxiety cycle and gives them a concrete, structured roadmap for changing their responses in ways that support their child's ability to cope.
The research behind SPACE is strong. Studies show it produces outcomes comparable to child-focused CBT — meaning working with you alone can be as effective as working directly with your child.
Who SPACE Is For
SPACE is a good fit if:
Your child or teen has anxiety or OCD that is significantly affecting daily life — school attendance, friendships, family functioning, or their ability to do age-appropriate things
Your child is unwilling or unable to engage in their own therapy
Your child is already working with their own therapist and you want support navigating your role at home
You find yourself constantly reassuring, accommodating, or adjusting routines around your child's anxiety — and it's not helping
You're exhausted, walking on eggshells, and not sure what the right response is anymore
SPACE is appropriate for parents of children and teenagers. It does not require your child to attend sessions or change their behavior.
What Treatment Looks Like
We'll begin with a thorough assessment of your child's anxiety or OCD, your current accommodation patterns, and the family dynamics at play. From there, we move into the active SPACE protocol — identifying specific accommodations to change, planning how to communicate those changes to your child, and preparing you for how they're likely to respond.
SPACE is typically delivered over 12–16 sessions. Sessions are with you — the parent or parents — not your child. I'll support you through each step, including the harder moments when your child pushes back.
I completed training in SPACE through Yale's Child Study Center with Dr. Eli Lebowitz, the treatment's developer, and have seen it create meaningful shifts even in families where anxiety has been entrenched for years.
SPACE and Existing Treatment
If your child is already working with a therapist, SPACE can run alongside that work. In fact, coordinating parent-focused and child-focused treatment often produces the best outcomes. I'm happy to collaborate with your child's existing providers when that's helpful and appropriate.
Telehealth Parent Support for Idaho, Wyoming & Utah
SPACE translates seamlessly to telehealth. If you're located in Jackson Hole, Star Valley, Idaho Falls, Salt Lake City, Moab, or anywhere across Idaho, Wyoming, or Utah, virtual sessions are available and fully effective. For families in rural mountain communities where specialty anxiety care is limited, telehealth removes a significant barrier to getting the right support.
Working Together
I practice at Rooted Therapy Cooperative in Driggs, Idaho, and offer telehealth to families across Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. I'm currently accepting new clients for SPACE.
You don't have to figure this out alone — and you don't have to wait for your child to be ready. Change can start with you.