A Powerful New Approach
for Childhood Anxiety & OCD
SPACE is a breakthrough, evidence-based approach developed at Yale University to reduce anxiety and OCD symptoms by giving parents new ways to respond.
Six structured parent-training sessions | No child participation | $900
Sometimes what feels like helping, can make symptoms worse
When your child is anxious, your instinct is to help.
You reassure them. Let them skip something that feels overwhelming. Change a routine to avoid a meltdown. Answer the same question one more time.
These responses come from a good place, and they can make things easier in the moment. But over time, they can reinforce anxiety and make it harder for your child to learn to handle uncomfortable feelings.
A proven approach that starts with parents
Developed at the Yale Child Study Center, SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is an evidence-based treatment for childhood anxiety and OCD.
Rather than focusing on changing your child's behavior directly, SPACE teaches parents how to respond differently to their child’s symptoms offering support and confidence that has been proven to significantly reduce symptoms.
As effective as child-focused CBT
In a randomized clinical trial, SPACE was shown to be as effective as child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) at reducing childhood anxiety, even though treatment was delivered entirely through parents.
87.5% of children responded to SPACE treatment, compared with 75.5% receiving CBT.
And unlike traditional child therapy, your child doesn’t need to participate in treatment.
You can help your child while they participate in therapy, if you aren’t finding success with other treatments, or they just aren’t ready to participate in treatment yet.
What does accommodating anxiety look like?
None of this means you're doing something wrong. These are natural responses to seeing your child struggle.
SPACE helps you replace them with responses that communicate two things at once:
“I understand that this is hard.” and “I believe you can handle it.”
You may be accommodating your child’s symptoms if you find yourself:
Doing tasks your child could handle independently
Remaining in the child’s line of vision to ease separation anxiety
Repeatedly answering reassurance-seeking questions
Avoiding anxiety triggers or distressing topics
Participating in rituals or compulsions
Allowing school avoidance or unnecessary medical visits
How the SPACE program works
You'll work with a SPACE-trained therapist to understand how anxiety operates in your family and develop a realistic plan for changing the patterns that may be reinforcing it.
Identify the accommodation pattern
Recognize the reassurance, avoidance, rituals, or family accommodations surrounding your child's anxiety.
Make a manageable plan
Choose specific accommodations to gradually reduce, without changing everything at once.
Prepare your child
Learn how to communicate upcoming changes in a supportive, predictable way.
Build confidence
Respond to distress with empathy while showing your child that you believe in their ability to cope.
What could change for your family?
Anxiety doesn't just affect your child. Slowly, the whole family can begin organizing itself around keeping anxiety at bay.
Fewer reassurance loops
“Are you sure I'm okay?" "Are you sure you won't leave?" "What if I get sick?"
You answer because you want your child to feel better.
SPACE helps you respond supportively without becoming part of an endless reassurance cycle.
Less avoidance
Your child won't sleep alone, go to school, attend activities, talk to unfamiliar people, or face certain situations, and family life increasingly changes to accommodate those fears.
SPACE helps parents gradually stop organizing family life around avoidance while communicating confidence in their child's ability to cope.
More confidence & independence
Stop letting anxiety determine where you go, what you do, how you structure your day, or what everyone else in the family has to accommodate.
SPACE helps parents coach their child to learn an important message: Feeling anxious doesn't mean I can't handle this.
Why Blackbird Health
SPACE-trained therapists
Work with clinicians specifically trained to help parents respond differently to childhood anxiety and OCD.
Care that doesn't stop with SPACE
Sometimes SPACE is one piece of the solution. If your child needs individual therapy, medication support, or other care, Blackbird can connect those services as part of one coordinated team.
We understand the whole child
Anxiety doesn't always happen in isolation. Our clinicians look at your child's broader mental health and development so care can reflect what's really going on.
Virtual care that fits family life
Because SPACE works directly with parents, sessions can fit more easily into busy family schedules.
You don't have to wait for your child to be ready to start making things better.
Blackbird Health's SPACE program gives you concrete tools to respond differently to anxiety, reduce the patterns that keep it going, and help your child build greater confidence and independence.
Six structured parent-training sessions | $900
Frequency asked questions
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Usually, no. SPACE works directly with parents and caregivers. Your child doesn't need to participate in the sessions for you to begin changing how anxiety is handled at home.
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SPACE recognizes that helping an anxious child is incredibly natural. Parents accommodate because they are trying to reduce their child's distress. The goal isn't to blame parents—it's to give them tools to respond in ways that build their child's confidence and ability to cope.
Neuropsychological testing helps identify your child's complete learning profile so treatment and school supports can be tailored to their specific needs.
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A family accommodation is something a caregiver does differently because of a child's anxiety. For example, repeatedly providing reassurance, helping a child avoid something they fear, changing a family routine, or participating in an OCD ritual.
While schools make the final eligibility determination, a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation can provide valuable information to support the process.
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That's one of the advantages of SPACE. Because treatment focuses on changes parents can make themselves, your child generally doesn't need to participate in treatment.
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Blackbird's SPACE program is designed for families of children with diagnosed anxiety disorders, OCD, and certain related conditions. Your clinician can help determine whether it's appropriate for your child.
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SPACE is a structured six-session parent-training program for $900. Your initial consultation helps determine whether the program is a good fit for your family.